snorkeling

The snorkeling was the best I have ever had (and I've been three times). We usually spent a few hours in the morning and then a few hours after lunch trying out different spots to see what we could find. Our two favorite locations were Salt Pond Bay and Waterlemon Bay. Both required about a 15 minute walk, but I thought it was well worth it. Above is Waterlemon Bay, where Ben and I saw the HUGE barracuda (which kind of freaked me out).


As proof here is a picture of Ben snorkeling in Waterlemon Bay. We found a few sea turtles and were following them around the shall, grassy area as they ate. They are incredible to watch and really fun to swim with.

Waterlemon Bay beach. The beach isn't very big, but it is beautiful and worth the incredibly snorkeling.

Highlights of our snorkeling:

1. We saw lots of sting rays, which Ben and I both love. I've seen them before, but they somehow never seem to lose they draw. They are really fun to swim above and watch, although Ben and I came across one in Maho Bay that did not seem happy to have us so close, so we backed off.

2. Squid. This was the first time that I have ever seen squid. We first spotted one in Waterlemon Bay, and stopped to watch it. Then we realized that there were three others near him, but just extremely well camouflaged. They are incredible to watch, since they are constantly changing colors and patterns. Once we knew what to look for, we saw eight more in another bay and a really big one later on in Waterlemon bay.

3. Porcupine fish. The first time Ben and I saw one of these, we had NO idea what it was. Besides that it looks kind of crazy, the way it swims is very strange. The small fins on the top and bottom of its tag wag back and forth, kind of making the whole wag as it swims. They are very wary of people, so we didn't get to watch him for long, but it was about 3 feet long. This is actually a puffer fish, but we saw it un-puffed.

4. Nurse sharks. I have never seen a shark before. We had heard that people have seen them in some of the bays, so one day Ben and I went out in Salt Pond to see if we could spot one at the edge of the sand and coral. And we did, but not just a shark, two six-foot long sharks. One was sitting on the bottom and one was swimming, which we followed for awhile. They were actually very beautiful and not nearly as terrifying as I thought they would be. I was much, much more terrified of the enormous barracuda.

5. Moray Eels. I thought I would be utterly scared of seeing an eel, but actually they are beautiful. I spotted one swimming along the bottom in Waterlemon Bay, and Ben and I stopped to watch it for awhile. It was beautiful to watch and it's face wasn't that scary after all.

6. Swimming around Waterlemon Cay. Waterlemon has a small island that you can swim around and see the most amazing coral. If you swim counter clockwise, the current actually pushes you all the way around, so it is a really fun ride. After an amazing swim around the island, we swam up to the sandy part and relaxed on our own private island.

Overall I was amazed at the clarity of the water and the amount of fish that we saw each day. Ben is incredibly lucky at finding sea life, and my reading about Caribbean fish really came in handy when we kept wondering what everything was.

Proof that Ben and I went snorkeling. Check out of our awesome mask lines.

Ben taking in the view at Waterlemon Bay.