Lilly_annew's travel blogs:
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Snorkeling Heaven
Entry 15 of 29 | show all | print this entry |
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Today was our big snorkeling trip to Shark Ray Alley, Hol Chan Marine Reserve, San Pedro and the Coral Gardens. I saw so many fish I can't name them all. Also, a large number of coral I've never seen before. This was a fantastic trip! I ran my hand across a Ray, I think our guide Salvador said it was a Butter Ray but, I was so excited that the name didn't really register. The guide had a piece of fish in his hand and he held it just above the ray's mouth. The Ray would follow his hand where ever he moved it. It was soft and fishy feeling. Apparently, these Rays are very tame. We also swam with nurse sharks. They were about 5 ft. long. They make a sucking sound when they eat because they are a bottom feeder. I assume that's why they call them nurse sharks. I thought they were very cool looking.
Salvador was a really good guide. He got into the water with us and pointed out things we wouldn't see normally. He got a big lobster to come out from under a rock so we could see it. That's the first time I saw a lobster. Usually they only come out at night. I received about an hour of one-on-one guiding from Salvador I think because I was showing so much interest and he obviously got a kick out of showing things to people. Salvador has this wand he uses to point at things of interest. My favorite part was when I played with the octopus. Salvador saw a hole in some coral with a bunch of shells piled in front. He recognized it as an octopus home, good to know. So, he cleared out the shells with his wand and poked his wand into the hole. Soon, tentacles came incing up the wand. I guess the octopus had a good grip on the wand so Salvador had me tug on it to try and get it away from the octopus. I could not pull it away from the octopus. I finally had to let go of the wand because I was running out of breath. It was low enough that I had to dive below my snorkel. The octopus decided to come out and investigate. It swam out a little way and then stopped. Using the wand, I was able to gently keep him where I could see him. He changed color about 5 times while I was watching him. Then I got brave and decided to try and touch him. That's when he inked. It reminded me of the young octopus schoolmate from "Finding Nemo" when his buddies surprise him and he whines, "Ah, you guys made me ink." It looked just like that scene.
I saw so many varieties of coral that I've only seen in PBS specials. Fan corals, brain corals, elk horn coral. Really too many to remember. A kind of Fiery coral that stings if you touch it. There were also these tube worms called Christmas Tree worms that had a shape of a Christmas tree. When you touched them they would retract into their tube. Dave said he wished our Christmas tree could be put away that easily. We also stopped for lunch at San Pedro on Ambergris island. Madonna must have written that song before all the changes because San Pedro is a crowded, haphazard zoo! It was not very pretty and there were so many vehicles (mostly golf carts) but also vans sipping down the roads. It was noisy, not peaceful. I like the relaxed, peaceful, go slow, feeling you get fro Caye Caulker.
All in all, we had a jam packed say and I'm plum tuckered out! We are leaving for San Ignacio Tomorrow. It took us most of the night to decide what we wanted to do the next few days. We decided not to rent a car until the end of our trip if we rent one at all. That way we wouldn't have to stay in Belize City the last day because we could return the car at the airport. We are catching a bus to San Ignacio tomorrow. More thumbnails ...
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