Only a few hours left on the island as we leave early in the morning.Bryan and I head for the north in search of some fish. Although we brought all our underwater gear, we have only used it once for about 45 minutes in the whole ten days. All of the land looking, working and research left little time for filming fish. We had hoped to get in some scuba but the outfit of our choosing had a broken boat. The one thing that Bryan really wanted to do was get the gear in the water one last time.
Bad weather an a few wrong turns left us at 4 in the afternoon which is not necessarily good for filming. That and after driving bumpy roads my mild vertigo was threatening to make me car sick. Determined we ended up back at the Columbus monument at a shallow cove at the base of that hill. Not too hopeful that we would see much, but not giving up we parked the car and hurried our gear to the water (lack of time and a desire to avoid the multitude of mosquitos that are about this time of year). We are merely snorkeling but with gear in hand we get into the shallow water.
OMG.
What a surprise. Not only were there lots of fish there were BIG fish. Alas, the rest is going to sound like a fish story. Too bad. And pictures won't prove anything because it is very hard to tell scale in a shot (unless you stick your finger in it).
Fish of every kind and color swam in this aquarium like environment. At one point I spotted a puffer fish that was probably a foot long (later excitedly explaining this to Bryan he asked "Unpuffed?" Yes, unpuffed.) He saw a grouper so large that it made him pause and reflect on the fact that we were the invaders and possibly just another addition to the food chain. I had to same reaction after having my head above water only to stick my face back in to confront an eighteen inch barracuda. But all was well and each fish checked us out as if we were just another fish.
Breathtaking.
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