Snorkeling Isla Coronodo Take 2

Written by Carol:

Pia and Pablo really wanted us to join them the next day for a Trial 2. We hesitated, unsure that we wanted to hurl ourselves into cold and rough waters again (and watching Pia's mom hit her head was very unnerving), but they were very excited about the possibility of trying again and really wanted us to join them. We agreed and then later I turned to Mike and said, "What are we doing?" Mike said, "I know. We were captured by their cuteness." Ultimately, this turned out to be a good thing, as we had a great second day.

The biggest highlight was seeing hundreds of dolphins. I have never seen anything like it. The sea was absolutely filled with them. They were swimming at quite a clip and leaping (really awesome- they are such beautiful animals) and occasionally swimming over to race the boat. It was so inspiring to look out and think we were seeing waves, but in fact it was dolphin after dolphin.

The sun was out the entire day, which made a significant difference in terms of staying warm enough that leaping into cold waters seemed more tolerable. And no one got hurt. A big plus. We saw lots of cool fish, my favorite being the Moorish Idols, King Angel Fish, and Parrot Fish. The North Winds were starting to come in, though, so the waters were pretty rough. After I got stung by a jelly fish (small, so no safety concerns, but hurt like a devil and I had some nice welts as souvenirs), I decided I was done snorkeling for the day. We docked at a gorgeous white sand beach and Mike continued to snorkel from there. He saw a Scorpion Fish, which was pretty cool (and in his words, "One ugly fish.") I enjoyed the view of mountains and turquoise waters from the beach.

Necky took us on a nice hike and explained about the local cactus and other plants before heading back to the mainland. On the ride back, Pia and Pablo practiced their English with us and we practiced our Spanish with them. A couple of pelicans hitched a ride on the back of the boat for a ways, which was pretty cute and a fun cap on the trip.