Feb 27 - A 12-Hour Travel Day In Which We Start Out Feeling Warm & Fuzzy For Times Past And End Up Remembering How Bad The Trip Here Can Be, And Even Worse During Road-Building

God-awful bus day
Phone gets lost in La Ceiba
Is Copan worth it?

Feb 26 - We Wrap Up Our Time On Utila, Where The Only Thing I Won't Miss Is The Bug Bites

A day of last-times
Final snorkel. Last sunset
Bill brings tequila

Feb 25 - The Conversations Deepen Among The Sunbathers At Coral View

If this deck could talk
Dreams are shared, sorrows noted
Life always leaves scars

Feb 24 - In Which We Finally Make Good On Our Promise To Eat At The Restaurant At Our Hotel, And It's A Bit Of A Wild One

Pizza at sunset

with our party-hearty friends

Guard your wine glasses

Feb 23 - I Feel Good About The Rescue But Will Not Soon Forget The Feeling Of Sinking Calf-Deep In Sticky Sea Mud When I Stepped Into The Weird Little Ocean Pool

Poor trapped puffer fish
I scoop him with two glasses
Fling him to the sea

Feb 22 - Things Get Real On The Coral View Deck

You can say a lot
when you're strangers in the sun
revealing secrets

Feb 21 - Sunny Skies Above, Stormy Seas Below As The Creatures And I Are Buffeted By A Long Day Of Wind Chop

Deep-water dust storm
Helpless fish sweep back and forth
Tossed by endless swells

Feb 20 - In Which We Loosen The Pursestrings On Our Spending On Food And Drink As It Dawns On Us That We're In Our Final Week On Utila

We're back at Neptune's
Two-for-one margaritas
I spot a lobster

Feb 19 - Our Trip To Water Cay Gets Even Better When The Michigan Couple Buys A Fresh 10-Pound Fish And Invites Us To Dinner

We eat Bill's snapper
Drink too much wine, try his treats
Stagger home sated

Feb 18 - You Think To Yourself That You Shouldn't Just Eat At RJ's, But Then You Think, Why Not?

We could go elsewhere
But good food for a good price?
I'll have amber jack

Feb 17 - We Gamble On The Weather And Win To Spend A Luxurious Sun Day At Neptune's Pretty Beach

Mud Slide for breakfast
Well, brunch, really. Then poke
Mini resort day

Feb 16 - People Who Can't Swim Shouldn't Go In Deep Water. Happily, Nobody Gets Hurt, Except Maybe The Guy Who Tried To Do A Rescue Via The Prickly Ledge In Two Inches Of Water

Some guy calls for help
His friend crawls out on coral
Back to the beach, folks

Feb 15 - Off To The Strange Little Utila Theatre For What We'll Presume Is A Pirated Show

Chicken on the dock
Tonight's movie: Molly Bloom
Damn, these seats are hard

Feb 14 - My New Sunshine Friend And I Can Cover Many Topics In Four Or Five Hours A Day On The Coral View Deck

Lizards in the sun
Talk turns to sex work, always
Boyfriend looks dumbstruck

Feb 13 - Change In Plans, From Movie Night To Cookoff As The Dive Schools Teach An Invasive Species That They're Not The Top Predator After All

Lionfish five ways
Water man invited us
But he's a no-show

Feb 12 - In Which I Try Pumpkin Hill Road On My Own And Am Claimed By An Enormous Puddle, Plus Made Nervous By All The Private-Property Signs Threatening That Traps Have Been Laid

This mud won't stop me!
Or maybe it will; I slip
Ankle deep and scratched

Feb 11 - The Neptune Experience Has Me Exploring In Four Inches Of Water,Looking For Fish Nurseries And Goby Cleaning Stations

I skim through shallows
What do I hope for? A ray
Alas, just goatfish

Feb 10 - We Take The Little Boat Shuttle To A Restaurant On The Other Side Of Utila, Which Is Free As Long As You Eat And Drink. And We Do

Shuttle to Neptune
The beach is a vacay dream
We share fish tacos

Feb 9 - For Once, The Weather Forecast Is Right And I Laze Around Coral View With No More To Do Than Read And Fish-Watch

Snorkel. Sun. Repeat
I point a Brit toward beer
It's a perfect day

Feb 8 - Skyping With R Makes Me Miss The Kid, Though The Best Solution Would Be To Just Bring Her Along

Hey girl, far away
Demonstrating a pole slide
down her highchair legs

Feb 7 - In The End, We Were Freaking Out Over Spot-Winged Comb Jellies, Which Aren't Even Jellyfish And Don't Sting. But We Learned All That Later

The plan is Airport
But rough seas and new jellies
make for a short swim

Feb 6 - I Stuff Floating Bits Of Plastic Into My Swim Shorts As I Snorkel To Do The Tiniest Bit To Clean Up This Sorry State Of Affairs

Storm tide brought in food
So many fish on the reef
Blind to the plastic

Feb 5 - A Bit Of A Grumpy Day As I Curse The Weather Gods Then Watch A Storm Tide Bring In A Staggering Amount Of Garbage To Utila's Shore

Here I am, huddling
Too rainy to tan, too cold
to cycle back home

Feb 4 - So A Brit, Two Canadians, A Guy From Minnesota And A Chihuahua Walk Into A Bar: A Hot Day At Coral View

Feel that sun bake me
Intimate talks with lost souls
Strangers on a bus

Feb 3 - The Day We Both Blistered But For Different Reasons

My bites have blistered
Hope cortisone cream saves me
Jellyfish stings Paul

Feb 2 - It's A Mutt-Ugly Beach From The Land Side, But Wowza Once You're In The Water

Two swims at Airport
A fitting name; I'm flying
Back in Nemo land

Feb 1 - A Fine Snorkelling Day At Coral View, With Only Rumours Of Barracuda

Giant ray swims past
A puffer looks up, white-lipped
I float in their sky

Jan 31 - It's Nice To Know That Some Things Don't Change

Finally, RJs
We feast, illness behind us
Tuna and king fish