Bay Islands Conservation Association Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras

So last week we went to Turtle Harbor to continue our efforts in cleaning it up and making paths and preparing the reserve for tourist visits. On our way back, it was about 3 in the afternoon, and the wind had been tremendous all day long. Our boat is one of the smaller ones that goes out on the open sea, only about 22 ft. As we rounded the corner where the ocean was unshielded from the island, we began to see huge waves. The space between the peaks of the waves was sometimes as much as 75 feet, which meant that our boat could easily fit in either side of the valley between the peaks.

So lately, there have been a few earthquakes near the island. It sounds really scary, and I´ll admit that I had a good startle when I felt my bed shaking and I could hear the glasses banging together. During one of the earthquakes, they put out a tsunami warning because the water level retracted in La Ceiba. Everyone was really scared, so they all hiked up to Pumpkin Hill to be safe from any flooding from the ocean. Here in Utila not very much happened, no one was hurt or anything thank goodness. A few of the houses are pretty damaged, especially those which have stilts.

As part of our environmental education, we invited a school to go on a hike down to the beach and help clean up the beach. A huge problem they have here in Utila is that the garbage washes up on the shore from all over the place. There were about 100 students grades 6-8 helping us clean up the beach, and we collected over 100 huge garbage bags full of trash! It took us 5 truckloads to hull it off to the dump. The obvious solution is to stop throwing garbage in the sea! We're working with the children and school districts to get that idea into the next generation's minds.

This was our first week volunteering on the island, and it has been great. The boat ride over was a bit rough; the yacht is smaller than the one that goes to Roatan so you can really feel the boat going up and down as it crosses the waves. We were a bit sea sick when we arrived, so we took it easy and rested the first day.

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