Down There

I went snorkeling with David and Gina at the Indians, which are a bunch of rocks with great snorkeling around them. David and Gina are my parents' friends from Colorado. I have known them my whole life. They have two horses; one draft horse and one quarter horse. Also, they have two dogs; one is an Alaskan Husky and the other is a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog named Crosby. When Crosby was a puppy, I would snuggle with him in his bed. David and Gina are visiting us right now.

The three of us went to see the fish. I dove, kicking to get me to the real site. Looking down, I saw coral and fish everywhere. The fish were cool. Some were big and meaty looking with beautiful stripes and dots across their flanks. Other fish were small, tall, and very thin. The thin ones would tilt sideways and peck at the rocks, looking for morsels of food. Other fish were long and thin, with a dull grey color. Parrotfish are very colorful too. Males are purple with pink, blue, and white streaks across their bodies. Whenever you get near them, they zoom away. They don’t even use their fins they just glide through the water after one stroke. Squirrel fish have one big eye on each side of their heads. They are white and red and watched every movement with rapt attention. They are very cautious fish; apparently they are scared of being attacked. There were too many other fish to describe and name.

The coral was also very interesting to look at. Some coral was hard and strong and did not sway in the current. That coral grew in all different directions, making weird-looking shapes. One of them was called brain coral. It looks like a human brain because of all the intertwined strips of coral that by themselves look like spaghetti. Also, there was seaweed-like coral that swayed in the waves. They looked like hands waving in slow motion under the sea. Other coral was paper thin with holes through it. It is purple and really beautiful.

The way everything was laid out was amazing. Boulders, small caves, pretty coral, looming ledges, and sandy patches made an astonishing landscape for snorkeling. Small rocks lay in patches, and boulders rested in the fish-infested waters. Steep ledges hung over the sandy bottom, making small caves where fish hid. To see the fish, I dove and looked on the underside of the ledge. To me, the landscape (or waterscape) was the most amazing.

 

Diving is a fun part of snorkeling. When I dive, I flip until my head is down. Then I kick, and do a slow gentle glide down. Then, cruising the bottom, I weave in and out of the rocks and coral. When I run out of air, I start paddling up to the surface, blowing out as I go. I really love snorkeling. – Jack Rabbit