West Bay Beach

This is the beach we have been spending every morning on snorkeling up and down the reef.  There is amazing things to see right off the sand.  So far we have made it out past the rock on the left.  It is only about 4 feet deep near shore and then it drops to about 25 ft about half way out.  Just past the rock it drops again to about 200 ft. There are tons of different fish to see, all different shapes and sizes.  Some are very colorful and others blend into the rocks.  If you stay still and just float you get surrounded by fish.  Yesterday on our way in we saw a line of squid in the shallow water.  There is apparently a whale shark feeding near by but we haven't seen it thankfully.  So far the coral we have seen is a rust color and you have to make your way through passages until you make it to a sandy area that is deeper. Then you can swim along the edge which is where most of the fish are. The bay is marked with various buoys which indicate the passages to swim through. It's kind of like an underwater obstacle course.  The coral is very sharp so you have to be careful not to scrap your knees.  

Larry and Erna went for a dive this week and were lucky enough to see turtles.  That was almost enough to make me get my dive certification.  We were looking on the island map and there must be more than 100 dive sites around the island.

Our boat trip we had planned for last week was postponed until Tuesday due to weather conditions so hopefully we get to go.  The weather has been a mixed bag of sun, cloud and rain so far.

   

After a morning down pour we went for an Eco Tour through the jungle.  Our tour guide Lonnie explained all the different trees and how the locals use them to cure rashes, fevers etc. as well as wild bananas and papaya.  The tour took about 45 minutes as we weaved our way across 9 suspension bridges.  The only wildlife we found was a large spider and a very skinny snake both of which we would have missed if Lonnie hadn't pointed them out to us.  It was very beautiful and lush especially right after a rain.