Honduras
Trip Start
Jul 25, 2005
1
23
29
Trip End
Jul 26, 2006
Where I stayed
Bay Islands and La Cieba, Honduras
Thursday, March 9, 2006
The absolute highlight though (and the reason we went) was snorkelling with Whale Sharks. We got lucky on our 2nd dive trip, tipped off by the Tuna splashing on the surface (Tuna feed on the same small fish as Whale Sharks) we drew alongside in deep water and all jumped into the water. Nicho and I were in first and got a full view of a 25ft shark rising upwards from the deep blue, its mouth (big enough to fit 3 humans) wide open preparing to filter feed on the surface, unfortunately the splashing of 10 people getting in the water put him off his dinner and he soon turned and disappeared into the ocean depths. We got a second and third chance, on the third, the giant fish (biggest fish in the world) turned round and swam straight underneath Nicho and I, we were able to see in detail the beautiful white markings on its body, the pilot fish hanging from it and only just missed his enormous tail. Other than that we did 5 dives including our advanced night dive which was, well, dark mainly, great bio luminescence though! Oh and we saw a Tarantula walking down the street.
From Utila we headed back to the mainland and the Jungle River Lodge just outside La Ceiba. The lodge is built on the riverside, set into the jungle so you wouldn't know it was there. We spent a day rafting, jumping (20m drops!) into plunge pools and body surfing down the foaming rapids of the river. Evening came and the jungle lodge lived up to its name, it came alive with frogs (one which sounded like a goat bizarrely) and insects - I lost count of the number of spiders and bugs in our hut. We had a good meal washed down with locally brewed jungle juice (very potent) which soon had us asleep!
