Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge and Utila, Honduras
What a day! We sailed into Honduran waters early this morning to drop anchor off the country’s northwestern coast, just offshore of Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge. This area was created to protect the wildlife and forests found at the confluence of the two rivers Rio Cuero and Rio Salado. Any number of bird species can be found here, and we saw quite a few anhingas on the banks and toucans flying overhead, with one group managing a truly rare sighting of a northern potoo…a bird which sits so still and well camouflaged that they appear to be extensions of the branch itself (and that’s why they are so difficult to find). Way back up the river on an overhanging tree was a troupe of black howler monkeys lazing away a couple of morning hours when they were spotted, barely batting an eye or scratching an itch, as we cruised underneath.
A short time earlier, I had stopped by the visitor’s center to speak with the park warden and pay our entrance fee. While sitting on the bank for a Zodiac pick up later, I started chatting with a local resident of the community, Don Jimenez, of Garífuna ancestry. After a few minutes and totally unexpected, he brought up the name of the M.S. Polaris as an example of the only other ship of size that he remembered as having visited this area over the years. As the memories came back, he started to smile, and it was my pleasure to inform him that the M/V Sea Voyager belonged to the same company as the Polaris, and that the Polaris still sailed, but further south and in a different ocean. I finally had to leave, but the stories he so graciously shared with me, of these visits of many years past, will stay with me for a long time. As we cruised out of the river mouth, we passed a small dugout canoe rigged with a sail. With a double take, I realized this small vessel had been baptized with a very special name: “El Polaris: N. 2”.
What a day! We sailed into Honduran waters early this morning to drop anchor off the country’s northwestern coast, just offshore of Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge. This area was created to protect the wildlife and forests found at the confluence of the two rivers Rio Cuero and Rio Salado. Any number of bird species can be found here, and we saw quite a few anhingas on the banks and toucans flying overhead, with one group managing a truly rare sighting of a northern potoo…a bird which sits so still and well camouflaged that they appear to be extensions of the branch itself (and that’s why they are so difficult to find). Way back up the river on an overhanging tree was a troupe of black howler monkeys lazing away a couple of morning hours when they were spotted, barely batting an eye or scratching an itch, as we cruised underneath.
A short time earlier, I had stopped by the visitor’s center to speak with the park warden and pay our entrance fee. While sitting on the bank for a Zodiac pick up later, I started chatting with a local resident of the community, Don Jimenez, of Garífuna ancestry. After a few minutes and totally unexpected, he brought up the name of the M.S. Polaris as an example of the only other ship of size that he remembered as having visited this area over the years. As the memories came back, he started to smile, and it was my pleasure to inform him that the M/V Sea Voyager belonged to the same company as the Polaris, and that the Polaris still sailed, but further south and in a different ocean. I finally had to leave, but the stories he so graciously shared with me, of these visits of many years past, will stay with me for a long time. As we cruised out of the river mouth, we passed a small dugout canoe rigged with a sail. With a double take, I realized this small vessel had been baptized with a very special name: “El Polaris: N. 2”.
