Greetings from Utila, one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras.

I left Guatemala last week end and visited Copan Ruins on the way over here. Copan isn't the biggest of the Mayan ruins in Central America by any means, but it really is beautiful in lovely grounds. It was really peaceful and I really enjoyed relaxing there, which broke up the journey nicely. I then travelled on to San Pedro Sula to meet the rest of the group for the marine conservation project. We had an over night stop which was good to rest, and then we flew on a 15 seater plane to Utila last Monday. It was great to see the small cays and coral reefs as we approached the island. It would have been nice to have seen my luggage when we got off the plane, but it hadn't made it (same happenned in Thailand last year!). My bag did turn up a few hours later which was a relief though.

We are doing volunteer work for UCME (Utila Centre for Marine Ecology). There are about 7 scientists there who are conducting varied projects on sea grass, mangroves, coral, parotfish and groupas, conches, dolphins and whales. We will be involved with all of these to some extent. We'll probably dive 3 days per week and are scheduled to go out on the dolphin/whale boat 3 times a week too, as well as activities on the other projects as well. Approximately 2 out of 3 times they see dolphins and often its large pods which can be in the hundreds, and they can get in and swim with them sometimes, so looking forward to that ! It's good to still be using my fish knowledge and to be diving again, but its also great to be getting involved in other projects too.

There are just 5 of us volunteers and we live in a nice house just outside the town. Our meals are provided for us which is great. We've just completed our first week and Saturdays are our days off, so I'm doing this with a wee hangover. Helen, Leah and myself are off to the beach for the afternoon in a mo and then a drink at a sunset bar later. We dont work on sundays either but get a couple of fun dives tomorrow morning. I think I can manage another 3 weeks of the same here

Well, that's all for now. Will update again soon. Hi to everybody wherever you all are !