We have had two really awesome days of snorkeling, but that doesn’t give me a lot to write about. I don’t take a camera when I snorkel because it’s too much trouble but I did pull some good pictures off the internet so you can see what I’m talking about. Punts Uva is going to be one of my favorite snorkeling locations. The water is safe, the visibility is good and the reef is big, interesting and easy to swim to. I can also go alone so there are no rules and no one to set a time limit on me except for Bill who is in charge of our scooter unless I want to walk a couple miles back to the hotel. I’ve been snorkeling while Bill dives, and it’s super fun. Yesterday, I saw a turtle, a huge sting ray, a small reef shark and a sea snake. The stingray I posted above is a relatively small one. We’ve seen a couple of them. The big one was in relatively shallow water so I was able to swim down and sit on the ocean floor in front of it.
Reef Shark
Green sea turtle
Today, I think I saw the same little sea turtle – it’s not very big so I suspect it’s the same one. It probably lives in the area where I was snorkeling. It seemed less worried about me today and I floated peacefully beside it for a while. As long as I wasn’t moving much, it watched me but didn’t seem too worried. I also saw a peacock flounder, which was really pretty. They have yellow and blue circles so I thought it might be mimicking a blue-ringed octopus. Those are some of the most toxic animals in the world, but apparently they only live in the Pacific, so I guess the little flounder had rings for a different reason. It’s weirdly similar to the octopus though.
Peacock flounder – they are weird little creatures with eyes offset to one side.
I’ve seen a bunch of these sea centipedes. They come in different colors.
Most of the sea urchins here are dark purple and about the size of a ping pong ball, but today I saw a blue one that was baseball sized.
I’ve also seen some interesting little jellyfish. Most of them are also about the size of a ping pong ball. They are mostly clear but some have pink or blue trim or pink frills inside. It’s really surprising how colorful everything is. We’ve seen lots of parrot fish, blue tang and a bunch of other colorful fish. The coral also come in all kinds of different shapes and colors. Brain corals are the most common but they come in brown, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Brain coral
I have been taking advantage of the French bakery every day. They have really good chocolate eclairs. Last night I had a chocolate mousse with passion fruit filling. It was a weird combination but pretty good. They make good macaroons too. We’ve met interesting people. Bill dived today with a German guy and yesterday with a French diver. I’ve gotten quite a bit of French practice here.
Our air conditioner quit this morning. It’s not that hot here at night but it’s humid. The hotel gave us an extra fan so it should be okay. The repair guy is supposed to come back tomorrow and try to fix it.
My only real complaint with this side of Costa Rica is that everything is crazy expensive and the food is not very good. Every meal, even just pizza, costs between $40 and $70. The pizza we had yesterday was greasy. I had a veggie I burger today that I couldn’t eat. There aren’t a lot of things that I can’t eat, but this was pretty bad. We had really good Indian food and some pretty good jerk chicken from a Jamaican guy with a food cart. The French bakery has good pastries, but otherwise, the food situation is a little bleak. No place is perfect.
Traveling with Emily! 