The island life is sometimes hard to explain. So I am always pleasantly surprised if family or friends come my way to experience the laid back atmosphere here. It is even more fun if they like to dive. Annet, my friend from the Netherlands, came a few years ago to do her Padi advanced course with me. She likes the island, the diving, and me too and so she came for her 5th trip. My idea is to challenge her this time and do a different type of dive than she is used to. The Wreck El Aguila is a popular diving spot, at times there are more divers than fish. For that reason we will go to this wreck before dawn. I am not a morning person at all, so it will be a challenge for me too not to miss the alarm. It is one of the three most important shipwreck dive sites off the coast of Roatan. According to the son of the former Mayor of Roatan, El Aquila was en route from Puerto Cortes, Honduras to Haîti with a cargo of concrete. The ship was wrecked near Utila, presumably by sabotage. For some years, El Aguila […]
Almost on every dive I have had the chance to swim with a turtle. They are far from shy. Mrs. Hawskbill in this picture swam straight towards me. At that moment all my camera settings were in macro, of course. But I captured her anyway. I saw the shadow on the bottom and that motivated me to be fast no matter what setting. The colors didn’t come out as I had wished, so yes why not turn it into black and white? I love her face in this photo. With her smiley hooked beak which is used to catch and eat sponges, jellyfish, algae and even fish. She likes to pose for me, like Doutzen Kroes. Like many sea turtles, hawksbills are a critically endangered species due mostly to human impact. Hawksbill eggs are still eaten around the world despite the turtle’s international protected status. They are often killed for their flesh and their stunning shells. I think she just got back from the surface to get some air. She was fast and on a mission! As sea turtles are air breathing reptiles, they need to surface to breathe. It is amazing that they can hold their breath for several […]
