Day 3 - Shark Alley & Hol Chan Reserve

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Today's snorkeling is through Ragamuffin Tours. We paid $80USD for the both of us to do a half-day snorkeling tour. We left early in the morning to hit 3 spots: Coral Gardens, Shark and Ray Alley, and Hol Chan Reserve. We boarded a cataraman with 10 others. Hol Chan was one of the best snorkeling I've seen. There were HUGE schools of fish, sting rays, nurse sharks, and beautiful fanning coral. Since V is a great swimmer, he went as deep as the scuba divers who were looking closely at sharks. When V and I were alone, he went to touch a nurse shark which then darted out toward me. I panicked, desperately swinging my arms back and scraping my leg against coral (sshh don't tell) causing some bleeding. I thought, great, now I'm going to attract more sharks with my bleeding leg.

V was touching sting rays as well. Why.

It was really nice to swim in the warm Atlantic water and seeing beautiful fish. We also saw eels and turtles. The wildlife either seemed accustomed to the invasion of snorkelers and divers OR the waters are still considered untouched and naive, unlike the waters of Hawaii, where hoards of people often scare off fish. We were able to swim up close to many of the fish, even to one that I swear was as long as I am!!! We didn't have our underwater camera during this time...too bad!

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Photos

off to the reef!
our hair looks pretty gnarly. it was THAT windy. ;)

v's used to standing on boats
i like sitting down on moving objects

modeling again
v's hot.

dinner with the wisconsin family
Rainbow Restaurant graciously cooked the grouper caught by a member of this family. We had it prepared in different ways..mmmm...

rice & beans, salad leftovers
a staple on the islands. where's the kimchee?!