As we descended, there were about 3 nurse sharks swimming around, and a bunch of really big groupers. Same sort of coral fingers, but the fingers were taller, so swimming between them was like swimming along mini-walls. Rob was shooting macro, so I was looking for small stuff, but without a lot of success. I found a bunch of nice worms (Christmas tree and feather duster worms), and some arrow crabs. Also, some little gobies perched on the coral. But nothing spectacularly cool. When we returned back to the shallows, there were even more nurse sharks swimming around, at least six. There were also lots of fish in the shallows. Not huge schools or anything, but there were tons of different kinds of small fish swimming around just above the reef. The divemaster had ascended before us with one of the other divers, and he moved the boat so another boat could tie into the mooring. So Peter shot a bag and we drifted on the ascent. The boat was waiting for us when we ascended.
During the surface interval, we saw one of the earlier-mentioned fishing boats cleaning its catch at the beach, and there were two rays (a Southern stingray and a roughtail stingray) loafing around waiting for food. There were also a bunch of smaller fish fighting for the bits.
Dive 2: Cypress Tunnels
I didn’t know the name of this site when we dove it, but it makes sense. We were being rather slow, since Rob was shooting macro, so at some point the other divers were out of site. But I could see bubbles, so I followed them, and found this little overhead area. I thought maybe it was a swimthrough, since I could see bubbles percolating through the reef. I swam towards it through a little channel between two fingers of reef to check it out, and saw no signs of light on the other side. Just a tunnel going to who knows where. I guess this is one of the “tunnels” referred to in the name. This site also had a few nurse sharks and a ton of big grouper. They are more menacing-looking than the nurse sharks :) We also saw two turtles, but neither seemed interested in sticking around to play with us. We also saw a stingray hanging out on the bottom. Rob swam over to it to try to take a picture, but of course he just scared it away. I shot a bag and we did a drift ascent. Israel had already ascended with the other team, and picked us up.
After that, we decided to try the restaurant at our hotel, Monkey Bites (or Pepper Bites, as Rob called it, after his favorite monkey), for lunch. I had fish tacos, which were good. The tortilla was really tasty.
Later in the afternoon, we went downtown for ice cream at DandE’s frozen custard. Okay, I guess it was technically frozen custard. The owner is an American guy (a Pennsylvanian even!). He asked if we were familiar with frozen custard, and I said yes, and I guess I looked at him like it was the strangest question anyone had ever asked me. He explained that many people were not, so he had a spiel about it. Anyway, I got mocha, and Rob had cookies and cream (sooo predictable).
We also went to a cybercafe downtown to check our email and stuff. The guy there seemed to not like us very much. We ended up going there a few times over the course of the week, and each time we were greeted with a scowl.
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