Overall...

So, overall, the trip was a success and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would, especially in the rainforest. It was amazing, and I'd recommend it to anyone!

I'd like to thank my family and friends for supporting me and allowing me to go onto this trip. I'd like to thank Operation Wallacea for making my time in the rainforest and whilst diving, feel great and fun, and I'd love to go back to Honduras, or any other country they conduct research in, because they do amazing work, and should definitely be more well recognised. The staff in the rainforest and at Roatan were great people and I had some great times with them. I'd like to thank Bolton Area Divers for helping to train me for my diving, ready for me to get my qualification. I'd also like to thank TWLOHA for donating me their shirts for me to wear in the rainforest; they do incredible work, helping thousands of people worldwide.

The trip has been a very memorable moment and I'll never, ever forget it. I can truly say I'd go back and volunteer in the future. I'd also hope that I could do my 3rd year at Uni with OpWall anywhere to help with my Chemistry course.

And I'd like to thank any of you people who have visited my blog on occasion to see any updates etc, you've all helped me carry on!

I hope to keep this blog for my CV and so I can refer it to future employer to show that I can keep something going for a long amount of time and then delivering after events and deadlines have been met. I might use this blog in the future if I ever go back with OpWall to anywhere.

Photos! New York City!

As a treat from our teacher, we were given a 3-day trip to New York! We arrived in Newark Airport (in New Jersey) and drove to our YMCA to settle in.

The next morning we went to Grand Central Station to take photos and get some food. We then were allowed free time to spend walking through New York City,

Although we didn't get to go to Liberty Island, we got on a ferry to Staten Island and went right past it, here's the statue herself!

We walked past a lot of famous buildings and lot's of people. There were a surprising amount of preachers (see old man in photo above) that were all actually quite funny.

Here's the 9/11 Memorial, visited by thousands daily.

A friend and I went up to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building and the view was spectacular.

It was surprising to see how large Central Park actually is.

The underground glass Apple store was odd.

We went into Central Park and it was amazingly beautiful. The walk through the entire park was quite good, I saw a lot of dogs and a huge pack of joggers all running back and forth across the park from 5th Ave. to 8th Ave.

Being a big fan of the show "Cake Boss" I naturally felt happy seeing the Carlos Bakery store in Times Square. We went in and got cakes (obviously) and various other sweets.

Waiting for my number ton a while, but the brownie i bought was absolutely worth it.

Walked past the New York Times building which was surprisingly quite massive.

Here's the main entrance to Grand Central, which was the meeting place for all of us after we got our 4-5hrs of free time.

For lunch one day, a couple of us went into Dylan's Candy Bar and it was very colourful and fun-looking! We got food and and the desserts were all amazing.

This was the "Poppin' Cherry Coke Float" that was worth the $6 i spent on it. Eventually, I regretted buying the sweet thing, because wow did it make me feel ill. "Good" regret though.

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Times Square at night was amazing!

Lots of people, lights and random street acts!

Our last day consisted of a morning free time before flying home from Newark to Heathrow, and then a coach back up to Manchester. We walked past Grand Central Library and I bought a couple Pop! Figures from Barnes & Noble (U.S. equivalent to UK Waterstones?)

Overall, NYC was amazing, and I'd probably go back for some clothes shopping etc, because it seems that the majority of stores sell things for cheaper than if we bought them here in the UK.

Photos! Roatan and the EcoDivers Resort & Dive Centre!

We got our pick-up trucks from BC to San Pedro Sula and then drove to the docks to get onto a very large speedboat. The ride was awful and the majority of passengers were vomiting into the sick bags provided. Luckily, I didn't throw up, but the ride was the worst I'd ever experienced on the sea.

We arrived a nightfall, so these photos were taken the days after etc.

It was hot and beachy and I loved the whole experience! The island is technically in the Caribbean, so the weather was glorious and the sun was always out!

The had a small floating platform in the middle of the swim area for us to climb onto and sunbathe.

The place had WiFi (unfortunate for me) and was very high class. We mainly sunbathed around our diving training and expeditions.

The entire island was beautiful.

We were allowed to go into town and buy some souvenirs and food!

This little ice-cream and smoothie bar was the place to stop at going back and forth through the town.

The 5 days we spent there was among some of the best days on the trip. I didn't take many photos due to being quite exhausted after our diving and because I was being distracted topping up my tan, as well as attending 2/3 daily lectures on marine life.

We also went diving down to 18m and I am not a qualified PADI Open Water Diver!

Photos! Last Day in Cantiles!

So we all went to the waterfall to have a refreshing shower before trekking back to Base Camp!

The water was freezing cold, but worth the 20 minute hike to it.

The view was beautiful.

It was a very hot day so we all just chilled out for an hour or so, on a large boulder.

We then packed all of our stuff, went back to camp, had lunch and set forth for Base Camp!

Photos! Second Day in Cantiles!

So we decided to get up super early (5:30am) and go on a 7  hour Herp Walk, up to the highest point in Cusuco National Park! Up there is what they call a "Dwarf Forest" where all the trees were just about 5'7" tall.

Here is a picture taken from the highest point in the rainforest. The sheer amount of green and beauty of Cusuco was amazing.

Whilst up there we found a lizard! The Herp Walk was somewhat successful.

The walk down was harder than the walk up due to the vast amount of drops and declines.

About 300m away from camp, we found this green and black lizard!

We set up the campfire and dried our clothes as well as eating our dinner and drinking some late night coffee, all to some Bob Marley reggae in the background.

Here's me, by my hammock, repping TWLOHA, who gladly donated me the shirt for Honduras! Donate to them, they do brilliant work.

Photos! First Day in Cantiles.

The 4 hour hike up to Cantiles was horrendous, but the camp itself was amazing!

This is Jeff the Salad Beetle, who all the camp staff know about because he doesn't leave the area.

The Herpetologists found a Common Green Tree Frog in the tree canopies.

This was my hammock! It was surprisingly very comfy and I'm glad it had a rain cover and a mosquito net.

More hammocks owned by the locals and staff.

Some people stayed in tents.

There was roofed campfire and dining area, that was amazing to sit by each night.

I'm going to post more photos about the next days tomorrow!