Under the Sea

I still remember the first time my husband figured out that I'm squeamish and kinda "girly" when it comes to gross things: we were on vacation and I stepped, barefoot, on a sea-cucumber. I yelped, and loudly! The truth is, I like to swim, but I'm much happier sitting on the beach (in the shade, mostly- I'm pale, y'all!) with a book and a drink.

I was surprised how much time I spent in the water at Lily Beach. It was warm and crystal clear, which certainly drew me in! Plus, the house coral reef was just 10 meters from the shore and played host to fantastic fish, rays, turtles, lobster, eels, etc.

Above is a picture of the rays that hung out by the main dock every night for some scraps of fish. They're gorgeous, but I'm glad I never had a run-in with them when I was underwater!

We also decided to do our first scuba dive. I knew I would be nervous. In fact, I was pretty sure I would hate it. We did an intro lesson in some shallow water, and then did a 45 minute dive around the island with our teacher, Guillaume. I had the hardest time regulating my depth. When I started to get nervous, I would take a huge breath off the regulator, causing me to rise in the water. When I convinced myself I was not going to perish, I would breathe out and sink back to 12 meters, which was our target depth. Being underwater and seeing the sunlight streaming down from high above was exhilarating, but that might have been my one and only scuba dive.

I'm still kindof a chicken.