BBQ on Jewel Cay

In our first day back to the Cays, we decided to take it easy and relax, since we didn´t want to be rushed as soon as we got to the hotel to get back on the boat for the dives. We even got to re-claim the same rooms as before, and spent the day on the deck, at the hotel or walking through the cays. We did a snorkel trip in the afternoon, but overall took it easy. Brian and Scott were relaxing as well, since they next day they would be put through the grueling swim test for the DMT course, along with Dave and Dan. The next morning however, the atmosphere really started to change around hotel Kayla. Steve and the rest of the Captain Morgan´s crew unloaded boxes after boxes full of food, beer, rum and ice; Louis actually stayed at the hotel to prepare the BBQ, so today´s boat captain role would be filled by Steve (which unfortunately meant that he wouldn´t be able to dive, since regulations require the captain to stay with the boat at all time, to monitor the radio etc).

Because we wanted to return to the hotel quickly, we headed for our dives on the south side of Utila, the first stop being Big Rock. Gina was our divemaster this time around, we had only met her a few days before as she had just returned from vacation. We got to see another Southern Stingray, more Spotted Drums, and lots of Gray Angelfishes, but the highlight of the dive was a Hawksbill Turtle; by now we had seen so many that the running joke amongst the three of us was that we were wearing some sort of turtle - attracting deodorant. This one though, was so close to us that I was absolutely mesmorized by its graceful movements that its direction did not register for a few seconds; then I realised that it was headed straight towards my head, and at the last minute I moved aside to let it pass right before my eyes. For our second dive at Stingray point, aside from the ´usual suspects´, we also go to see a Caribbean Reef Lobster, Banded Cleaner Shrimp, and a trumpet and a smooth trunkfish. In the spirit of diving, the BBQ that followed was exclusively chicken and vegetables, since it would have been very difficult to eat the relatives of the marine life we just saw.

The real excuse to have the BBQ party was the swim test for the Dive Masters in Training, which consists of four sections: a swimming test (400m), treading water for 15 minutes (with the last 2 minutes with hands out of the water), a snorkel swim (800m) and 100m tired diver tow. Steve and Sam set up the buoys while the crowd gathered on the dock to drink cold beers and cheer on the four candidates. As the test got underway, Anke was cheering everyone on and encouraging everyone to make as much noise as possible, so we created a true party atmosphere. Marisa even helped out by volunteering to be one of the 'victims' who had to be towed back to the shore. Relieved that the test was finally behind them, the four DMTs got a chance to toast their success with cold beers before sitting down for the BBQ. Louis did a fantastic job, not only with preparing everything, but also entertaining us with various stories that had us all in stitches. As the day was coming to an end, most people got on Miss Kary and returned to Utila, still in full party mode, dancing and singing to the music that was blasting at maximum volume as the boat left the dock on the cays.

Return to Utila

For our last day at Cayos Cochinos we decided against snorkeling in the morning, so we relaxed on the boat while Helen prepared breakfast. Rusty did go a for a snorkel though, and (of course) he managed to find the octopus home, with the circle of shells around it. After having some food, omelet, toast and coffee we were supposed to start heading back into Utila, except that the boat was not exactly cooperating. The Brazer was having problems first with a fuel line, and then with the rudder control, which could obviously be a big problem if all of a sudden we would find ourselves in open water with no control over our direction. Rusty spent over an hour patching and fixing the boat, fixing leaks while new ones appeared; eventually he gave the all clear, and after a test run in the bay, we ventured out to sea. Having learned from our previous sailing experience, we all took gravol so that there will not be any incidents on the way back, so we were all very relaxed. I managed to read an entire book by the time we pulled into East Harbour, Utila, in the early afternoon. We pulled into the marina and Helen prepared a quick lunch before we loaded our bags into the dinghy and Rusty took us to the main island. We said our goodbyes by the Sandy Point beach, then took the quick walk to Margaritaville Beach Hotel, where we left our bags and headed into town.

At the main intersection, we stopped in to say hello to the Captain Morgan´s team, and we immediately felt like part of the family. We felt so welcomed, and Steve informed us that we returned at the right time, as the following sunday they were throwing a BBQ and a party around the swimming test of the DMTs. We also saw Brian, who was feeling a bit down since he forgot his backpack at a bar the night before, and now he was stuck without a passport and had to go all the way to Tegucigalpa to have it replaced. For dinner, we returned to Evelyn´s BBQ, but this time around they did not have lobster to Josh´s immense disappointment, though Evelyn did suggest trying the Conch instead. We all ended up having seafood (Marisa and I had tuna skewers), but the next morning we learned the food did not really agree with us. We returned to the hotel early, since we had to catch the dive boat first thing in the morning to get back to Hotel Kayla on Jewel Cay.

Cayos Cochinos

The best way to wake up in the morning is with a snorkel first thing; we jumped in the water, with our mission to look for an octopus, which Rusty told us we could easily identify by looking for a ring of sea shells, since they like to eat them first and then decorate the entrance to their homes with them. We tried to look for them but we were not successful, though we did work out quite an appetite by the time we got back onto the boat. Helen prepared for us huge banana pancakes with lots of bacon on the side, and along with some really good coffee, it did the trick for the morning. As soon as we finished eating, the park rangers showed up on their boat, the Tiburon, to collect the $10 park entrance fee from each of us. While they were there, we were talking about taking a hike up to the lighthouse overlooking the islands, and they mentioned that it was closed and locked up, since someone decided to steal the bulb and the solar powered station attached to it. We didn´t really realize what that meant, so we still stuck with our plan to hike in the jungle. We also wanted to see the world famous pink boa constrictor, but Rusty told us that they only turn pink during their mating season, which was not this time of the year.

We followed the map Rusty drew for us, passed through the Plantation Beach resort, then higher up towards the top of the island. We took a break at a mirador, where we could see all the way down the other side of the island, all the way to a Garifuna village which we would later visit.
After a bit more hiking we reached the lighthouse, only to then understand that the view of the entire island would only be possible from its top, which was obviously out of limits since the tower was locked. A bit dissapointed, we started walking down towards the village, where we stopped to have a cold drink (my coke was frozen solid, I had to wait for it to partially melt before I could drink it). The village was very small, maybe about 10 houses, but the people very friendly and outgoing - a few even offered to give us a small tour and talked to us as we walked along, though sometimes they were difficult to understand, since the Garifuna language, though technically English, has a very peculiar accent that makes it sound completely foreign. We met up with Rusty in the village, and he gave us a ride back to the Brazen in the dinghy.

Back on the boat, we enjoyed a really good and really huge lunch of potato salad, pork chops and fresh salad, and for the afternoon, Rusty took us, again in the dinghy, to the other side of the bay for an extended snorkel around the reefs and some of the dive sites. We saw the remains of a boat that smashed against the reef on a stormy night, and for a while we followed some divers who were below us, waving at them from the surface of the water. We saw lots of Caribbean Reef Squid, trunk fish, stoplight parrot fish, and the biggest barracuda we had ever seen (it´s not a fishing story, but this one was almost as big as us!) . Towards the end, we started to get a little bit cold, so we made our way back to the dinghy, asking Rusty to take us back to the Brazen. From there we returned to the Plantation Beach resort to shower, change, and settle our bill; Rusty also wanted to point our the sleeping giant, as from a certain angle the island across from us looked like a huge dinosaur sleeping in the water. After the sunset, we walked back on the path towards the boat, and Josh had a bit of a showdown with a dog that seemed to have taken over the dock; we were all pushing Josh ahead of us since he at least got rabies shots before traveling.

In the evening we had Rusty´s own soup of leftovers, which turned out to be pretty good, and he told us story after story, one more outrageous than the next. We knew that we shouldn´t believe half the stuff he was telling us, but I have to admit the stories were very entertaining. One was about how he and his crew actually discovered a treasure, and divided up the proceeds, though most blew through the money drinking, gambling and womanizing, but one was smart enough to invest his share in a hotel, and now has more money than the rest of them put together. Another story was from his diving days, when he found an octopus, pulled it out of its hole, and it got so freaked out that it attached itself to him, settling on his head; and so the story goes that he sailed back into the harbour in Bahamas with an octopus on his head, before depositing it at the aquarium at the Valentine´s dive shop. Again, a big boulder of salt should be taken with his stories, but they kept us entertained for hours.

Sailing to Cayos Cochinos

Another early morning wake up in order to get ready to leave Utila and head south towards Cayos Cochinos; we had to meet Captain Rusty and his boat at the fuel dock, and since we were unsure where it was we had to ask around for directions. Once we found it, however, we realised it would be pretty easy to get there, since the giant tanks and fuel pumps were a dead giveaway. Captain Rusty´s boat, the Brazen is a 40 ft motor sailor, meaning that it has both an engine and sails, thus ready to go in any type of weather conditions. We hopped on board where met Rusty himself, as well as Helen (his assistant, cook and sometimes girlfriend - we had a tough time actually determining the status of their relationship) and two other guys who we were dropping off at a research station on one of the islands. As we got out of the harbour, after filling up, we already started to deal with the strong winds; normally they don´t pick up until later in the afternoon, but this morning was different. Though I tried to be brave and pretend I didn´t need anything, once we were in open water, I had to reach for my supply of gravol as we were really bouncing up and down the waves. Marisa was having an even tougher time than me, so I guess I shouldn´t be complaining; I spent most of the 4 hour trip sleeping, due to the effects of gravol, waking up only every now and again, once as Rusty whistled to get our attention towards a group of dolphins who were following the boat. As Cayos Cochinos came into our view, the wind intensified even more, as some waves were even going above the boat, and right before the end of the trip, the main sail ripped into so many pieces that it couldn´t even had been possible to repair it.

So, with the ego bruised but the boat intact we entered the harbour of one of the two main islands, found a sheltered place to anchor in a bay with just a handful of houses and no other boats around. We got snorkel gear and jumped off the boat, as Rusty took the other two guys in the dinghy to their research station. The water here was really clear, and we discovered some of the best snorkeling we have ever done; there were really nice corals, we saw a yellow stingray (much smaller than the southern ones), as well as barracuda and cow fish. By the time we got back to the boat Helen had prepared lunch for us, really good spaghetti with pineapple and chicken in coconut sauce. Later in the afternoon, we left the boat, got in the dinghy to get to the island, and followed a path through the forest, next to some huge quarts rocks, towards the Plantation Beach Resort. This was the only resort on the island, almost exclusive to divers, and since Rusty knew all the owners, they allowed him to bring in his guests from the sailboat to use the facilities, shower, change and enjoy a few cold beers.

As we sat in the hammocks watching the sunset, Rusty was talking to us and telling us all kinds of stories about how he grew up in the Bahamas, which is where Marisa also spent her childhood. One story led to another, and they put the two and two together
and realised that Rusty was the instructor who taught Marisa´s mom to scuba dive - talk about a small world! After the sunset and the obligatory pictures, we started back on the path, to return to the boat before it got completely dark. For dinner, Rusty made a really good soup, and also gave us a very spicy sauce, his very own creation; the sauce was spicy in itself, but the little red peppers inside were the real killers. Josh didn´t notice a few of them fall into his soup as he was adding the sauce, and soon after he got to pay the price. All of a sudden he took a deep breath, started turning red, and couldn´t breathe or talk; he started coughing, and in between managed to say ¨This chilly is making me dizzy¨. Marisa and I were rolling on the floor laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes and couldn´t talk either, then Rusty and Helen joined in as well, and we all had a blast up until Josh started getting the first signs of a migrane, then the fun was over. We did whatever we could to make him feel better, but esentially nothing really helps except for reducing noise and light pollution, and letting him lie down and relax. He went to sleep soon after, and I spent the rest of the evening listening to music and reading before going to sleep myself.

Diamond Cay

We were leaving in the afternoon, once the dive boat returned to Hotel Kayla, so we had to check out by 8am to have the rooms cleaned, but we still did not have enough diving yet. At the last minute, we decided to do another self-guided dive, this time around Diamond Cay, the island right across from the Jewel Cay. We divided the responsibilities around the same as last time, and we jumped in the water; we saw more sea pearls as well as the resident porcupine fish, who swam along with us for a while. What we didn´t realise from above water is that while Diamond Cay is a round island, the reason for its name is the shape of the coral that surrounds it, which threw me for a loop when we kept on diving in one direction along the wall without turning. We did make it safely back after about an hour, but not before a few tense moments when I was considering the long surface swim back if we came up at the wrong place. The important accomplishment is that we completed our second self-guided dive, and we were really proud of that. By the time we put our equipment away we saw Miss Kary return, went to grab our bags and say our goodbyes to everyone from Captain Morgan´s.

We got a ride back to East Harbour, went inside the dive shop to settle our bill, while at the same time calling around to find a room for the night. We finally found a 3 person room at Hotel Bavaria, and went there to drop off our bags; this had to be one of the smallest rooms I have ever seen. From the door you would step right into the bed, from which you could roll over and end up in the bathroom, which we were convinced used to be a closet before it was converted. Either way, it was simply a place to sleep for the night, so we didn´t say much about it since we wouldn´t be spending too much time there. We went back into town to use the internet (there was no access on the Cays) and then did some shopping for our sailing trip. While we were using the internet, we did some research about Roatan, our next destination after Cayos Cochinos, and we were more than a little dissapointed. Everything was either fully booked or so out of our budget that after a quick conference we all decided that we wanted to spend our last few days together in a place that was affordable and we felt comfortable in, so we returned to Captain Morgan´s to tell them we were be back on the cays in a few days, after the sailing trip. We met up with everyone at the dive shop, after the arrival of the afternoon ferry, and once they closed down we all headed out for dinner at Dave´s, where coincidentally Dave the DMT happened to work. After dinner we said goodvye to Sam, Steve, Anouk, Ian and Koki and went back to the hotel since we had an early morning start to meet Captain Rusty.

Last boat dives in Utila

Since we were leaving for our sailing trip to Cayos Cochinos these were to be our last boat dives from Miss Kary with Captain Morgan's. We were very excited as the decision was made to head to the south side of Utila, specifically to do a wreck dive, right in Utila harbour. The ship is called The Halliburton, sunk specifically for diving reasons 30 m below the sea level. Because this was a deep dive, we knew that it would last less than the others, since air consumption is increased the deeper we dove. We first dropped off the open water students at a shallower site close by, then our turn came - we descended straight down to the bottom, slowly to give us a chance to equalize properly, and we found ourselves looking up at a huge ship. We first circled it at the bottom, then rose a few meters and went over, and then right into the cargo hull. There were even pockets of air from all the other divers who have passed through, and we heard stories of people taking out their regulators to breath normally at 30 m depth, something we did not dare try due to nitrogen narcosis (the hallucinogenic effect of diving in deep water).

We then continued to rise a few more meters, went around the cabin, and then right through it - it is a bit of a rite of passage when exploring the Halliburton to be inside of the cabin, at the helm of the ship, pretending to be the underwater captain. There is even a poster above the helm that claims "Jesus was a Pirate!", so everytime we heard that expression after our dive we knew it was coming from someone who had explored the wreck. Unfortunately our experience at the Halliburton did not last that long, and about half an hour later, after a 5 minute mandatory safety stop we got back on the boat to go retrieve the others from the nearby site. Our surface time was spent traveling to our second location, named Little Bight. This site was well known for its seahorses, and we were also looking forward to it since we had never seen them before (outside of an aquarium anyway). Our two Aussie friends, Ian and Koki, had taken out the camera that day, and they promised to share them with us. We saw at least 5 different sea horses, though not quite what you would expect after watching "The Little Mermaid" as they were mostly green like seaweeds, and again, there was no singing, dancing or crab with a Jamaican accent playing steeldrums. We also saw many brown garden eels, which looked like sea grass until we approached them and they retreated in the sand. After the dives, our regular schedule continued, we had lunch at Fishburgers, and then a quick snorkel in the afternoon, followed by sunset and dinner with Koki and Ian at Cayview Restaurant. The evening was topped off by watching shooting stars above us and lightning in the distance, feeling a bit sad that we were leaving the following day.

Self-guided dive at Jewel Cay

For a while we debated with the notion of just renting equipment and going on a dive without a divemaster, and we finally decided today would be that day. We had already surveyed the site by snorkeling a few times over it, picking out reference points to help us with the navigation. We waited for the dive boat to leave, so that we could have the deck all to ourselves to get geared up. We divided up the responsibilities, Josh being in charge of time, Marisa monitoring the air, and I was looking after the navigation (since I have a pretty good sense of direction). We felt really comfortable being by ourselves, and it didn't take us long to see a southern stingray, and we got pretty close to it, watching it swim along the bottom. Because our dive was pretty shallow and we were very relaxed, we managed to stretch it to just about an hour, having time to explore both sides of the coral reef before returning to the deck. Upon finishing and exiting the water, we felt a great sense of satisfaction as everything went really smoothly. We wrote our own dive profile and fish identifier, and after putting our equipment away we headed into the village to grab some lunch.

In the afternoon, we convinced Brian to join us for a snorkel trip off the deck, and within minutes of being in the water we first saw two, then an entire school of Caribbean Reef Squid, hovering along and changing colours as they were moving around. We tried for a few minutes to get them upset, but eventually two of them got into a bit of a fight and finally we saw them shooting ink and clouding the water. The turning point is when we observed a big barracuda eyeing us, convincing us that we should turn around and head back to the surface. We decided to watch the sunset from the deck before heading for dinner, and it went behind the clouds before it actually set. We were ready to get going when, out of nowhere, the sun reappeared in a hole in the clouds, and we got to see an absolutely fantastic sunset. After dinner we returned to the hotel, and as we sat on the deck watching the stars, we started talking about phosphorescents and we got the great idea to check it out. I dipped a used flipper into the water, moved it around, and dozens, if not hundreds of little lights followed its path. We were so mesmerized that we went to grab snorkel equipment, and jumped in the water for a night snorkel, even borrowing the flashlights used during the night dives. At some point we turned all the lights off and started moving as much as we could, creating the effect of floating heads above water surrounded by little lights everywhere.

Diving Photography

After much debate, we settled on renting Anke´s underwater camera for a day so that we can take some pictures of all the marine life around Utila. There were no baliadas for breakfast, as the island didn´t have power, so we had to settle for sandwiches and coffee for breakfast. Once on the boat, we were happy to see Louis steer it towards the north side of the island, and after about a 25 minute ride we docked at our first site, the Pinnacle. This is a huge coral column, and most of the dive is spent spinning around it as we were slowly surfacing; there is always a lot of life around this site, and took enough pictures to illustrate several entries. We saw lots of juvenile spotted drums, creole wrasse, 4 eyed butterfly fish, even a scrawled cow fish (the first one we got to see so far), as well as trumpet fish and bar jacks. I was concentrating so much on photography and trying to get nice shots that I lost track of conserving my air and finished the dive sooner than I would have liked, though with lots of beautiful pictures with me. After the surface interval of about an hour, we moved to Spotted Bay, our second site on the north side of the island that day.

For the second dive I kept a closer eye on my breathing, since I didn't want the repeat of the first, shorter dive; almost as soon as we submerged, Sam used his shaker to attract our attention and point out a huge turtle swimming below us. This caught me off guard, and by the time I had the camera ready the turtle was gone, only to reappear a few minutes later, apparently feeding under us. I tried to get as close as possible to try to get a picture, and at the time I thought nothing would come out, until a few days later when we got a chance to review the pictures on Anke's computer. While not perfect, the picture you see is enough to give you an idea of the turtle itself. We also got to see a smooth trunkfish (these guys remind me of the hovering spaceships in Star Wars), and we got to hold and pet a Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber (funny name for a funny looking animal). Sam also pointed out a number of Sea Pearls (not the precious ones), and while he was busy doing that we didn't even notice a huge Gray Angelfish swimming in his bubbles until it was right in his face, which caused him to be a bit startled. We later learned the fish is actually called Bubbles, since it loves to play with the exhales of all the divers. Towards the end of the dive, as we were at our 3 minute safety stop, we also got to see a big mature spotted drum, nowhere near as cute as the juvenile ones.

We got back on the boat, and quickly packed all our equipment before returning to Hotel Kayla, as they were trying to leave as quickly as possible to return to Utila. This was the day of the big carnival parade, and virtually everyone left the Cays in time to watch it, though Josh, Marisa and I decided to stay behind, since we had no place to stay in the East Harbour, and everything had been booked for weeks, nor could we get back to the cays by the evening since no fishermen travel that way in the afternoon or evening because of the currents and high waves. So we ended up having the hotel almost just for ourselves, and we went for a snorkel in the afternoon, taking advantage of still having the underwater camera to take more pictures and videos of us skin diving. Josh saw a stingray right off the dock, as soon as he got into the water, but it was gone by the time I threw the camera at him (well, near him in the water). We got to see more stoplight parrot fish, 4 eyed butterflies, even a flounder (flat fish with eyes sticking out that likes to bury itself in the sand as a defence technique). We spent the rest of the evening fairly quietly, went for dinner and sunset watching at Cayview restaurant, and then watched movies until falling asleep.

Water Cay Pt. 2

Since this was our day off from diving, we decided to return to Water Cay, but this time, wisely, we decided to hire one of the fishing boats to take us there and bring us back. We took our time getting organized, since we wanted to spend the whole day on the island, packed lunch and lots of water. After breakfast we went to the bridge connected Jewel and Pigeon cays and waited for the boat for a few minutes. As we had a safe transportation method, I was ble to bring my camera along as well, since Water Cay is too beautiful not to be captured in pictures. The fisherman took us across, and we asked him to return for us around 3pm. After setting up camp at one of the picknic tables, we spent the day swimming, snorkeling, reading and relaxing. At one point Josh and Marisa went for a long snorkel around half of the island, and they came back thrilled with all the life they got to see. It was really amusing watching them get in the water (because of the sea weeds and sharp rocks you have to waddle backwards with the fins to get to deeper water), but not as funny as watching them get out of the water less than 2 minutes later and hurry back to shore. Apparently they encountered a huge barracuda that took a liking to them and started approaching them, causing their sudden exit.

For lunch we had the left over pizza from the night before, and in the afternoon we stayed by the beach and swam in the clear and warm waters off the cay. The water was so shallow in fact that I had the courage to walk for a while with my camera in hand, to capture the western tip of the island with the white sand beach and palm trees. As the time neared for our return, we sat around and stretched our necks waiting for the boat to arrive, which it only did about an hour later than planned. Either way, by now we were running on ´island time´as well, so it didn´t bother us that we had to spend more time on this beautiful island. On the positive side of things, he dropped us right at Hotel Kayla, which was really nice of him. After showering to get rid of the salt water and changing into fresh clothes, we headed to Fishburger for food, where our dinner entertainment was the incredibly off-key gospel singing from the church next door. It was so bad (especially to Marisa´s ears, since she is a singer) that we ate in a hurry and didn´t know how to get out of there fast enough. The evening was spent at the hotel, where there was an impromptu jamming session, since Brian was traveling with a guitar. We all sat around, playing and listening to music, singing along (this time NOT off key), and created a campfire-like atmosphere, the only thing missing being the fire itself. But there was fire in the sky, as yet another huge thunderstorm was lashing the mainland to the south of us.

Diving the North Side

The next day there were relatively few divers on the boat, it was essentially just us and Lilian (who was finishing the rescue diver course), plus all the DMTs and Divemasters. We asked Captain Louis and he told us we would be heading to the north side of the island, which is supposedly even richer in marine life. So after breakfast, we collected our equipment into neat little bundles, took everything on the deck, got it set up and then placed on the boat. It is a bit of a longer boat ride to the north, but it was so worth it! At the first site, Duppy Waters, we got to see another turtle, first far away and then a lot closer to us - I was amazed how fast they can move underwater when they are so slow on the ground. We also got to see not one but two porcupine fish (a type of puffer fish, pretty big actually), a scorpion fish, a creole wrasse, and right at the beginning of the dive, Black Durgeon eating a chicken sandwich. Now you may wonder about that last one, but it was Louis who threw the food in the water, and an entire school feasted on it right as we got in the water. As we were swimming around, we had to go over the edge of a coral hill, and then right below us was a huge southern stingray, laying there burried in the sand. Lilian had taken out the digital camera, so we managed to get some really nice pictures, too.

We got back to the boat, and right as we pulled the anchor to move to the next site, we saw another turtle (or maybe it was the same one) right on the surface near the boat. We then headed to Paradiso, and spent the surface time chatting or swimming close by. For the second dive we saw all the usual suspects again, including really huge French Angelfish and Gray Angelfish. Returning to the hotel after the dives, we decided to order pizza for dinner, but on the cays you don´t pick up the phone to place your order, we just walked over to the house of the lady who made them and ordered in person. Not only that, but most of the communication is via radio, as there are no landlines on the cays, or cell phones for those who have them. We wanted to have enchiladas for lunch, but she was fresh out, so we had a cheeseburger with rice and beans at Suzan´s Fishburger. After our food settled, we took an afternoon snorkel around the dock, and we saw a lot of huge needlefish, which may look threatning at first, but are actually harmless. We dried off on the deck, which was not difficult considering the strong afternoon wind; in fact during some evenings you would not be able to stand on the upper level without holding on to a handrail or something else steady since the wind could have blown you right over the edge. That evening, after having pizza, we spent a few hours on the deck enjoying a show co-produced by nature and man; we were following two separate thunderstorms, one to the south and the other from the west, while in the east we could see the fireworks from the carnival in Utila. All this around us and yet we didn´t experience a single drop of rain, not a bad place to be in.

Water Cay

One of the perks being with Captain Morgan was that even on days when we were not diving, we could board the boat and snorkel the site where the others went diving, and since we had decided from the beginning that we would scuba every other day, we wanted to hop on the boat. However, they had too many people already, so since that was not an option, we decided to go visit Water Cay. Everyone spoke really highly about this small little island, so we wanted to see it for ourselves. Aside from the free snorkel gear provided by the shop, they also made available kayaks to get to water cay, so we settled on that being our plan for the day. Before that, however, we went to have breakfast at the green house, and discovered baliadas, a soft tortilla filled with eggs, beans, cheese, so good in fact that it became our regular breakfast, let alone the fact the price was right, less than 50 cents for one. By the time we returned, the dive boat had already left, so we picked our kayaks and headed out. Josh and Marisa got the large, two person yellow one, while I took one of the two red, single kayaks. We had to travel past a few other cays before getting there, not only Jewel and Pigeon Cays, but the smaller, private Jack Oneill´s Cay and Bell Cay. Things started off great, since the water is always calmer in the morning, though once I got to Oneill´s Cay I started to slow down a little bit. I stopped for a bit on its shores, inspected the kayak to learn that it was in fact taking on water. I drained some of it, then resumed paddling, reaching Water cay safe and sound.

Water Cay is one of the closest examples of a picture-perfect postcard Caribbean island; it is so small in fact that you can walk around it in less than 20 minutes. Towards the east and the south there is a very abundand coral reef, while the north and west sides have nice beaches for swimming and suntanning. On the west side, a sand spit connects it to Morgan´s Cay, so shallow in fact that you do not even need to swim to get across, you can simply wade in the water. We had brought our snorkeling equipment with us, so we headed into the water to explore the corals. We saw a school of blue durgeon, french and gray angelfish, 4 eyed butterfly fish, stoplight parrotfish and many, many others all swimming around beautiful corals. We even spotted a baracuda hanging around, eyeing us from a distance, which made us back up a little bit, as they have really sharp teeth and can get somewhat agressive especially if you wear jewelery, since they consider anything shiny to be lunch.

As we got out of the water to dry off, we started a bit nervously watching the waves and the wind pick up, since we were warned to make our way back before noon, as in the afternoon the current can be really strong and we would have to paddle against it. We drained our kayaks of water and started the long and difficult paddle back to Jewel Cay, but it didn´t help my kayak that much. As soon as we got into the sea mine started taking on water again, slowing me down considerably; I made it across to Bell Cay and stopped to drain it again. Josh and Marisa were already at Jack Oneill´s Cay waiting for me, but as I started heading there I soon realized that it would be a futile exercise. Taking on so much water slowed me down to a crawl and, getting caught in the current, it felt that for every paddle forward, the sea would push me back by three. Wondering what was going on, they returned to my location where they learned my questionable situation; at this point, most of the kayak was underwater (from a distance it looked like I was just sitting on water), except for the front tip that was doing its best impression of the sinking Titanic. Realizing that there wasn´t much they could do for me, they did the right thing by going forward, waving their paddles high in the air, the international sign for distress. Meanwhile I was drifting further and further out, away from the Cays, in the opposite direction. I started contemplating putting on my snorkel gear and swimming back towing the kayak, but even that would have taken quite a lot of effort, and I was exhausted from all the pointless paddling.

Just when I started tipping over, I saw a boat in the background, first stopping by Josh and Marisa´s kayak, then heading in my direction; one of the fishermen spotted their distress call and was coming to pull me out of the water. We put everything into his boat, including my soaking self, and I was extremly thankful for Toby spotting us and coming to my rescue. He gave me a ride back to Hotel Kayla, to the shocked looks of those on the dive boat, who had just returned back to Jewel Cay. I thanked Toby again as I unloaded everything from his boat, then spent the afternoon drying off in the sun, and repeating the story endless times to anyone who wanted to hear it. Of course it seemed funny after the fact, but while it was happening none of us were laughing, especially not me. I did inspect the kayak afterwards, and found that it had a huge hole at the bottom, which was patched, but obviously not to well. For the rest of my stay at Hotel Kayla, I warned everyone not to take that specific one, reminding them of my adventure.