Swimming with Mantarays

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Today was our final day of the trip. Leaving on this adventure both seemed like so long ago and just yesterday. I was glad to be headed home at least. I got really good sleep, and the sickness had slowed down quite a bit. I had put on a scopalamine patch the night before to help with the seasickness later. It made my mouth dry. I also just felt really stoned in general. I wasn't sure if that was the patch or dehydration, or both.

Then we heard the drums for the mantarays. Chris didn't feel like going again today but he saw I was better and badgered me into going. As a nurse, I'd never tell my patients to do something stupid like that. But that's the same with backpacking only three weeks after surgery, right? I do stupid things sometimes. I've come out on the winning side each time so far, though. So I joined Tony and Nathan along with a group of other guests. We grabbed gear, loaded onto two boats and headed out into the lagoon. The water here, I realized, wasn't as peaceful as Coralview. I think the water was deeper, and the winds and current much stronger. I also realized I was less impressed with the employees of Mantaray. They were in no way rude. They did their jobs. But that was it. No one knew your name. No one cared if you were enjoying yourself. No one strolled over to have conversations with you. Shrug. It was a different vibe entirely and I missed the easygoing, campy Coralview singing. Even if it was the same three songs we sang over and over again!

I was definitely stoned jumping into the frigid water to chase after mantarays. Haha. I watched disconnectedly as the biggest ocean beast I'd ever seen (while actually in the water with it at the same time) swam directly underneath my fins. Basically, the employees would look for the mantarays, they could see them swimming by. I have no idea how, the mantarays must have made a subtle but still visible break in the water when swimming. There'd be another guy in the water looking as well. As soon as they spotted the mantarays, the boat would speed ahead and stop in the path of where they guessed the mantarays were headed, drop everyone into the water and then move the boats down the current. It was then up to us to swim, swim, swim in the direction of the actual path of the mantarays, though the employees were actually really good at guessing and guiding us so we were never far off. When the mantarays approached, we stopped, watched and took pictures. We could swim down near them if we wanted but we were under no circumstances allowed to touch them or get in their way. They were MASSIVE, easily ten feet or more in diameter. Tony laughed at my guess in size so maybe they were even bigger than that. It looked like they were flying. After they passed us, the boats would pick us up. The current was strong and it was amazing how far our bodies were carried from drop off to pick up, even without moving on our own. We'd load back into the boat and the process would start again. I wasn't sure if the same three or four mantarays were circling or if they were different mantarays each time. I think they were the same, though. I completely missed the mantarays the second go, and the third I managed to barely glimpse them from a distance. But my first round was amazing- he glided right beneath me, and it was seriously the most amazing experience. My sickness the day before hadn't utterly laid waste to my visit to this resort. This totally made up for it.

Chris and I hammocked the rest of the morning away outside. The mantaray swim had wore me out. I took a selfie with my camera... holy hell I looked like death! I don't think I've ever seen myself so pale and sickly. Irony was I was actually feeling better than the day before so I can't imagine how dead I must have looked then! We had to pack up all our things for check out but the boat didn't actually arrive until mid-afternoon. So we just kept watch over our things outside by the beach. Lunch was a light salad with grilled chicken, and a milkshake. Chris ate some really good looking fish 'n chips.

Eventually it was time to leave and begin our multi-part journey home. First we embarked on our three hour boat ride back to Denarau Marina. God bless whomever invented Imodium and Scopalamine patches. I sat on the front of the boat, listening to my ipod shuffle and enjoying the sea spray. I didn't get sick, and the diarrhea was still held at bay for the time. We got to the marina, collected our luggage, picked up some snacks and then hopped a bus to the airport. We were appropriately three hours early for our flight but then the computer systems crashed. The employees didn't really seem bothered by it even though I was beginning to seriously worry whether or not Chris and I would be making it home that day. They were on Fiji time. The problem was we couldn't check in for our flights because, like most airlines these days, you don't get printed tickets. It's all done by computer. So how do you prove you should be on a particular flight? I've had issues before and I always keep printed copies of my tickets. For some reason, our printed copies didn't have the correct information for the flight. And even though we had pocket WiFi the connections were still spotty. After a couple hours they finally sorted everything out thankfully. We were let into security and then our terminal. None of the food seemed good to me so I went with Burger King of all things. Just a basic burger. Good enough. The rest of the trip home was uneventful. We caught our flight, I didn't poop my pants the whole flight despite the return of the runs and we made it home!

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Photos

Swimming with Mantarays
(picture stolen from google.. this is what they looked like, tho!)

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Beautiful
Love the undersea life.