March 6th, Thursday

Looking East on Little Maho Beach again.

We lazed around in the morning. But hey, it’s vacation and we were in no particular rush. That was the official plan. We didn’t schedule anything to do on purpose. We get plenty of planning at home.

Rich explores the rocks.

In anticipation of his usual “sink like a rock” style of swimming, Rich rented a wetsuit. The extra buoyancy was exactly what he needed. Even then, he was still skeptical during his first time snorkeling.

The sand was amazing to watch.

Two hours later, I could hardly drag him out of the water! He has always enjoyed salt water fish and aquariums, For him, snorkeling was just like being inside the aquarium! We saw several different types of coral, including brain coral, purple sea fans, blue tangs, and hundreds others that I couldn’t even begin to identify.

Rich suits up for his first snorkeling adventure.

We even spotted a mean looking barracuda protecting his territory. I had been warned by a fellow snorkeler to stay away from them because they are very territorial. He must have seen how I liked to dive down to the bottom to get a closer look at the underwater life. I’m not entirely sure what a barracuda could do to a person, but I decided to take his advice and not find out.

I head down for a closer look.

After snorkeling, we headed back to the tent to get out of the sun. Two hours without a sunscreen refresher was definitely pushing it for my “fair to albino” skin. I was right. By dinner, the upper back of my thighs were an interesting shade of reddish purple.

A beautiful sea fan.

We spent the time before dinner discussing the “handbook” we found waiting for us in the tent. The handbook is an amazing “business plan” for eco-resorts. It lists what Maho Bay Camps does and why they do it. There were quite a few things that we didn’t think of. It made us think that rural Iowa needs something like this. Maybe an artist/outdoor enthusiast eco-retreat?? Hmm. . . You never know!

These fish were everywhere! They kind of reminded me of tetras.

I also got Rich started reading “Animal Vegetable Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver.

Brain Coral – not even close to the biggest one we saw!

As usual, check out the gallery page for full size versions of these photos. And stay tuned for more!!! We haven’t even gotten to the REALLY good stuff yet!!

1 Comment »