Well, another fabulous week gone by and done some great things.

Had a couple of great fun dives last Sunday. Saw porcupine fish, balloon fish and spadefish, all new things for me. Saw a huge lobster too. This Sunday´s fun dive I saw sea horses for the first time.

We're scheduled to go out on the dolphin boat Monday, Wednesday and Friday but it was too windy on Monday to go, so instead we had a visit to the Iguana breeding station where they're aiming to grow the numbers of Utila's endangered indigenous iguana. We dived in the afternoon doing fish surveys for parrotfish, groupers and surgeonfishes. When we were doing our 5m safety stop we saw a group of about 15 squid swim past us. I didn't know what squid looked like until then and they're amazing creatures to see.

We were unlucky with the dolphins last week. Monday's session was cancelled due to high wind, Wednesday's trip ran in glorious sunshine but we didn't see anything, and Friday's trip we had to turn back as it was too rough, the wind had suddenly picked up. Last week end there was a tropical depression due to hit Utila, which was then upgraded to tropical storm and then to hurricane. Luckily it went up the pacific coast of Honduras and wasn't too severe, but maybe we're getting some remnants of rough air from that. I've also been struggling with sea sickness on each occasion we've been out and have had to take drugs for it. Unfortunately they're knocking me out sleep wise and I actually fell asleep sat upright on the boat when it was really rough and then again when we got back after lunch, which is all a bit of a pain.

Am enjoying swimming in the sea again. Have done a couple of swims in the harbour and out to a lighthouse (a good mile plus swim) with one of the ecology centre staff and another of the volunteers which is nice.

Did sea grass surveys this week too. Counting how many tufts of sea grass are growing in a 1m quadrant wouldn't be high on my list of fun things to do, but is a new experience and helping with the research. Similarly with mangrove work; crouching down over a 1m quadrant of new mangrove, counting new 'metaphores' (bits that grow out of the ground to allow oxygen to pass to the plant), new seedlings, dead seedlings, and number of crabholes, again isn't high on my list of fun things to do but was ok and amusing none the less when there's several of you. (Justine - reminded me of the Swanage field trip a bit!)

Best day this week was Thursday when we went to one of the small cays where a lot of the fishermen live. The marine ecology centre has a small house there with a garden where they are setting up a conch breeding centre. It's early days and we helped with things like adding some plastic plumbing in to supply water to a building where they will grow algae to feed the baby conch on. Some of the other volunteers helped with constructing various concrete and wooden structures, and I helped with sterilizing some bottles. After a beautiful fresh tuna lunch we did 2 dives at the conch farm where there's an enclosure with some tagged conch in. We had to try and look for more conch to put into the enclosure and return any to it which had escaped, as well as do repair work to the fence.

Have completed 2 weeks here already and its flown by. Looking forward to 2 more weeks of this before the next part of the trip. Hope you're all well and enjoy the photos. (oh and it may look like there are lots with beer on, but at the equivalent of 80p each, it has to be done! Also developing a nice relationship with ´Ron´. (that´s spanish for ´rum´- which is also cheap and very special, ´Flor de Cana´just to make my Mexico buddies jealous!) (oo and on that subject Gil has invited me round to dinner tonight - again Mexico buddies, you know how yum that will be).

Bye for now. Nicky x