Day 6-Back to the Reef

What a beautiful day! Sun is shining and turquoise water is sparkling! We got to the first site just as a squall hit and it started to POUR! It seems to do that, short ocean squalls each day. Not to worry, we'll be wet anyway! This site was pretty rough, but Sam, our guide for the day, was terrific and found all kinds of sea creatures we would have missed. We saw a squid, some rays and starfish among other reef varieties. We headed to a small cay for snacks and drinks. Back onto the dive boat and off into the deep blue ocean. Suddenly patches of turquoise appeared then we stopped in the center of a pristine white sand double ringed reef. I have never seen anything so awesome! With 100ft. visibility there were hundreds of coral formations in brilliant purple, green, crystal, yellow and red colors and reef fish to match. It was unbelievably beautiful! The best snorkeling we had ever done! We hated to leave that spot, but Hamanasi and our afternoon river Kayak trip was waiting.

It was just a short van trip to the Little Sittee River. We opted to canoe rather than kayak so we could take more pictures and video without having to worry about getting our cameras wet. We seem to do lots of splashing in kayaks. Unfortunately the waterfront guys forgot to bring the canoe paddles. Our guide, Pedro, sent them back for the paddles and they returned with two six foot hand-carved mahogany paddles that had Hamanasi burned into the wood. They must have weighed 20 pounds each! I suspected that they had been adorning the walls of the dive shop. We struggled with them for 2 1/2 hours but managed to see 2 crocs and lots of iguanas and birds. It's a nice little river cruise, but I think next time I'll leave the cameras and take a kayak.