Honduras Quest Project

Week one

The first few days brought the meeting and greeting our new house mates and work colleagues down at Utila Centre for Marine Ecology (U C ME). After only meeting briefly in London we had plenty to learn about each other and within no time at all we all hit it off. The first week was based around learning fundamental reef ecology to give us a basic understanding and knowledge of the marine environment that we would be surveying over the coming weeks. We were introduced to numerous dive sites on the south side of Utila, as unfortunately the sea has been too rough to venture to the north side of the island, resulting in the completion of only a few successful dolphin surveys/sightings. The diving on the island is brilliant, the crystal clear waters and fish entertain us underwater. We completed 10 research dives and enjoyed 4 fun dives this week alone, and as the weather improved we visited some of the best dives sites around. We also kayaked into the lagoon around Utila, looking at the mangrove communities and the associated fauna and flora.

After a disastrous first dinner cooked by Steve, the group dinners have improved and our culinary skills have surpassed all expectations. Although a few other mishaps have occurred along the way, for example David's 'seven pancakes in one' was not quite up to the standards that we are now accustomed to, but he did redeem himself with some pineapple fritters. As we got to know each other a bit better we decided to up our friendship levels, David and Cael got friendly whilst cutting each others hair, the boys decided to move in with the girls due to a short supply with gas on the island and (we still haven't moved out to this date) we tasted the local supply of rum and beer (in small quantities of course because after all we are divers).

We have also honed our DIY skills, making a flip-flop rack, desks and a coffee table, whilst also making vital equipment for our own research. We are now fully equipped with the skills for building and may be looking to change careers when returning home.

We are now looking forward to the challenges of next week :-)

Week two

On The Sunday we did four fun dives including a deep dive to the wreck of the Haliburton. There were many large fishes including one very large snapper and a turtle on our last dive of the day.  Even though we were all very tired we were determined to enjoy our one night off of the week.

Lucy arrives and starts her diving courses, the rest of us continued with transect to determine the relationship of different coral and damsel fish species. Lisa, Cael and David started work upon their dissertations, the affect of parrotfish grazing and algal zoning, damselfish aggression and Elkhorn coral survival, and tropical fisheries, respectively. Olivia and David decided to drown themselves for the weekend and became rescue divers. While David and Olivia were doing their rescue diver course the others went diving  and saw a huge variety of exciting marine life including a sea horse, batfish and a seven legged Octopus. We visited the mangroves for the first time in kayaks, which was very educational, although some were better at kayaking than others.

We invited Alex, Inge and Edita around for dinner and enjoyed a few drinks at Treetanic and bar in the bush, sensibly of course. Saturday was our rest day and we all caught up on some much needed rest.  

Week three

Week three started with crab collecting which was fun yet a little painful. These were used to feed the endemic iguanas at the iguana station, using the world’s biggest tweezers. Olivia and David finished their rescue course, and can now cope with psychopathic drowning divers. We completed more transect dives and dives for Lisa, David and Cael´s dissertations. After more crab collecting we all went for a swim in the sea and some amazing acrobatic skills were seen.

Sitting on the UDC dock with a beer and watching the sunset two eagle rays swam past, much to everyone’s excitement.  We also enjoyed the UDC BBQ on Thursday, with a few rum and cokes. On Friday after our morning dives we finally saw the elusive rough toothed dolphins and carefully we all entered the water without splashing and snorkeled with them, with one very inquisitive individual swimming very close to us. After our afternoon dives we came across the dolphins again and used this time to look at their behaviour.  

On our Sunday off we all went fun diving and took a trip to the cays along with our boat captain Travis, where we had a picnic, it was bueno! The girls played the boys at volleyball and obviously the girls won, but there seemed to be more swimming after the ball than actual volleyball playing. David started practicing his Spanish skills, he is now ‘almost’ fluent… Si, Si, bueno!!!

Steve (PL)

Cael, David, Lisa, Lucy, Olivia - Honduras 2007 Phase 1.