Final Snorkel, going home

Last morning here.  Check out is at 11:00AM, pickup is at 1PM.  Definitely one last time for a snorkel.

It is more overcast this morning, and a little bit cooler, or maybe we are just used to the hot and humid now after being here a week.  Spent another hour snorkeling this morning then off for showers and packing.  So much easier to pack when leaving, except half of our things are soaking wet!  Oh well we will deal with that when we get home.

We order lunch at the hotel, say our goodbyes, and we are off to the airport.

Arrival at the airport and we see where all the money has gone into updating the airport, it is all in the departure section.  Still under construction, but it is going to be very nice when completed.  We had all checked in online, and all with carry on luggage only.  For whatever reason when we arrived at the airport we could not get through security without a printed boarding pass.  The machines were not working so that meant getting in line even though we had already checked in.  Luckily it was not much of a line like we had on arrivals.   I for some reason had not saved my exit document correctly, so filled that in again, only to discover our exit documents weren't taken either.  

Uneventful flight to Toronto.  Goodbyes to Joey in Toronto as she is spending the night here and we are making a connection to Halifax.  An easy goodbye as we will see her again in about a month when we head to Fernie for a visit.

Arrived in Halifax to cold and a mess to scrape off the car.  There had obviously been freezing rain at some point, followed by a few inches of snow.  Made for a bit of work for Andre to scrape the car.  Decision had been made that we would drive home to Moncton even though we were arriving so late in the night.  A one hour delay and a nearly 3 hour drive home got us back home at 6AM.  A very long night but good to be home.

Would love to go back to Puerta Azul again.  Talia is still the owner, but a man named Antonio has been added since we were last there, and they now have a son that is around 2.  Hopefully it won't be 7 years between visits this time.

One last breakfast. this time under cover as rain has been predicted for the morning

Our cottage for the week

Ron waiting for us for one last outing

my snorkel buddies

3 lobster plus one ore on the side

Juvenile French Angelfish and a pair of spotfin butterfly fish

Our one and only spotting of a spotted eagle ray. A bit far away and murky water but not complaining. 

Why they built a new pier, I guess

a aerial view of where we snorkel and stayed

great breakfasts

A good library and a few games. I took out a book but did not read 1 word. Busy snorkeling and playing games 

What the old pier looked like

3 sisters, working as cooks and servers

Coconut shrimp for lunch for Wendy

Deep fried snapper for Andre. So happy

They installed hammocks today

spotted a triggerfish off the pier. Did not see any snorkeling, so this was a bonus

One last blue door picture

Road side assistance 

on the way to the airport

shipwreck in the bay near the airport

The new part of the airport

our WestJet plane change to a Swoop plane. 

Started raining as we were leaving

The reef further east than where we were staying

On the way to Toronto

Joey treated us to one last taste of Honduras

 

Cevecheria Restaurant for our last night

 Our last full day and a star fish has decided to greet us right at the pier this morning.  We have seen it around the pier the last couple of days, but today it is very close.

Nancy and Wendy are the only walkers this morning.  We decide to go before breakfast as there is lots of rain in the forecast today.

Weather looks good after breakfast for a snorkel, wow we have been lucky with the weather.  One last stop at the channel marker where we have discovered really really tiny fish are hanging out.  

The starfish has moved about 50 feet in 2 days

A was going to pull Ron into the water

Lobster hidding

These baby sergeant major at a channel marker, Less than 1 inch big

Queen Angel fish

 indigo hamlet, first time I have seen one of these

Barred hamlet, also a first

juvenile yellowtail damselfish

Back at the nursery on the way back to the pier, like swimming in an aquarium

The green, bubble-like structures are a type of algae, likely Caulerpa species, which can sometimes overgrow corals on disturbed reefs

Joey spotted an octopus on the way back to the pier from the nursery.

drying the towels LOL, very very windy today

Some of the boat traffic we see

Looking east from the end of the pier

believe it's a hawk but too far away for my small lens on my camera to take a good picture. We also saw a few vultures during our stay and 3 parrots one day

available to use, free of charge. Nancy went out a couple of times while we were snorkeling. 

Our beach

walkway up from the beach

Beachfront units, Ron and Nancy had 1, we were further away from the beach at the entrance of the property

Us at La Cevicheria, a new restaurant near us where we had our last dinner

Fish tacos for the girls

Ron was going to have a ceviche until he saw I was ordering the parrillada. Everything was tasty but would like to return and have a ceviche which was highly recommended