Snorkeling at Elephant Rock . . .

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Today we’re in Manzanillo and a crew tour was offered. Of course I signed up. I was especially excited that the tour was offered in this port. Manzanillo is an industrial port, so there’s nothing to do right by the ship. You can take a shuttle into town for a bit of shopping, but not much. This port has been a solid internet day for me - either at a local restaurant or at the internet café. So I was very happy to get out and actually see something.

It was a nice group of crew who had also signed up for the tour. We boarded a double-decker catamaran and sailed for about an hour to a peninsula. The sun was shining but there was a slight breeze. Perfect weather. I mostly sat out at the front of the boat and enjoyed being in the sunshine.

By the peninsula where we headed to, there is a large rock formation called “Elephant Rock” because it looks like an elephant drinking from the water. (Can you see it in the picture?) Near Elephant Rock is where we stopped to snorkel.

The visibility wasn’t that great, the water seemed to be quite stirred up. But when I stuck to the more shallow areas, there was still a lot to see. Lots of coral, plenty of fish. As I swam along, I realized this was the first time I’d been snorkeling in the Pacific Ocean! Maybe that was why there were so many types of fish I’d never seen before?

A lot of the time on snorkeling tours, whether with guests or with crew, most of the people don’t know how to swim properly to snorkel. This means a lot of being kicked and bashed around. So I tend to move away from the crowd as much as possible. At one point, I looked out of the water and one of the guides was near me. He asked if I was okay and I said I was great. Then he said to follow him so I did. Myself and one of the theatre techs, Wesley, were the only ones following him. And boy am I glad he did!

The guide kept diving down to the bottom and bringing up all sorts of crazy critters. First I held a Sea Spider. Considering just how spider-like it looks, it felt nothing of the sort, much more like a star fish does. Then he brought up a blowfish. That was pretty cool. Wesley and I took turns with my digital camera (I love my camera!!).

While swimming around, I’d seen this one type of fish, it was a beige-like colour with spots like a leopard. I’d wondered what it was. It looked interesting. Later, the guide dove down and brought one of these fish up. As soon as he got closer to the surface (and closer to me) the fish suddenly puffed out to have spikes all over it! I literally exclaimed out loud through my snorkel I was so surprised! Then the guide let it go to swim back to the bottom and I watched it morph back to it’s original fish shape. Crazy. I was told by the guide then that it’s fittingly called a “Puffer”.

Back on board the catamaran, the guides working at the bar took a liking to me. They gave me a flower for my hair and kept pouring me drinks when I hadn’t ordered any. I had to tell them to stop serving me cause I had to work when I got back! But I very happily sat out at the front of the boat again with my drink and my camera and the sunshine.

As we neared the ship again, everyone kept saying how they didn’t want to go back. I certainly didn’t either! It was such a good day. It’s really great to get out and see something and feel a bit of peace.

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