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We woke up this morning to beautiful blue skies, perfect for a day out on the water. The entire group was grateful that we didn't do this day trip yesterday under cloudy rainy skies. Waiting an additional day was well worth it. After another delicous breakfast at Amor y Cafe, we all met at Ragamuffin tours for our 10:30am departure. There were approximately 50 people and we were all divided into 3 boats. Daniel told us that we were going to be on a catamaran. However when we walked up to the boat, it was definitely not a catamaran. Despite this slight disappointment, we all made the best of it enjoying some fresh fruit and soaking in some sun as we ventured off to our first snorkeling spot of the day. We pulled into an area where there were probably about 20 other boats. We weren't at the reef but just a sandy grassy area but as we all jumped in, we were in utter amazement with how many sting rays there were. We snorkeled around for the next half hour trying not to get hit in the face by someone's flipper while also trying to avoid suffering the same fate
as the Crocodile Hunter. Sometimes the rays would come near the surface and would literally be right underneath you. I was afraid of pissing one off and having it's stinger rip into me. In addition to the rays, there were hundreds of fish but most exciting was the presence of sea turtles. Our second stop on our snorkeling trip was at Shark Ray Alley, part of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. Drawn by the food left by local fisherman and the food provided by the snorkeling tours, Shark Ray Alley is a place where hundreds of sting rays and nurse sharks congregate. Not longer after our boat captain turned off the boat's engine, they through some food overboard and within seconds, the surface of the water was covered in nurse sharks trying to get a piece of the action. We were told the nurse sharks were harmless but I will admit to being a bit nervous to jump into the water with all the sharks mulling around. Once in the water, the sharks never really got close and it was nice to just watch them scavenge with the sting rays along the sandy bottom. From here, we were off to
our third and final snorkeling stop of the day. For this stop, we were pretty close to where the waves were crashing on the reef and the water was much deeper. Our boat was divided into 2 groups as we were lead into the reef. Unlike the other 2 stops, we ventured pretty far from our boat for this final snorkel. We were instructed to pay close attention to our guide as it was pretty easy to get seperated. Our guide, led us through the reef and pointed out various reef dwellers including moray eels and sea turtles. The depth of the water here allowed those wanted to free dive to venture into a few small caves. Just as we were finishing up with our final snorkel, the grey skies that were rolling in had finally let loose a light rainfall. The sail back to Caye Caulker was relaxing despite the light rainfall as we enjoyed ceviche washed down with some rum punch and reggae music pumping from the radio. Dinner tonight was our final group dinner before the tour officially ends tomorrow morning. We all gathered for a sub-par dinner at Brisas Del Mar before once again hanging out
on the hotel rooftop for one last time as a group. We all shared stories of our favorite moments of the trip while drinking the night away. Slowly, people started to retreat back to their rooms for the night. Eventually, it was just me, Daniel, Lindy, and Nikki to finish off the rest of our alcohol and enjoy each other's company one last time.
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