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Published: December 17th 2014
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We book a half-day snorkel trip to Laughing Bird Caye National Park. The boat comes to pick us up at our dock. We had met a couple from California the other day while we were bike riding in town and lined up the trip with Ocean Motion Tours. Another couple from France was also on board.
We head out about 35 minutes, past several small islands and arrive at our destination. It's a very small island, 1.4 acres in total, really cute but smaller than I expected. It has a covered picnic area with about 10 tables, a small building housing washroom facilities and some lovely beaches on either side. Pelicans everywhere, maybe a couple of hundred, just floating and fishing. They are completely socialized, not afraid of people or boats, just going about their business of the day. We pull up to the shore and jump off the boat, snorkel gear in hand.
After a brief history of the park from a SEA ranger, Sonny, our tour guide tells us to get ready for snorkelling. A little rush of apprehensiion rises up inside me, I've snorkled twice before in Cozumel, maybe a total of 20 minutes in my
snorkelling career. I mention to Sonny that I don't have much snorkel experience and maybe I should use a life jacket. He asks me if I'm a strong swimmer, these are definitely not words I would use to describe my swimming abilities. He says he has a floatation device I can use in the boat. Everyone puts t-shirts on so (we don't sunburn our backs) then Sonny leads us over to the other side of the island. We make our way across a pile of dried coral and into the water. He hands all three of the ladies in our groups a flat floatation (like a cushion) with straps on either side to put your arms through, I am glad it's not just me alone using the training gear. In a shallow sandy spot a few feet deep we are told to put on our gear for our 40 minute snorkel adventure. 40 minutes? Yikes! I see another group of snorkellers out in the water, they seem so far from shore. Oh my gosh, can I really do this? I try to quash the panic I am starting to feel inside. I don't want to be the crazy lady that freaks out on the snorkel tour. The 76 year old lady who rented us our condo told me she loves to snorkel. If she can do, I hope I can too!
I get my flippers on and tightened, ear plugs in, mask and snorkel on, ok I think I'm ready. Ian takes a quick check over me then tightens my mask a bit more, hopefully everything is going to stay on. Then... here we go! I make Ian hold my hand, which helps me feel less scared and we start snorkeling along the top of the water. It's pretty cool, I see gigantic mushroom shaped growths (coral) and other shapes similar to cactus, and flat fan type things growing. Little fish are swimming around all over the place, some bright blue, some yellow. My mask is not leaking and I'm starting to calm down my breathing through my snorkel.
Sonny dives down and picks something up and brings it up to the surface. He explains it's a sea cucumber. Cool. We snorkel some more, the floating device is making it easy to float although I'm still holding tightly to Ian's hand, he is not getting rid of me that easy. For the next 40 minutes we float around the coral reef, we see red snappers, groupers, baracuda, parrot fish, a spiny lobster and a bunch of other fish I don't know their names. We all stick together as a group. Sonny pointing stuff out here and there. By far this is the coolest underwater adventure of my life. A little salt water gets in my snorkel, but I don't freak out or panic, I just put my head out of the water and dump it out. The ocean is warm but I am starting to feel cold and water logged when Sonny finally tells our group that we are heading back to shore and I know that I've made it.
We dry off and warm up on the beach then eat a snack before heading back in the boat to Placencia. The couple from California had a go cam and promised to send us some of the underwater pictures. So far this is the best and most fun day of our vacation and I'm proud that I snorkelled and they won't have to change the name of the place to Screaming Freaking Out Lady Bird Caye.
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