16 Sept 2024
Today, we are going on an excursion to the south side of the island, to Maya Key, where we’ll have a picnic and do a bit of land exploration.
Dive #11 – Peter’s Place
Spotted this little Arrow blenny shortly after I splashed:
I absolutely love these little guys! I love the way their tails stay curled up, yet somehow they’re able to just dart away (that part is sometimes frustrating)- they’re so fast!
Two flamingo tongues:
Two Spotfin butterflyfish:
A trumpetfish doing a decent job at hiding:
Neck crab:
and another!
There were actually several crawling around this coral, but most of them kept ducking behind the coral structure.
Bristle fireworm- this guy was a solid 4-5″ long:
Nurse shark!
Chompy Stoplight parrotfish (initial phase):
Indigo hamlet:
Barred hamlet:
Free-swimming eel:
I couldn’t get a shot of all 3 fish looking at the camera, but they were hunting together (or, the jack and little fish were picking off whatever the goatfish stirred up):
Spotted eagle ray!
Farewell!
Dive #12 – Butcher’s Banks
These guys were just out of reach of my strobes, but look how happy they seem!
Black aglaja / Nakamigawaia felis:
I’ve been searching for these guys all trip- they were fairly common in Belize, but this is the first time I’ve spotted any here
Unfortunately, I messed up. I always turn off my strobes and just use my spotting light for up close nudi shots, but I forgot to turn them back on so almost none of the rest of my shots for the rest of this dive turned out, which is super disappointing because I saw some pretty cool critters, like this little Spotted eel:
my guide lured him out by wafting a bottle of dead fish in his direction:
Think of how much cooler that shot would be if it was in color!
Sting ray with garden eels in the distance:
and a whole school of Creole wrasses (and at least one imposter):
Ugh. Rookie mistake.
After this dive, we drove around to the other side of the island for our visit to Maya Key.
Lunch was buffet style and honestly, a little disappointing. Up until now, I’ve enjoyed most of the food here- sure, there were some dishes I liked more than others, but I haven’t had a bad meal. This was mediocre at best and not very filling.
But, onto the critters! like this free-range macaw:
and these green parrots:
Honey badger:
Peacock:
White-faced capuchins:
Monkey tail:
I don’t know who this is, but that’s about what I look like when I’m asleep as well!
Jaguar:
Great curassow:
These macaws used their beaks to scoot along the bamboo instead of just walking normally:
Another capuchin:
This was a split second before he launched himself at the fence, where I was shooting pictures from- it was TERRIFYING!
Puma:
This free-range parrot kept saying, “pretty” over and over:
I spotted this wreck from my plane on the way in!
Dive boats waiting to take us away with a (different) monstrosity of a cruise ship in the background:
We were hoping to dive Mary’s Place, a more famous site here on the south side, but the sea was just too choppy so we ended up diving a site on the northern side, but further west than the previous dives
Dive #13 – Sea Quest -> ? (drift dive)
Free-swimming Sharptail eel:
Sailfin blenny:
I first saw these guys in Belize, but they only popped out of their holes for a brief second- this guy hung out much longer so I was actually able to get a shot of his fin.
Bristle fireworm, curling through some coral:
Whitespotted filefish:
I could not get this guy to turn around for a better picture 🙁
Turtle!
There were a couple photographers in this new group (with much bigger and fancier cameras than me). I’m definitely not set up for wide angle, but I did manage to get this absolutely mediocre picture:
which I loaded up on my phone and sent to him; in return, he gave me this stellar shot of me and the turtle:
Photo by Jon Anderson
you can even see my awesome dinosaur hood! He lived out in Monterey and takes some pretty incredible pictures- check out his work here!
Unfortunately, there was a pretty decent current and every time I/we stopped for pictures, we lost the group. Most times, at least one of us was able to catch a glimpse of a tank or bubbles off in the distance, and really, the current should carry us all in the same direction, but after the turtle, none of us could see the group so I stopped taking pictures and focused on navigating. I figured as long as we started going up around 45 minutes, we should catch sight of the boat and if not, as long as we three stayed together, I could launch my safety sausage and the boat would come get us.
Fortunately, we spotted the boat and were able to hold onto the mooring line for our safety stop. One group wasn’t as lucky- they blew past the boat and surfaced a couple buoys down from us. They did not have a surface marker buoy, but one guy was wearing an orange rash guard, so he just held his arm up til the boat got to them.
I forgot to snap a picture of the sunset on my way to dinner, but look at this awesome moonrise afterwards!
Goodnight, Roatan!