Broadreach Honduras
Field Studies 1999

HFS1 - Broadreach Honduras Field Studies

The following is the daily journel of Naomi Appel...  i have done this so that we may all recall what happened in the summer of 1999:  (this took me frickin forever too!)

6-28-99

I think I can safely say that the trip here was pretty much of a nightmare!  I left home at 5:45am, arrived in Miami at 9:35 and had to wait till 3:25 to leave there and go to San Pedro, Sula (where's that?!)...  from there we went to somewhere else, then from there to ROATAN!  The trip only took like 13 hours!  We arrived here with 7 of the 13 people in the group and missing about 2/3 of our luggage...  thanks to TACA (Take A Chance Airlines)!  Luckily, I had the bag with my clothes, which I ended up sharing with others who weren't as lucky!  Te first night we had Colleen, Gill, Nick, Chris, Charlie, Alex, and Tony.  We were introduced to Jen, from Anthony's Key Resort, when we got here.  Colleen and I shared a room on Anthonys Key, a small key about 100ft. away from the resort's base.  We got our gear yesterday morning, did a check-out dive, then a second dive.  Then we had time to take showers, etc.  & Colleen and I moved into ROOM 7!  The rest of the group arrived right before dinner: Lisa, Chris, Kate, Brooke, Caroline, and Lindsey.  We had an orientation after dinner, then hung out and went to sleep.  This morning we woke up, ate breakfast, then half the group did a check-out dive while the other half didn't do a dive - we watched the dolphins.  Jen asked us to identify 5 fish we didn't know on the first dive.  After lunch we had a fish lecture - most of us fell asleep!  Then we did a second dive to try and identify more fish.  Tonight there was a cookout/dance on Anthony's Key - lots of fun!  Some random lady came and paired people up to get us to dance -Tony's a good dancer :-)  There was also a limbo contest - Colleen won!!!  and a crab racing contest - go KAte and Gill's crab, OSCAR!  It's been a good but tiring three days!

6-29-99

The day started off with a lecture on corals...  We saw more slides, then on our dive we had to identify different types.  It was pretty interesting.  Before lunch we had like an hour to kill so Nick & I went to the beach & talked about...  well, nothing really!  Then we had lunch & went on our second dive.  That time we had to map out a coral reef.  We saw a big octopus & a big green noray eel -cool!  Nick and I definately did the best job mapping the coral patch.  Then we had an hour to take showers, etc. before our dolphin lecture.  We learned lots of cool stuff: their heads are asymmetrical (the right side is a little bigger); they can see inside us; they evolved from a terrestrial animal that looks like a wolf...  Cool stuff!  Then Brooke, the leader of the day, did an awesome toast at dinner - full of energy!  Poor lindsey isn't feeling good, and Caroline's luggage is still lost.  but on the happier note, CONGRATS to KATE and COLLEEN for getting their SCUBA certifications!

6-30-99

After an ever-so-interesting lecture on invertebrates, we headed for a dive site...  our mission was to identify some of the invertebrates we saw.  We went to a gorgeous beach for lunch - played freeze tag, capture the flag with human flags, Marco Polo, shark and fish, and built a human pyramid!  On our way back to the resort we did another dive - saw a spotted moray eel.  When we got back we had a debrief on our dive then had free time till dinner.  Tony and Jenn decided we need an activity to do after dinner, so we watched a pretty boring video on dolphins.  Caroline's luggage finally arrived!  My sunburn is killing me...  it might be the worst burn I've ever had :-(  Also, NICK and I won the contest for mapping the coral reef best yesterday - free drinks from Tony :-)

7-1-99

So...  mangroves are the first line of defense against material on land from entering the water and damaging the coral reefs.  We had a lecture (of course!) on the mangroves, then snorkeled through them.  From there we continued on to do another snorkel and saw two nurse sharks and some other cool stuff.  Later on in the day we did another dive - didn't see anything too amazing.  We had another dolphin lecture today then did a night snorkel tonight - saw an octopus!  As i write, Tony is telling us about a court case in England in which someone was being prosecuted for sexually assaulting a dolphin in front of a tourist boat!

7-2-99

We got to sleep in - till 7:45 - today!  We went & saw Oak Ridge...  went on some canoes with motors to see the city, then to a beautiful beach for lunch.  We built a sand mermaid around Chris - made him into a woman!  On the way home we stopped at an iguana farm - yuck!  Tonight we did a night dive and saw an octopus!  My day was complete.  Colleen's not feeling good, & Tony showed me how to look through an otoscope at her ears - cool!  Then we played a few rounds of maffia - pretty dumb if you ask me!

7-3-99

We got to sleep in again - till 7:30!  the group split up - half of us did the dolphin swim in the morning while the other half of us did a dive.  After figuring out that Jen forgot the radio (and then going back to AKR to get it) the fan belt on the boat broke, so we had to go back a second time.  But as they say, third time's the charm!  On the dive we saw two big eagle rays!  We did some olympics before lunch - Chris (little), Charlie, Gill and I were great!  The dolphin swim was amazing - they move sooo fast!  But they feel kind of rubbery, not slimy at all...  After the swim we did some more olympics - our team kinda lost it's touch!  At dinner Tony told us about school in England - much more stressful than here.  At 16, you take exams & if you don't pass you leave school.  Then a few years later you take more (which you spend 6 months studying for!) & those determine where you go to college.  Tony did well on them all :-)  Then we watched a video on the hurricane in october - it pretty much killed the night's enthusiasm!

7-4-99

4th of July!!!
We started the morning with a coral identification activity...  The dive we did was pretty boring, but the current was amazing!  We really didn't have to work at all to move.  And the dive was on the South side of the island too, so the water was incredibly choppy.  After lunch we did a second dive - also boring, but I did catch a glimpse of a sea turtle in the distance - cool!  We got to cash in our prizes for winning various contests at happy hour - Tony bought us drinks!  Our leaders are THE BEST!!!  They had a surprise 4th of July party for us!  Jen explained some activity that we'd be doing where we had to catch bioluminesence, etc., but when we got to RIMS they had a little party set up and we watched There's Something About Mary.  Junior and Alson came too.  Thanks Jen and Tony :-)

7-5-99

Pretty typical day...  did a snorkel in the morning so we wouldn't have any nitrogen in our bodies for the deep wreck dive we did this afternoon!  The wreck was in 110 feet of water, but we could only go to 100...  cool dive!  We did some more Olympics - an egg toss - the egg broke on me...  YUCK!  We also got a tour of the hyperbaric chamber - it's been used over 700 times for commercial & sport divers over the past 9 years!  Tonight was dinner, dancing, crab-racing, limbo, etc. at Anthony's Key.

7-6-99

Today we went to the South Side on a Pro 48 since the Macavi broke down.  The dive was nothing too special but we did see a turtle!  This afternoon we did point - intercept line transects and did surveys of the marine life down in the deep blue sea :-)  The amount of free time was incredible - way too long - I actually had time to read some of my book!  Colleen, Nick and I had a nice talk on Colleen's bed while Lisa slept in the hammock.  Jen's friends were supposed to come today, but didn't make it :-(  Some one said something mean to her, and as she got up to leave, Nick said "If you leave now you'll really have no friends at all."

7-7-99

Help!  I ws buried alive!  At the beach today Tony decided it would be fun to COVER me in sand and turn me into a man!  They didnt exactly turn me into a man, but they did make me some strange sort of lifeform!  By the time they were done I couldn't feel the lower half of my body.  We also built some great pyramids, played volleyball & walked in the intertidal zone, which was so cool!  In the morning we did a dive at Mandy's Eel Garden - saw lots of tiny eels which poked their heads out of the sand till we came by.  We also saw an eagle ray and a turtle!  And some gigantic sponges too!  The night dive was pretty bad though - didn't see much.  After dinner we played this cool dream game - someone was sent out of the room & Tony explained that we were supposed to be thinking of some dream or fantasy that the person had...  but really we don't think of anything and let them make up the dream - we just answer "yes" or "no" to any questions they ask.  "Yes" if the question ends in a vowel, or "no" if it ends in a consonant.  It's hilarious!  Charlie supposedly drempt about marrying (eloping) with Princess Di!  We alsp played psychiatrist...  Maffia will have to wait for another night.  Also, Jen's friends finally got here!  Now we all know she really does have friends :-)

7-8-99

I have successfully almost completed my job as leader of the day...  We did a channel clean-up dive this morning - YUCK!  this afternoon we did our dolphin dive - it wasn't as great as I expected, but it was cool anyway.  The dolphin didn't seem that interested in us - he spent most of the time with the guy who led the dive.  Tonight we are sleeping at RIMS!!!  It should be fun!  Charlie was sick to his stomach all day today & missed out on the dives :-(  My quote for dinner: "In one success one thousand failures lie forgotten; but in one refusal to try, one thousand successes lie never to be achieved."

7-9-99

So today was our last day here...  last dive of the trip too.  The dive was fun - tried to have a fin fight & just messed around!  We went to Coxen Hole after lunch to do a little shopping - cute little town!  Junior and Alson joined us for dinner tonight...  and we gave Jen a really cool present:  a huge pair of autographed underwear!!!  tongy bought it in town today because of our joke with her about only wearing bathing suits, not underwear.  After dinner Tony told us some stuff to scare us about the mainland - stuff about the food & water & dehydration.  We tried to think of a game to play afterwards, but our hide & go see plans backfired!  Packing to leave here is no fun!

7-10-99

It's been a long day!  Saying goodbye to Jen was sad, and we definately miss her.  the flight to La Ceiba was less than enjoyable...  a tiny, old, rickity plane - Aghh!  You could see the air conditioning coming out from the vents - Charlie felt like he was in a gas chamber.  NOT a pleasant flight!  We met our guide, Luis, at the airport in La Ceiba and thankfully everyone got their luggage!  Our bus is nice...  it's about a 20 person bus and has air conditioning!  Pepe's River House is AMAZING!  It's this big, open cement house built high off the ground.  There's a huge porch with a big table to eat at, two hammocks, a futon, & lots of adirondack chairs.  Inside is one big common room with a kitchen, a bedroom with 3 double beds, a bathroom with a big shower, & Pepe's room, which is off-limits.  We also have a cook here - not roughing it AT ALL :-)  Rafting was awesome!  The river was so low, so we hit so many rocks!  We got to swim through some rapids, which was awesome!  Chris (big), Charlie, Colleen, Nick, a guide & I had one boat - at one point (in a class 4 rapid) we got stuck on a rock & had to leave the raft & swim down.  It took an hour to get the capsized boat out.  By the end there was thunder, lightning, & tons of rain - SO MUCH FUN!

7-11-99

Today was rugged!  It poured for hours last night, so when we woke up everything was wet.  We went to Pico Bonito National Park to go hiking - it was gorgeous there!  At the top of the mountain, sitting on a rock in the water, was a poisonous fer-de-ance snake...  afhh!  We all moved pretty quickly.  After the hike we came back here to hang out...  just sat and talked for the rest of the afternoon, then had dinner, & now it's early to bed (it's only 7 now) so we can get up nice and early tomorrow morning!

7-12-99

The day began when Chris (Khouri) woke us up at 5 am!  We had to leave here by 6 to get to the cocoanut train, which left at 7.  The train was cool - it was a small car with an engine & some seats, with a big flat bed attached on the back.  We rode to an estuary & went on a two hour boat ride - saw toucans, monkeys, bats, etc...  There we had a real Honduran lunch at someone's house - rice, beans, chicken & fried plantains...  but i have decided to be a vegetarian for the rest of the trip!  While we were at the house Colleen picked up a puppy & it went to the bathroom all over her!!  We rode back on the coconut train & went into the town La Ceiba to walk around...  it was neat, but dirty.  When we got back here most of us went swimming in the river, then we all took a huge group shower!!!

7-13-99

Today was possibly the best day so far!  Everything was fun...  we started out with a hike for community service.  We thought we were doing some kind of trail maintainance, but ended up measuring a trail instead.  We started walking on an already-made trail, but it was rugged.  finally, by the time we got to the part we were supposed to measure, it had started pouring.  We were drenched!!!  Eventually we turned back because it was getting too muddy & we took a raft back across the river.  Although we were soaked, the hike was a blast.  We split up into two groups, & Tony was with mine, along with Lindsey & British Chris - you couldn't ask for more amusing people!  We also saw a coral snake, which was cool.  When we got back we ate lunch then Lisa, Chris (both of them), Gill, Tony, Brooke and I went swimming in the rapids & jumping off big rocks posing in different modds.  It was great :-)  As Tony was cleaning off Caroline's infected bugbite he thought he saw two fang marks (like from a snake!) so he decided she had to go to the doctor - while she went, all of us except Kate & Alex went into town...  bought a cake mix & some icing & went to Pizza Hut.  Dinner was rice and beans - YES!  Right now, the cake is in the oven & we're all sitting around laughing.  Unfortunately, Chris & I were unseccessful at stealing the icing!

7-14-99

Today was a dull day - really no glows, mostly glums :-(  I woke up at 5 to the sound of Lindsey getting sick - throughout the day she got worse & worse, until tony took her to the doctor who gave her a shot and some antibiotics.  We went to some botanical gardens & walked through bamboo tunnels, which were cool...  Also saw some other cool trees.  The bus ride was kinda fun, but long...  Finally we are here in Copan...  Hopefully tomorrow will be a great last day :-) Dude!

7-15-99

It was a good last day!  We started off at the Mayan Ruins of Copan with Luis as our tour guide... he knows an amazing amount about the ruins!  At times it was a little boring, as he rambled on endlessly about the rocks, but it was still cool!  We got to go underground into the tunnels...  everytime a Mayan ruler would die, the next ruler built a temple on top of the temple of the dead ruler.  so there are temples piled upon temples - awesome!  We also got to see lots of hieroglyphics which were cool too :-)  After the ruins we went horseback riding which was loads of fun!  My horse was rather slow at first, but when the guide gave me a whip and stayed near me the horse would take off trotting - going fast was the best!  However, we all got off our horses a little sore :-)  We came back, took showers then went to explore the town...  I didn't buy anything, but other people bought various trinkets!  And Lindsey is feeling all better!  All in all, it was a great way to end the trip!

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