Cayos Cochinos

Friday morning Elizabeth and I were picked up from our hotel to go snorkeling on the Cayos Cochinos (Hog Cays). The Bay Islands are more famous, but also much further away and much more expensive, and we can´t scuba dive anyway, so the Cayos were just right for us. Christie, however, gets seasick--not on the boat ride there, but once she´s floating on the water! She went back to the Jungle Lodge and went hiking through Pico Bonito up to a waterfall.

Eli and I rode on one choppy ride to the archipelago. It is amazingly beautiful, with those typical blue-green Carribean colors of water and incredible corals and fish. We hiked a bit and saw all sorts of creatures and bugs, then spent an hour or so snorkeling. It was really impressive, but eventually we moved on to another island. On the second island we ate lunch and relaxed awhile before snorkeling again. This time, however, there were incredible strong currents that made it hard not to drift out to sea or crash into the many tall mountains of coral we found ourselves in. After a very difficult swim back in, we made it to shore to bask in the sun a few moments.

We had to leave soon, though, because the sea was getting fea, or ugly. The way beack we went with the wind, only meaning that we had to ride the waves or they would crash over us from behind. Never in my life have I been so close to such huge waves, really terrified at some point that we were going to capsize! The best part is that it was still gloriously sunny, though the mist and splashes of the waves soaked us and chilled us to the bone.

Back in La Ceiba, we met up with Christie and decided to stay one more night before heading south. Bedtime, amazinly enough, was even earlier than the previous night´s 8:30 p.m. because we were planning on just napping and going out dancing. Yeah, right. But by going to bed at 7:30 p.m. we had no trouble catching the 5 a.m. bus out of town!