How did we almost die this time? We jumped into the Caribbean Sea and realized:
We freaked out and used life jackets to keep afloat while snorkeling (mind you we were the only 2 out of 11 looking like boo boo the fools).
We made a total of five stops on our trip. At the first stop we were planning on seeing a Giant Green Turtle, but he missed his appearance… I guess he slept in! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We did get to see some barracuda and a reef shark though! We mainly just ended up swimming around for a while and accustomed ourselves to the waters and our newfound life support: our life jackets. The second stop consisted of us exploring coral reefs with our boat captain. Monika dove into an underwater cave with our captain and saw some sick fish.
It was at this stop that we realized that swimming is NOT EASY.
^ Us when we realized how hard swimming really is.
Thankfully we went straight to lunch afterwards in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. We also got some homemade ice cream before heading back out to the sea.
On our fourth stop, we got to swim with sharks and stingrays! Now we know what you are all thinking.. but NO! We (unfortunately) did not get eaten alive by the sharks!! We swam with nurse sharks (a very docile type of shark), and our captain made sure to feed the sharks with a small snack of sardines so they weren’t hungry enough to take a bite out of any of us!
For our fifth and final stop, we went out to where the sea literally meets the ocean–the Barrier Reef! We had finally gotten used to the water and were able to ditch our life jackets and just be free in the water! Seeing all the different types of coral and witnessing all the colorful, Caribbean fish in their natural habitats was really an amazing sight to see. We even found some stingrays to follow around! Although our tour guides had told us we may be able to see manatees swimming by, we did not get to see any during our time in the water. Instead, our friend the turtle decided to stop by and say hey!
In the end, our first snorkeling experience was one to remember! We had a great time with our friends, and made it back to shore exhausted, but all in one piece (for the most part). 10/10 would recommend… without the floatie!
Written by yours truly, Kiona & Hansika