Honduras
A quiet evening was spent docked at Utila, a small atoll in the Bay Islands off the north coast of Honduras.
Narrow streets and friendly English Creole speaking locals encouraged strolls to watch hummingbirds at garden feeders and visit a local station breeding endemic land iguanas. While part of Honduras, Utila was once a refuge for British buccaneers that plagued Spanish galleons shipping Aztec gold back to Spain. Names like Morgan and Bodden are commonplace, and distinctive Caribbean English is commonly spoken. Calm gin-clear seas also afforded excellent morning snorkeling over nearby coral reefs. Schools of dazzlingly colored parrot fish, wrasses, angel fish, tangs, drifted in and out of a stunning backdrop of multihued sponges, sea fans, gorgonians, bommies of stony coral mounds. Pinkish moon jellyfish drifted by like clouds, along with alien looking nearly transparent comb jellies.
Azure water, calm seas and skittering dragonfly-like flying fish accompanied us during an afternoon cruise back toward the mainland to explored an isolated cove on Punta Sol, one of Honduras' newest National Parks founded in honor of a local conservationist Jeanette Kawas. A crescent of beige sand surrounded by a dramatic ridgeline cover with verdant forest. Short hikes into the jungle gave us glimpses of heliconia butterflies, fungus-growing parasol ants, and circling black hawks. This being our first visit to this cove everyone was anxious to explore. After short jungle treks, some took to snorkeling, while others kayaked beneath the palm-covered cliffs, evening discovering a small but stunning natural tunnel through one rocky headland.
A quiet evening was spent docked at Utila, a small atoll in the Bay Islands off the north coast of Honduras.
Narrow streets and friendly English Creole speaking locals encouraged strolls to watch hummingbirds at garden feeders and visit a local station breeding endemic land iguanas. While part of Honduras, Utila was once a refuge for British buccaneers that plagued Spanish galleons shipping Aztec gold back to Spain. Names like Morgan and Bodden are commonplace, and distinctive Caribbean English is commonly spoken. Calm gin-clear seas also afforded excellent morning snorkeling over nearby coral reefs. Schools of dazzlingly colored parrot fish, wrasses, angel fish, tangs, drifted in and out of a stunning backdrop of multihued sponges, sea fans, gorgonians, bommies of stony coral mounds. Pinkish moon jellyfish drifted by like clouds, along with alien looking nearly transparent comb jellies.
Azure water, calm seas and skittering dragonfly-like flying fish accompanied us during an afternoon cruise back toward the mainland to explored an isolated cove on Punta Sol, one of Honduras' newest National Parks founded in honor of a local conservationist Jeanette Kawas. A crescent of beige sand surrounded by a dramatic ridgeline cover with verdant forest. Short hikes into the jungle gave us glimpses of heliconia butterflies, fungus-growing parasol ants, and circling black hawks. This being our first visit to this cove everyone was anxious to explore. After short jungle treks, some took to snorkeling, while others kayaked beneath the palm-covered cliffs, evening discovering a small but stunning natural tunnel through one rocky headland.
