Snorkeling in the Zapatilla Islands

  Bocas Town, Panama
Monday, September 18, 2006

 

Zapatilla Islands

Today we went on a snorkeling trip to the Zapatilla Islands.  Rick, Christina (she was also stying at La Loma and arrived the day before), and myself were going on the trip with Luis, our captain and guide.  We started off in the morning, and Luis drove us through small mangrove islands.  We pulled up to one little island, and he started pulling out different sea creatures for show-and-tell.  He pulled out a sea star, a sponge, and a crab for us to see.  Then he pulled out some oysters; we thought "cool oysters."  Then he whipped out a knife and cracked them open.  By the looks on our faces we thought "oh crap, oyster brunch."  I hate raw oysters.  They are in my trifecta of nauseating foods, sharing the honors with lima beans and goat cheese.  I have had them before, and I swore I would never eat them again.  There they were, little boogery blobs, sitting before us.  Christina immediately declined; she said she was already queasy from the boat ride.  Rick and I realized that the boat wasn't moving until someone ate these oysters.  It was up to us.  So we choked them down.  Then Luis pulled up more and cracked them open.  Oh God.  Rick looked at me, and just shook his head.  It was all on my shoulders now; if we ever wanted to go snorkeling, I had to eat them.  So I took one for the team and ate the rest of the oysters, hoping that they would not be on the menu for tonight's dinner.

After the oyster brunch, Luis took us to a cove surrounded by alot of mangrove islands for our first bit of snorkeling.  He said here there were alot of cool sponges to look at.  We got in the water, and indeed there were alot of cool sponges.  There were also alot of jellyfish, which for some reason did not concern me at the time.  We snorkeled for probably 45 minutes, taking in all of the cool sponges, gorgonians and fish.  Then it hit me; it felt like I was covered in hot wires.  Jellyfish.  I had been avoiding them the whole time.  You could usually see them coming and you just got out of their way.  Not this time, I guess.  I screamed and swam back to the boat.  It had gotten stuck in my top, so it stung me all over my chest, stomach and down one arm.  It hurt really bad, but Luis rubbed some lemon juice on me and it felt better. 

Doctor fish

So what do I do?  My dumb-ass goes back into the water to snorkel more.  It hurts pretty bad at that point, and looking around I realize that there are ALOT of jellyfish.  We all decide to pack it in and move on to the next spot.  A few minutes into the ride, I start feeling hot, and then all of my skin turns bright red.  Then my lungs start filling with fluid and it is hard to breathe.  Then I feel really sick.  I start violently throwing up over the side of the boat.  The oysters return to the sea.  Everyone starts freaking out, and Luis turns the boat around to go to the hospital.  The hospital is 30 minutes away, and it really isn't even a hospital. On the way, Luis stops at a waterside restaurant and gets some rubbing alcohol.  We were speeding to the hospital, I was trying to stay awake.  Luis tells Rick to dump the alcohol all over me and to make me smell it.  He poured it on me and it felt like heaven.  When I smelled it it woke me up and I stopped puking.  It was a miracle!  I felt much better, so I told Luis to turn the boat around and go to our next destination.  I'm tough, and I wasn't going to let a little jellyfish venom keep me from snorkeling.

The best beach ever!

I laid down while we traveled to our next spot.  I'm glad we didn't go to the hospital, because the next place happened to be the most beauitful beach I have ever seen.  We got off the boat, and bobbed in the clear, bathtub like water for a while.  Then we ate some lunch in the shade of the trees on the beach.  I swear, it was the best lunch I have ever eaten!  Rick and Christina went back into the water; I wandered around the beach taking pictures.  Georgeous!  We had the island to ourselves for the most part; some people came and went, but they never stayed too long.  All too soon it was time to go again.  Luis took us to another snorkeling spot, this time more out in the ocean.  It was incredible; huge elkhorn coral canyons (and no jellyfish!)  I don't know how

Big gorgonian

long we stayed, but it must have been a long time.  I could have stayed there the rest of the day, but Luis had one more spot to take us.  Our last snorkel spot was called coral caye.  There wasn't much coral to speak of, but tons of sea cucumbers.  We didn't stay too long here, the day winding down and we were getting pretty tired.  So we got back in the boat and cruised on back to La Loma.