Snorkeling

We opted for this activity over horseback riding or zip-lining. Maybe next time!

We had never been snorkeling before except trying on our own with not much to see. I wasn't feeling well the morning we were scheduled to go snorkeling and it was really windy and had been raining. I was thinking about how cold it would be in the water and would it be hard to snorkel with the big waves. It was tough to be excited.

Eventually the day got better and so we threw on our bathing suits and made our way down to the activity house next to the tennis courts. Our appointment was for 1:30pm. The nice lady at the desk said "This is your lucky day, the other group canceled so you get a private snorkel lesson today!"

The group responsible for these activities are Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment who are all nice and well trained.

We sat down and our instructor started showing us the gear. Pretty simple: snorkel and fins. Not only that we got our own under water digital cameras! 

She showed us a slideshow about how all things are connected and what fish we would see. I really thought to myself "yeah right!" that we'd get the chance to see so much. By the way, did you know that some fish's poop is what makes the sand we walk on along the beach? Apparently some fish can poop 1 ton of sand a year. Strange bit of information but interesting.

She said that they usually snorkel off the shore near the hotel but it was closed due to severe wind and large waves. So we ended up driving out to Lahina about 5 minutes away to a picnic area just off the highway. There were almost no waves and it was much warmer. Very different from where we were just 5 minutes ago. 

We strapped on our fins and got in the water (awkwardly). It took a minute to figure out how to use the fins and breathe from the snorkel through my mouth. 

As soon as we swam about 20 feet from the beach we were observing a city of beautiful coral and fish. It was incredible. Everywhere I looked there were fish. The coral came in so many different colors and saw urchins all over the place. 

After about 20 minutes I looked up and there was this enormous sea turtle! Staring right at me! I was so shocked, I started squealing. Instructor thought I was in trouble funny enough. She grabbed Kevin to tell him I spotted a sea turtle. We all just went nuts. There were about 3 or 4 total. 

We spent hours in the water taking pictures and swimming with the turtles. There was no one around. Just us and our new sea friend. It was so hard to end the fun. 

Highly recommended experience.

Enjoy the photos! We took about 300 but these are some of the better ones.