Belize Diaries-Final Days

Snorkeling

I have never been snorkeling before and my sister wanted to book a snorkeling trip to a place call Shark/Ray Alley. The name alone made we want to pass out, but I figured if I pulled off one more brave act that would probably be enough to get me through the rest of the year. Until she calls and wants to book a sky diving trip. (I won't be home by the way) Sandi and I and a guy named Wade (he was the other non-zookeeper person besides me on this trip) decided to rent our snorkeling equipment early in the day so that we could spend all morning practicing in the ocean outside our hotel. It was much easier than I thought and we saw so much just on our stretch of beach. I was hooked.

That afternoon, our guide picked our group up at our dock and took us to our fist location. Hol Chin Marine Reserve. I happen to be sitting at the back of the boat with Wade and our guide is telling us that the sooner we get in the water the more we will get to see. He is saying this as he is throwing fish into the water to attract the nurse sharks, who are now in a feeding frenzy. Now, I sustained exactly one major bruise on this trip. This bruise was located on the inside of my upper right arm. I got this bruise grabbing onto the side of the boat for dear life while I am trying to slowly lower my body into the shark infested water. The whole time the guide is telling me the faster you get into he more you will get to see. I can't seem to convince him that if I don't have legs after the sharks bite them off I won't be able to swim out and see anything anyway. SO STOP RUSHING ME! Somehow, we all make it into the water and our guide has us follow him out to the coral reefs. We swam all around the reefs while he pointed out things to us. It was amazing. We returned back to the boat and went another 10 minutes to the second destination Shark/Ray Alley were we jumped into the water with more sharks and stingrays.
Our guide would feed the stingrays and bring them up closer to us so we could touch them. Amazing. These pictures can't even begin to do it justice.