I'm sitting on the porch this evening...
...and I want to post about the events this morning. My first diving adventure!
One of my goals for this trip is to try new things (how cliché, right?), and I think in the half week I've been here, I've done a good job. I've tried a lot of fish (even lobster...bleh). I've ridden on a tiny, 12-person plane to get to the island, even though that wasn't much of a challenge; I was stoked. And now, I can say I've completed my first scuba trip!
Several of us got our diving certs before leaving the U.S., so we could dive here in Belize. We wanted our first dive to be shallow (~30 feet), so we could get comfortable in the water before doing an 80-foot dive. So, we went to Hol Chan Marine Reserve, and it was absolutely beautiful. I don't have any photos of marine life to share yet (underwater disposable camera, meh), but I have this one of me putting my gear on:
The water is so clear; it's impossible to tell if you're two feet under or 30 feet. We saw sea turtles, several sharks, stingrays, an eagle ray, and an eel--and other creatures whose names I do not know. Check out these two bizarre creatures:
We also did some snorkeling at Shark Ray Alley. As the name suggests, this site attracts a lot of nurse sharks and stingrays. The nurse sharks swarm the boat when you arrive, but when they realize you don't have any food (fish, in case you're wondering) for them, they ditch. Consequently, our dive master warned us to jump in as soon as the boat stopped--or you'd miss out. So, of course, I throw on my fins and mask/snorkel and am the first one in the water. What a weird feeling it is being surrounded by 20-30 nurse sharks, measuring 4-6 feet long, by myself. Pretty wild! They disappeared very quickly, leaving behind lots of stingrays.
Overall, I had a fantastic time:
And afterwards, the group of us who went diving grabbed some lunch on the beach:
On the way back to the hostel, we saw a child playing with his dogs. Love this:
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