Broadreach Honduras Field Studies 1999

HFS1 - Broadreach Honduras Field Studies

This section is a journal thought and reflected upon after the summer of 1999... me.

June 26th 1999

Flight to Honduras: Miami to Roatan via San Pedro - Sula and La Ceiba. Seven of us arrived tonight without any luggage... Nick, Colleen, Alex, Naomi, Chris K., Charlie, and Gill. I decided to go to Anthony's Key and talk with Naomi and Colleen at night.

June 27th 1999

This morning we received gear and did a check out dive next to the RIMS dolphin enclosure. In the afternoon we did a recreational dive at Seaquest, Roatan Honduras. The rest of the group arrived prior to dinner... Lisa, Chris P., Kate, Brooke, Caroline, and Lindsey. We had a brief orientation after dinner.

June 28th 1999

The second half of the group did check out dives while the rest watched the dolphins. Then the entire group did a fish identification at Overheat, Roatan Honduras. After lunch we had a fish lecture... blessed sleep. In the afternoon we did another identification dive at Lighthouse, Roatan Honduras. Afterwards, AKR had a cookout on Anthony's Key.

June 29th 1999

In the morning, we had a coral identification lecture and then we did a coral identification dive at Tuk's Treasure, Roatan Honduras. We had some free time around lunch... Naomi and I spent the time at the beach talking - SUNBURN! In the afternoon, we had to map a coral head at Front Porch, Roatan Honduras. Naomi and I had the best coral reef map - FREE DRINKS! We had an hour of free time before the dolphin lecture and then dinner.

June 30th 1999

In the morning we did an invertabrate lecture and then did an invertabrate identification dive at West End Wall, Roatan Honduras. We had lunch at AKR's private beach at the end of the island. The group managed to form a human pyramid in the water - SHOULDERS HURT! Returning to AKR, we did another invertabrate identification dive at Butcher's Reef, Roatan Honduras. After dinner we had to watch a dolphin video... sex fiends, all of them!

July 1st 1999

We had yet another lecture - on mangroves... then we did a terrible snorkel through them on AKR's huge snorkel boat. From there we did another snorkel before heading in for lunch. A few of us messed around on the beach for a while - i conned the taxi boat captain into pulling me around AKR on the windsurfer! In the afternoon we did a dive in Roatan Honduras. We had our second dolphin lecture and then did a night snorkel around AKR's channel. I did see a condom floating around - eroo?

July 2nd 1999

We got to sleep till 7:45 AM... We got to visit Oak Ridge this morning. We toured the city and mangroves via motor boats. Next we went to a beach for lunch. Lisa and I took a walk on the beach. On the way
home we checked the local iguana farm -BUDGET! Can we say, bamboo chicken? We did a night dive at Overheat, Roatan Honduras.

July 3rd 1999

Half the group did a dive in the morning at Dive Master's Choice, Roatan Honduras... While the other half did a dolphin swim at AKR. We did Broadreach Olympics during lunch time. In the afternoon we switched, and we did the dolphin swim. The leaders made us watch a video on hurricane Mitch - we had no energy after that.

July 4th 1999

YAY!!! FOURTH OF JULY! This is the best holiday of the year! We did a coral identification activity in the morning... However, we decided to do a drift dive on the southside of the island at Herbie's Place, Roatan Honduras... The current was amazingly strong - we just floated along. We did a second dive after lunch in Roatan Honduras. The leaders had a surprise for us after dinner... misleading us with a tale about bioluminesence, we all headed to RIMS. Instead of the lab, we watched Something About Mary - Junior and Alson came too, woohoo!

July 5th 1999

We did a snorkel in the morning so that we could do a 100ft deep wreck dive at El Aguilla, Roatan Honduras. We did some more Broadreach Olympics in the free period around lunch and we had another dinner on Anthony's Key.

July 6th 1999

We went to the South Side on a Pro 48 cause the Macavi isn't feeling up to par. We did a typical dive at Key Hole, Roatan Honduras. In the fternoon we conducted point - intercept line transects at Pillar Coral, Roatan Honduras. The amount of free time we had today was amazing... Colleen, Naomi and I had a nice talk on Colleen's bed while Lisa slept in the hammock. Jen's "friends" were supposed to arrive this afternoon... didn't though.

July 7th 1999

This morning we did a dive at Mandy's Eel Garden, Roatan Honduras -amazing! We stayed at AKR's private beach for the afternoon and messed around there. At night, we did a routine night dive at White Hole, Roatan Honduras. We met Jen's "friends" tonight - they do exist after all.

July 8th 1999

In the morning we divided up again and half of us did a channel clean up dive in AKR's channel... Chris K. and I had an incident with a Fire Worm -"Fuzzy?!?! BAD!!!" In the afternoon we got to go to Front Porch, Roatan Honduras and dive with a dolphin! SO AMAZING! We slept in RIMS tonight and watched movies.

July 9th 1999

Last recreational dive in Roatan Honduras!!! Afterwards, we headed to Coxen Hole to do some shopping - rather ugly town. Junior and Alson joined us for dinner tonight... and we gave Jen such a cool present: a huge pair of autographed underwear! "Nick was here in 99."

July 10th 1999

Flight to La Ceiba... arrival at Pepe's River House. In the afternoon we got to go white water rafting. Chris K, Charlie, Naomi, Colleen, and I were in the lead raft with our guide... we managed to save Naomi and Charlie from falling. We did, however, wrap our raft around a class 4 rapid towards the end... Colleen slipped and pulled me from the raft - Naomi jumped willingly?!?! Anyways, the group got the raft unwrapped about an hour after the incident started. We had the best team!!!

July 11th 1999

This morning we went to Pico Bonito National Park to go hiking... We all got drenched from sweat and mud. We decided to go swimming when we arrived at the bottom again. We chilled for the rest of the day at Pepe's River House.

July 12th 1999

The day began when Chris K. got us all up at 5 am! We had to get to the coconut train - a small engine and a few seats with a flat bed attached to the rear - by 7 am. We arrived at the reserve and took a tour on motor boats - we saw toucans, monkeys, bats, etc... Then we went to a beach there - full of drift wood. Chris K. and I did running commentary (as National Geographic Camera Men) of Naomi trying to eat a coconut - an amazing monkey indeed. We got to ear at someone's "house" (hut). I must have been the single person hungry enough to eat the food. While we were at the house, Colleen picked up a puppy -mistake. A few seconds after Chris K. said, "Colleen, that end may be cute, but i'd watchout for the other end..." the puppy went to the bathroom on her shirt. We hitched a ride with the coconut train back to the bus and went into the town of La Ceiba to walk around... nothing much worthwhile there. We went swimming when we got back to the river house.

July 13th 1999

This morning we did a community service project... trail maintainance. What we had to do, however, was measuring a somewhat started trail. We had to ford a river with a raft and then hike to where we began the measuring. Just as we got started, it started to pour and we got drenched. Tony gave us thirty seconds of bitch time and then we trucked it back to the river and home. In the afternoon we all went into La Ceiba and ate at Pizza Hut cause the food at Pepe's is rather lacking.

July 14th 1999

The entire day we spent on the bus - heading to Copan. About an 8 hour trek... we got flat tires too. We did take a rest at the botanical gardens that were decent except for the random biting bugs. I thoroughly enjoyed the trek... although, i believe i was the only person who did. The place we are staying has character... i love it.

July 15th 1999

A great day!!! We saw the Mayan ruins of Copan this morning - Luis as our tour guide. He is amazing - he had something to say about everything... slightly tedious. We went through the tunnels and got to see lots of hieroglyphics. After the ruins we went horseback riding which was loads of fun! "Fuzzy" had what it took to be a damn cool horse. We all got stretched apart - Tony, Brooke, and I bolting ahead while Lisa walked at the rear. In the evening we all went around getting souvenirs in Copan. Chris K. and I had a great time getting instruments to annoy the people on the plane with.

July 16th 1999

We had to make a 3 hour bus trek to the airport this morning... Naomi and I never went to bed, though. We were up when everyone else got up at 4 am. Miami is hell! Due to the time change, we didn't have the two hours i thought we did to say goodbye. That didn't go well at all! I felt paralyzed and we had to run to the gate. I had a few layovers and ended up getting home late due to a delay in Philidelphia.

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