Last Days in Utila

My time on Utila has come to an end. It was a good (almost) four months--filled with hard work and fun! Here are a few more pictures that didn't really fit in anywhere else.

Gene told us this was a "Highlander Lizard." There are a lot of them along the beach where we were working. The back of the head is bright yellow and there is often a turquoise blue on the stomach. This guy is a little duller because he was in the middle of shedding his skin!

Lindsey and I had a blast capturing this little guy. We have no idea was species he is-- apparently websites detailing Central American snakes are only really interested in the poisonous ones. (Interesting fact: there are no poisonous snakes on Utila!) So if you know what it is, please let me know!

We have been beach profiling on and off for most the summer, but with the hatching of the last nests, we started working on the double to get it done before leaving the island. This was helped out by the acquisition of a Transit Level--Terri brought it with her when she flew down. Basically it is a stand that holds a small telescope with a level on top. My job was to carry around the measuring pole to each spot on our grid so Lindsey could measure the height at that location. This way we measured the changes in elevation down the beach and can make a map. In total, we took close to a thousand individual points on our ~700m beach. 

Lindsey taking a measurement. If you look closely, I'm standing just in front of the middle set of bushes with the measuring pole.

 I've written before about the multitude of ATV problems we have had. However, I failed to put up a picture of this one:

The very dejected grad student realizing that there is no way that ATV is going to the beach that night. Luckily, it decided to go all pigeon-toed at the apartment, so we didn't have to push it anywhere. The ATV also gave us one more special gift, though this one wasn't completely its fault. Someone siphoned our gas and it conked out in the middle of main street, right before some sort of parade was scheduled. You do get a lot of cheers when pushing an ATV through a crowd--apparently it is a spectator sport.

 This is what we like to call the "Utila Low Rider." It's capacity is two people plus a dog or two. Definitely homemade, but it seems to be much more reliable than our rented four wheeler.


Finally, we did manage to take one more day off, right before Terri headed home. Lindsey, Terri, and I drove out to Coral View Resort. They have some nice reef right off of their dock. When Ariana visited Amy and I, we had tried to snorkel out here, but the surf was too high that day see anything. This time conditions were perfect and there was tons to see. The most exciting finds of the day were two Moray Eels. The evening ended with a beautiful sunset and moonrise over the bay.

Sunday, Lindsey and I packed up and flew to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. She then continued home to LA, while I hopped on a bus to spend a few day vacationing in Copan Ruinas before heading to my next assignment. 

*All the photos in this post except for the snorkeling and ATV are from Terri or Lindsey. They are both much better at remembering to carry their cameras than I am!