Second Best Snorkeling EVER!

Kristen here – today is Thursday 5/28/09. Currently I am vegging out on Easter candy that has been sitting in our fridge since the bunny brought it! YUM! We all had an awesome day of snorkeling today. The kids and I went yesterday. Chris was supposed to come with us, but couldn’t make it due to a heat overload. He went into town earlier in the day, and didn’t realize how hot it was. He was going to pick up some eggs and soda, and didn’t bring any water. Aren’t YOU glad you don’t have to bring hydrating fluids when you go to pick up eggs??!?!? He came back to the boat empty handed. “I’m sorry”, he said. “The market only took cash. I only had a credit card, and the bank was another mile away.” The market was about a mile from the dinghy dock. He looked pretty bad, and I took pity on him. Well, I let him stay on the boat while the kids and I went snorkeling.

We went to the ocean side beach with Asolare (John, Ann and their son Colby). The walk wasn’t too far, but it was difficult carrying all of our snorkeling gear. The reefs were a way out from the beach, so it took a bit of time to swim out there. I got freaked out, because on the way to the reefs it’s nothing but blue water and rippled sand below, but you know at some point a rock formation will loom in front of you. I got the feeling that if I wasn’t careful, I would swim right into it. Visibility was nowhere near what it was in the Exumas. When we finally arrived, the sight took my breath away.

Ahead of us was a 20 foot high coral formation. It was unlike anything we’ve seen before. The biggest coral up to now were the 7 foot high mounds in the Warderick Wells Land and Sea Park. This was just amazing. The sad part was that most of it was dead. Occasionally we saw some purple fans, or some green formations, but other than that it was browns and grays. What it lacked in color, it made up in sheer size and form. There were passages with coral close on each side of you, and openings on top that opened up to larger bowl type areas. There were tunnels to swim through. After scraping my leg on barnacles a while back, I opted to skip the tunnels. Colby swam through one though, and it looked pretty cool! Kudos to Colby for being so brave!

After snorkeling for an hour or so, we were quite exhausted and headed back to shore. I swore that the next day we would force Chris to come. We didn’t have to force him though, he was quite eager once he heard how great it was. We had an equally fun time today. We went with Taua (Peter, Monica and their daughter Claudia). Peter actually found and caught a turtle today! He held onto it and showed everyone before releasing it back to the coral. It was about a foot wide, and quite amazing to see up close. We also saw two large barracuda as well. Casey’s favorite were these tiny, ½ inch long black fish with the brightest blue spots on them. The spots were so bright they looked almost neon. They were hiding in a coral formation, and you had to float above it and look down to see the fish. It’s just amazing the variety of fish that are out there!

Now we’re all totally exhausted once again. Kaitlin even went right to sleep tonight! It’s not even 10PM, and I’m the only one still up! Not for long.