After we rehydrated and filled our tummies, we drove down the road a block or two to Baby Beach. Wow, what a beautiful spot – the beach is entirely protected from the open ocean’s waves by piers that look like they are made of rubble. The water was purely aqua, the sand was white, and the breeze was invigorating. If you were moving at all, it was also beastly hot, but the water (which had to be above 85 degrees here) took all the heat away.
We paddled around in the water for a while, then noticed a group of snorkelers all concentrated in a small area. One of the guys said there were many fish there, much bigger than what he had in his aquarium back home.
Off to the car to grab our snorkeling gear and back out we went. Within a minute, I swam through a school of thousands (literally) of little minnow-sized fish. Once I got halfway to the “hot spot,” I found the cutest little purple fish with an orange tail. Maybe 2 inches long, tops. And then I saw some white fish that exactly matched the color of the sand on the ocean bottom, a whole 5 inches long. “Wow,” I think.
A few minutes later, Sharon is waving at me, pointing down and making a “Fish This Big” sign with her hands. I swim over to her, eyes in the water. Wow-O-Rama. Boy, Howdy. School of blue fish, each the size of a dinner plate. White fish big enough to eat my cat, Libby. A pair of yellow and black striped angel fish. A spotted white-black fish shaped like a triangle pillow, who acted a bit cranky after I chased him with the underwater camera. Back in my scuba-diving-days, I got pretty good at taking deep breaths and diving straight down to get past the buoyant stage, then swim forward, fast, using the dive fins for speed, before popping back up to clear the snorkel and take a breath. I did that quite a few times with camera in hand, chasing fish for a good picture.
It seemed like only minutes, and Sharon is indicating it’s time to go back. Somehow it has become later than 4pm. We head up to the car, spread out some beach towels on the seat, and start back to town. (The car is a little bitty Dihatzu, and Caitlin has a picture of it. Take an American Suzuki Samurai, shave off a few feet in length and several inches in width, and there you have it. But it did have air conditioning.) Get gas, bring the car back, and head back to the ship.
