20 Jan, Thurs

Thurs, 20 Jan THIS is more like it !!!!!!!!!!!!! Wilbur, Madi's brother, took us on a snorkel trip today. Bernardo, was there to help Wilbur keep us all in line. there were the four of us, plus Starla and Rachel; and also 3 backpacker-campers, Kristen, Colleen, and Andrew, showed up and joined us. so there were 9 .... 4 who had never snorkeled before. we took off on the back side of the island, it was really calm and we headed towards San Pedro, following the north end of Caye Caulker. going at a leisurely pace i realized how long the other half of Caye Caulker was ... 9 miles. after the end of the island, the waves picked up. towards the reef, we stopped at our first snorkel spot, Coral Gardens. the water was rough, not good conditions for first time snorkelers, but they did great. we spent about 45min there. this is a Purple Fan Coral: more fishes enjoying the coral: then we headed to Shark Ray Alley. this is where the stingrays are accustomed to being fed, as well as the nurse sharks. nurse sharks aren't really 'sharks' at all, ... they have no teeth. they are bottom feeders, and just suck/suckle their food in, hence, the name 'nurse sharks'. i've experienced this before, but for the others, it was an exciting experience. Wilbur was feeding the fish, sharks and the rays. this is a Bally Hoo fish ... it had really pretty tail fins and it swims very close to the surface.