Friday, March 02, 2018

Snorkling, Well Maybe...

The weather changed about four days ago, it went from very hot and muggy to much cooler and a bit more breeze. With this change came a change in the ocean. Since early December the ocean has been clear and warm. The weather has changed, currents have changed and so now the ocean is much cooler and cloudy.

We decided to go snorkeling!
We hired a guided tour and six of us went out to explore the reefs and rock ledges of the surrounding blue waters. The guide Danny is the nephew of my usual fishing guide Gerardo Kosonoy. He owns his boat and just like his uncle keeps it very clean and in great shape.
As soon as we climbed on the boat Danny explained about the water clarity and temperature and gave us an opportunity to change our minds about the trip. We shrugged our shoulders and said, "What the heck!"
We motored out of Melaque and North around the point. We past Cuastemates and all the beaches connected with the private resort Tamarinda. At this resort, directly below the abandoned luxury condos that were destroyed by the hurricane, we stopped at a beach where Danny said we might have a chance at seeing something in the water. 
Our Guide Danny Kosonoy.
It was on this beach, a friend had told us that we would find the beach covered with seashells. We got off the boat and onto the beach and walked. There were very few shells anywhere! The shells we found were broken and crushed by the waves. Everyone wondered just what our source of this information had been smoking the day he went onto "the beach of a billion shells."
We looked at the water and it looked promising and so when we got back on board the panga we put on our snorkeling gear and entered the water.

Did I tell you the water temperature had changed?  Well, it was very cool and the visibility was really bad. so we spent about fifteen minutes swimming and were done.
Danny then took us on a tour over along the shoreline to Tenacatita where we motored up a small stream into the mangrove forest. I did this last year when I was staying on John's boat. It was still a very interesting trip. 

From there we came home. A little disappointed in the adventure, but we had a fun day. 

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