Tag: Video

Swimming with Dolphins in Utila

I had two dolphin encounters this week! Two days ago, the open water dive class I assisted were taken into the bay near the dive shop to snorkel with dolphins. It was amazing listening to them communicate and experiencing them swimming and playing around us in the open water. Swimming with dolphins in Utila is one of my favorite experiences.

DOlphin encounter at sea in utila

Today, we had a dolphin encounter as we were heading to our dive site. This time, I had my phone so I took some photos and video from the boat! These dolphins were super friendly – they were surfing the waves and swimming around the snorkelers. They are so much fun! I can’t recommend swimming with trapped dolphins at a resort, but if you ever get a chance in the wild, do it.

Swimming with Dolphins in Utila
Dolphins surfacing
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Living in Utila, Honduras

A little over 2 weeks ago, I embarked on my latest adventure: Professional Scuba training in Utila. These first two weeks have been exhilarating and overwhelming, but now I have more time to post about the experience of living in Utila.

Getting to Utila

Plane view
The view during my flight from Belize City to Roatan

I flew Toronto to Belize City to Roatan (that leg in a small 12 seater plane), spent one night in Roatan, and ferried to Utila the next day. It was a pretty uneventful trip, despite a slight delay due to torrential rains at the Belize City airport. I even met a kind Canadian who spends his winters in Roatan whose friends were picking him up at the airport and offered to drop me at my hotel since it was on their way. Gotta like friendly travelers.

You can also travel to Utila from the mainland. Many people fly into San Pedro Sula and then take the bus to La Ceiba, a coastal city which has ferries to the Bay Islands. Sometimes you can catch a plane direct to La Ceiba and then the ferry, which would be preferable. Transport within the country is cheap, but the buses are not always fast or comfortable, as is common in Central America.

Roatan

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Wildlife in the Okavango

We camped in The Okavango Delta for three days, which means three days of two game walks at six hours a day. We saw a lot of wildlife in those walks. No animals came and visited us at camp, which would have been exciting but also scary, so I guess we got lucky with all the wildlife in the Okavango.

The Okavango Delta

Located in northwest Botswana, The Okavango Delta is an interior wetland and a UNESCO site. Most deltas drain into seas, but the Okavango uniquely drains into the Kalahari Desert. The world’s largest inland delta, it encompasses 16,000 square miles.

The nearest city and airport is Maun, which is where we flew in and out before our safari. Botswana is 224,000 square meters and features other amazing places to see wild animals, like Chobe National Park, in the northeast of the country.

Wildlife of the Okavango

While in the Okavango, we got to walk quite close to a lot of animals, and we had the zoom lens on the camera to capture more. While we didn’t see cats like we did in Kruger, we saw hippos, buffalo, wildebeest, different kinds of antelope, wart hogs (*COOL!), and giraffes on the last day. We also saw a ton of different kinds of birds: eagles, open bills, pelicans, geese and more. If you want to read about the birds of the Okavango, I’ve got you covered.

Giraffe Okavango Delta
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