Sunday, Feb. 22nd

We are watching the Oscar Ceremony on TV after dinner and I will use this time to catch up on the last couple of days of fun.

On Saturday we met up with Captain O, actually his brother, Captain D, who we had arranged to take us out on a snorkelling trip to a couple of more distant locations. They took us to Palmetto Bay where we snorkeled a shipwreck from the mid 1800´s. Really amazing to see the skeleton of the ship all overgrown with coral and everything else but filled with tropical fish. Snorkeling highlights were a few barracuda, a darling fluttery and colorful little squid, and a spiny lobster. We also went to another spot that had loads of great coral and fish. But there was a lot of wind so it was really tough snorkeling with lots of current so we called it a full morning after a few hours and headed home feeling fully pickled in the salt water.

The afternoon was spent napping, reading and lounging after the full and exhausting morning.

We also connected with nurse, Peggy Stranges of the Clinica Esperanza who came by the resort to pick us up as well as the gigantic, heavy duffel bag of supplies we have been lugging from one end of Honduras to the other! So we got a tour of the Clinic which is an amazing place (www.clinicaesperanza.com) and then she drove us to her nearby home which has an apartment that Judy and Maria will be staying in during their volunteer time. It is a great place right on the beach and within walking distance just down the beach to the E-Learning center where they will be volunteering. All good.

Back at home we watched the DVD ¨Ma Vie en Rose¨which was in French but with ENGLISH subtitles so we could follow it!

Sunday morning we all headed over to Tabayana Beach for more snorkeling. It was kind of cloudy and a little drizzly but that doesn´t stop us. Britta enjoyed total success snorkeling! Then Maria, Pam and Judy headed out a lot farther after Pam figured out how to cross a really shallow area of coral and we were treated to the best ever area of fish and coral. On the way back in Maria spotted the most thoughtless tourist ever, an fat Italian woman, who was actually walking all over the coral and reaching over to break big pieces off for souveniers and then she actually SAT DOWN on a gorgeous brain coral as if it were a freakin´ottoman!!! So I had to let her know that this was completely unacceptable and I was not very diplomatic about it. So Barack Obama will have a little work to do repairing Italian-American relations after that episode.

Besides the fat Italian lady I also saw the BIGGEST tropical fish I have ever seen and it was swimming in really shallow water which was so amazing. I am not kidding, these 2 fish were as big as those flying saucers that kids use for sledding!!! And they were both bright green and red. Really crazy.

Pam and Britta leave tomorrow so our Fabulous Foursome will be down to the Dynamic Duo of Judy and Maria. Love to all and I am hoping that Slumdog Millionaire wins everything!! Love, Maria