25 Mar--Cayos Diving

Fri Afternoon, 25 Mar. Will wanted to take me to the Moving Gardens because i told him how i was looking forward to seeing colorful coral and sponges. i love seeing the fish ... but the colorful coral is what i wanted to see. and, so far, in Utila and Roatan, i've been disappointed ... the Moving Gardens are off a rocky point and have a strong current, which keeps the corals in constant motion .... swaying with the waves and surge going in .... and going out .... we went down to 90', to a sandy bottom. Will killed several more Lionfish on this dive as well. he just doesn't miss ! and then we ascended to the "Gardens" .... it was everything i was hoping for. this was the first time, i took my camera with me diving ! i know i've been 'bombarding' you all with photos of fish .... this will be different .... i want you to see how absolutely beautiful the reef can be. so, now i'll bombard you with photos of corals and sponges ... really colorful ones ! i was so impressed ! i loved these Green Finger Sponges, they were actually more of a chartreuse color, my favorite color. i hope you enjoy this Underwater Garden as much as i did. my praises to whomever the 'gardener' was :) doesn't this one look like a center-piece on a table? of course, we did see fish as well .... and i saw my first adult Spotted Drum Fish .... as with the Juveniles, they are constantly moving, so i don't have good photos, but they are beautiful. the Juveniles do not have any spots .... so i wondered why they called them Spotted Drum Fish ... after seeing the adult ... i know why ... they are very striking, with lots of spots ! and this Spotted Trunkfish. a Hogfish cruised by .... selfishly, i thought about how good they taste :( before we finished our dive, Will let the Lionfish go. Cayos is just not a place that many people go, because it is just so damned difficult to get here! ....so the reef out here has not been abused nor misused as it has been in the more popular dive locations. after you've been here, you almost don't want to tell anyone about it ... because you don't want it spoiled, you want to keep 'the secret' to yourself. i know what my brother mean't after moving to Wyoming, when he said, "don't tell anyone about Wyoming; we don't want anyone doing to Wyoming what John Denver did to Colorado" ...i understand the feeling .... don't tell anyone about Cayos ! after we got in, i got cleaned up in my cool 'open air' shower, and started packing (again) ... and got ready for dinner. i also noticed that there was some water inside my camera housing ....... this is not a good thing. i'm keeping my fingers crossed, and saying a few prayers, that my camera makes it the rest of the trip! i'll be devastated if it doesn't! after dinner, i visited with the guys awhile, and got to see some of Mike's photography. he's got some awesome photos and has won awards. in addition to being a Dive Master, he also does Videography for customers. his underwater camera is awesome!!!!!!! check out his web page: www.crush-media.com. just as we were leaving, we had an unexpected guest. the guys said they'd never seen one of these here before. i don't want to leave this posting with that image, so i'll show the beautiful sunset we had this evening. from my terrace. then from the dock. before going to bed, i borrowed a larger 'mosquito canapy' for my bed, and also lit one of those mosquito coils ... i didn't want a repeat of last night. i'm just miserable with mosquito bites itching itching and itching :( Rio said he would wake me at 6am so we could leave by 7am for the mainland :(