diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 55cc4d855..def0b4958 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -38,7 +38,8 @@ install:
     - conda install --yes --file requirements-extras.txt
 
     # pin h5py due to https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/7509
-    - conda install --yes -f h5py
+    # we use astropy 2.x so this is not yet fixed.
+    - conda install --yes -f h5py=2.7
     #
     # submitting coverage to coveralls
     - pip install coveralls