Utila Town and Punta Sal Wildlife Refuge, Honduras
It seemed that we would have another humid and scorching day as we observed the orange sun making it’s way up the sky through the haze. But this is the dry season in this region and we are in the tropics. The weather was great, however, for the water events that were planned included snorkeling and diving. Rudy rounded up his birders and headed ashore before breakfast while I got the scuba divers ready to head out for the dive of the day.
We had arrived in the Bay Islands of Honduras the day before from Puerto Cortez, Honduras. They include a group of three islands that are located off the northern coast of Honduras and belong to Honduras. The three major islands sit on the Bonacca Ridge, an undersea extension of a mainland mountain range that rises above the Bartlett Trough. Utila, the smallest island with an area of about sixteen square miles, is the closest to the mainland and this was our destination this morning. Utila is surrounded by pristine reefs, and the underwater drop-offs here are incredible! The surface of the water was amazingly flat as we dropped in with a back roll. A steady stream of creole wrasse seemed to flow across the surface of the coral pinnacles while a spotted lobster attempted to hide amongst the plate corals. Spurs of star coral rose up from the sandy sea floor and the various species of juvenile fish darted in and out of their crowns. I was extremely happy to see that the reef was on its way to making an incredible recovery after being seriously damaged during the 1998 Hurricane Mitch which devastated mainland Honduras and trashed the Bay Islands. I happened to be here three weeks after this terrible storm and fresh water from the overflowing rivers of the mainland had flowed out over the reefs of Utila. The reefs had seemingly bounced back from this enormous natural disaster.
By noon, we were headed to the mainland once more and dropped our anchor near the mouth of the Rio Tinto. In the distance was the Punta Sal Wildlife Reserve or better known as the “Jeanette Kawas National Park”. Kawas forcefully advocated the creation of this national park at Punta Sal. Although her efforts paid off and national park status was granted in 1994, she paid the price and was killed a year later with her death still unsolved. The 782 sq. miles includes humid tropical forest, mangrove swamp, coastal lagoons, rivers and canals, rocky and sandy coastline and coral reefs. Traveling up this river provided excellent opportunities to observe the Black Howler monkeys and other exotic birds. But as always, another terrific day was coming to a close and we motored back slowly to our ship with an orange ball of the sunset at our backs.
It seemed that we would have another humid and scorching day as we observed the orange sun making it’s way up the sky through the haze. But this is the dry season in this region and we are in the tropics. The weather was great, however, for the water events that were planned included snorkeling and diving. Rudy rounded up his birders and headed ashore before breakfast while I got the scuba divers ready to head out for the dive of the day.
We had arrived in the Bay Islands of Honduras the day before from Puerto Cortez, Honduras. They include a group of three islands that are located off the northern coast of Honduras and belong to Honduras. The three major islands sit on the Bonacca Ridge, an undersea extension of a mainland mountain range that rises above the Bartlett Trough. Utila, the smallest island with an area of about sixteen square miles, is the closest to the mainland and this was our destination this morning. Utila is surrounded by pristine reefs, and the underwater drop-offs here are incredible! The surface of the water was amazingly flat as we dropped in with a back roll. A steady stream of creole wrasse seemed to flow across the surface of the coral pinnacles while a spotted lobster attempted to hide amongst the plate corals. Spurs of star coral rose up from the sandy sea floor and the various species of juvenile fish darted in and out of their crowns. I was extremely happy to see that the reef was on its way to making an incredible recovery after being seriously damaged during the 1998 Hurricane Mitch which devastated mainland Honduras and trashed the Bay Islands. I happened to be here three weeks after this terrible storm and fresh water from the overflowing rivers of the mainland had flowed out over the reefs of Utila. The reefs had seemingly bounced back from this enormous natural disaster.
By noon, we were headed to the mainland once more and dropped our anchor near the mouth of the Rio Tinto. In the distance was the Punta Sal Wildlife Reserve or better known as the “Jeanette Kawas National Park”. Kawas forcefully advocated the creation of this national park at Punta Sal. Although her efforts paid off and national park status was granted in 1994, she paid the price and was killed a year later with her death still unsolved. The 782 sq. miles includes humid tropical forest, mangrove swamp, coastal lagoons, rivers and canals, rocky and sandy coastline and coral reefs. Traveling up this river provided excellent opportunities to observe the Black Howler monkeys and other exotic birds. But as always, another terrific day was coming to a close and we motored back slowly to our ship with an orange ball of the sunset at our backs.
