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we returned to the hotel, packed the luggage on the top of our Toyota minibus, and set off to retrace our steps back to San Pedro Sula. 3-hours later, we stopped for lunch at the Intercontinental hotel. Paul used the opportunity to log on to the internet in the hotel's internet café, and check e-mail. Apparently the CEO of American Airlines has been replaced. His successor has made peace with his unions so American will likely still be flying when it is time for us to return.
We then got bused to a crafts center in the middle of town for some shopping. It was much too hot and we were much too tired to do anything more than hang out at a local café and wait for the bus. A group of Lindblad people from Houston joined us at the shops. Somehow our tour guide, Miguel, imagined that these nine new-arrivals would somehow fit into our already full minibus. Eventually he counted both heads and bus seats and reached the obvious conclusion: he needed another bus. He left us to shepherd the new arrivals to another vehicle. They went straight to the port while we adhered to the original schedule and headed to the archeological museum in town.
It is an interesting museum with many artifacts very similar to those we saw in El Salvador, many years ago. A non-Mayan exhibit featured a 1902 RCA wind-up Victrola console virtually identical to the one we own. (Except that ours is in MUCH better shape, and works!) It was not air-conditioned and we were quite uncomfortable.
Honduras is a poor country and although we saw many substantial structures, we also passed cardboard houses by the roadside in which people lived.
Eventually we made the two-hour trip to the port, picking up Miguel along the way and finally reached the dock where the Sea Voyager was waiting for us. Another group, coming from Miami, were delayed by violent weather in the Miami area and arrived 3-hours late. They, too, skipped the museum and came straight to the ship where we were all greeted by rum punch and were quickly introduced to the ship. The ship is 174' long with a beam of 36 feet. Her draft is 12 feet with 3 decks, holding 62 passengers, max. She displaces 1,195 tons There are 49 pax aboard for this trip. Our cabin has a sleep couch so is rated for three people, though we are only two. Captain Luis later told me that the ship has twin screws each powered by a 450 hp diesel, allowing 10 kts cruising speed, 11 kts maximum. She has two GPS, a Simrad autopilot and a bow thruster for maneuvering in close quarters.
During orientation, Cindy Manning, the expedition leader, advised us to leave our cameras and other optics out in the warm hallways to prevent the condensation that would fog them if brought from the air conditioned cabins into the humid outside environment. Several people, who had worried over lack of security for their valuable camera/video equipment by virtue of Lindblad's no-key room policy, were soon hanging all their stuff over the railings in the public hallways!
Sunday April 27
The ship repositioned itself over night south along the Honduran coast to the Cuero y Salado Wildlife refuge. We joined a Zodiac, exploring the river, edged by red mangroves. We saw numerous exotic birds: herons, kingfishers, warblers, orioles and a small colony of howler monkeys and bats. Dave Stephens was our Zodiac driver/naturalist. He found a very rare bird, the Northern Potoo. He was pleased to show it to the other naturalists, who cheered the rare find. We traveled in company with another Zodiac driven by David Cothran. We last saw Dave Cothran on the Spitzbergen trip to the high arctic aboard what was then called the Caledonian Star, now renamed Endeavor. He noted that the water would be a lot warmer this time around.
During lunch, the ship moved to Southwest Cay just off a larger island called Utila. It is a "Gary Larson Island" meaning that it looks just like the cartoonist's image of a deserted island, complete with palm trees. It is only about ½ acre in size, but is fringed by an extensive coral reef. This is our reason for coming. About 10 certified Scuba divers and a much larger group of snorkelers were ferried ashore for an afternoon of fish watching. Rosie tried to snorkel but it proved too strenuous, so she sat it out. I buddied with another lady and we swam out to the reef (about ¼ mile). Our prize "find" was a beautiful Parrotfish, about 18" long, turquoise body with a rainbow colored tail. David Cothran swam with us and gave a running commentary on what we were seeing. Later, during re-cap, David Cothran gave a PowerPoint presentation on how to identify tropical reef fish and David Stephens lectured us on the history of the region, including a long soliloquy on the history of chocolate.
While waiting to use the dryers at the stern of the ship, we were visited by two yellow warblers that are migrating north at this moment. These appeared exhausted and hungry. The strongest of the pair devoured every moth he could find, hopping onto our shoes for a better look. The other wandered around, rather bedraggled looking. Later, after dark, the ship's floodlights at the stern illuminated a rare sight: thousands of moths being chased and devoured by the flocks of passing warblers, on their annual migration north. Illuminated by the ship's lights, we could see groups of several hundred warblers at a time as they made their way up the coast using the Bay Islands as resting stops. A few decided that the Sea Voyager made a good resting stop. Some of the moths fell into the water where they were snapped up by schools of fish, including some needlefish.
Monday April 28, 2003
Right after breakfast we hopped a Zodiac shuttle to the town dock at Utila town on the island of Utila - one of the Bay Islands from which pirates harassed English shipping in the 17th century. It is a small town with a narrow main street dominated by passing traffic of motorcycles and 4-wheel dune buggies. I found two rather nice internet cafes, but both were connected to the same server at the satellite ground station and "the server is down." I checked back twice, but service had not been restored by the time I needed to leave. If I could have connected to check e-mail, it would have been quite cheap, $0.08 per minute. I did manage to buy some antiseptic crème and band-aids at a small pharmacy to treat the cut I'd suffered yesterday from a sharp rock on the beach. English was widely spoken and we saw some signs in German. I used the balance of my Honduran money, 65 Lampiras, to buy some insect repellant. (17 Lampiras = $1US.)
At 10:30 am the ship weighed anchor and set off back toward the mainland and the Punta Sal Wildlife Preserve. We plan to visit the Janet Kawas National Park, named for a Honduran ecology activist who was killed in 1995 on account of her activities to preserve the ecology of the region.
En route, David Stephens presented a slide show entitled Maya Writing and Politics in which he illustrated how the Mayan syllabic writing is interpreted and pronounced.
By 4 pm we anchored off the Punta Sal wildlife preserve and embarked with David Cothran for a two-hour Zodiac cruise up the river to observe birds, plants and a group of Howler monkeys. We got back at dusk with just enough time to shower and change for the re-cap in the lounge in which David Cothran also showed an underwater video (Continued on next page )
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