The REEF
Thursday, April 22nd, 2004So Jim returned from his diving trip yesterday and he had a great time. He saw sharks and huge turtles and lots of things.
Today we went on a snorkeling trip just for me, since I can’t go by myself and I need Jim to help.
We got on the boat at 8 and it took about 2 hours to get to the outer reef.
The boat was full of Americans, which was a shocker. We figure that the only place you find Americans are the higher-priced package deal tours and things like that, because they are too afraid NOT to do that.
It seemed like everyone was from NY, and we talked to some cool retired professors from Vermont. Our catamaran went thru a small storm and everyone came inside and one of the teachers hurled into a bag right next to me. I had to calm myself so I didn’t get sick but after the storm passed, everything was fine.
The first snorkel was right off the boat. I was surprised how wavy the water was. So I put on the flippers, life jacket and got a mask and Jim jumped right in and I started to climb in down the ladder. The water was so wavy and it felt cold (even though it wasn’t that cold) and seemed so deep and it was so scary. I don’t feel like talking about it anymore.
Here’s a picture of the reef. Not a very good one; arial shots are awesome, though. You can see a little where the reef is by the different colors.
So next we went to a tiny sand hill in the water and they took us out on the promised “glass bottomed boat.”
“Glass Bottomed Boat”
Classy, huh?
We got to the sand bar and were able to walk right into the water. Finally Jim got me to calm down and go under and it was great. The water was less wavy but still a wavy enough to worry me. It was quite shallow but there were still lots of pretty fish.
The coolest thing we saw were a couple blue-spotted rays. He swam right towards us and you could see his angry looking little eyes. It was awesome.
Jim took a bunch of pictures with the disposable water-proof camera we bought.
This is what one looks like (I took this from another site).
Here is a pic of the ray from our cheap underwater camera.
A close-up from the same pic. The colors are dreadful even after I photoshopped it and you can’t see the bright blue spots. He has mean little eyes, though. I gave it the finger and made myself laugh and water come in my mask and I freaked out.
[read on]
Kelly