Sunday October 31st:
Once again, I woke up early to go out for another dive. Just a head’s up, there are three main dive sites in Coral Bay so there will definitely be some overlaps or familiar looking shots in some of these next posts. The dive sites for today were Lottie’s Lagoon and The Canyon / Asho’s Gap (these two are right next to each other so we covered both.) I found a Scorpionfish at Lottie’s this time, which was hard to spot. Just noticed that the rock I was looking at seemed to have an eye!
To my delight there were some more Desmonds, these tiny shy boxfish, and beautiful corals.
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| Christmas Tree Worm |
On our way to find a Manta Ray to snorkel with these two curious Humpback Whales came right up to our boat. We were not allowed to hop in the water because it was a protected area, but I stuck my head over the side of the boat and was able to take a few pictures of the whales. They were at most six feet away from me and just looking me in the eye. Really an incredible moment.
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| Pretty amazing seeing its eye. |
The second site’s, Asho’s Gap, main attraction is this huge piece of cabbage coral that is where sharks go to be cleaned by little cleaner wrasse (these bright colorful fish). The sharks swim there, sometimes go vertical and swim on their tail, almost like a dolphim and just swim with their mouths open as the little fish go in and out.
(The next post has more shark pictures so make sure to check that one out too!)
Definitely a bit spooky being that close to the sharks and seeing them swim with their mouths open at you, but also an unbelievable thing to see. Actually felt pretty safe all things considered. Closer to the Canyon, was this little cave where a giant Grey Nurse Shark, apparently named Matilda, lives. We just floated a few meters away and watched as she would circle around the cave, at times swimming at us. Despite, being harmless, these sharks have some pretty intense teeth.
Definitely would not want to get on Matilda’s bad side. Here are the rest of the shots:
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| Creepy cross at the bottom! |
After several of the other divers asked me for copies of my photos, Danielle and Kye, the two dive-masters who I befriended, suggested that I offer to sell my photos on a CD. I had never thought to do that, but it worked out great! All in all I made 160 dollars, enough to get me one free dive! It was exciting being able to make money doing something I love… definitely something worth considering. When I got back to the house I met everyone at the beach for our routine end of the day swim and went back where we had a little Halloween party. I went with the traditional costume of Mexican Lifeguard.
At some point Kristen, Emily, and I ended up in some hotel’s pool with a raw egg? Silly night.
I don't see the repetition you warned about. I hope Mathilda knows she is harmless. Nice chompers. Coral and clam shots were great. Aren't whales regal? How close was the nearest house to go trick or treating? Lots of chocolate (in addition to the beer) I hope.
ReplyDeleteThose sharks are so, so scary--it was frightening just to look at the photos and the video. Can't imagine what it must have been like to have that metallic-looking creature swimming nearby and glaring at you. And all those sharp teeth. Yikes...
ReplyDeleteThe variety of corals here is spectacular. And it was quite a relief to see that spotted box fish (I think) after all the sharks.
My compliments to the ladettes on the face-painting. Beautiful job! When you sent the photos earlier, I didn't make the connection that it was Halloween--just thought it was sweet that you all decided to dress up one night. Funny!
GAH! i do not any remember nurse sharks with teeth like that. hmm, might rethink my 'whatevas! nurse sharks are great and definitely won't eat you!' philosophy. also...what kind of fish is that white spotty fish? those photos were super cool.
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