As another sunrise casted rays on the water, I groggily woke up to realize I need to rush. We had a tight schedule to change, eat, and get on the boat for our dives. Once again, the dive locations were within sight of the resort so hats off to the guy who the guy who chose the location. The first sight was hugging the coast left of the resort, which is renown for its natural rock formation you ca swim through and the onshore geyser. Although the initial drop into the cave was cool, the rest of the first dive was uneventful for me. I did see the usual Sargent major cruising around in a sandy crevasse. The second dive was exhilarating as it immediately started with the sighting of a lemon ray upon descent. It lodged itself under two pieces of coral which looked like golf balls on short tees with sand in between. Once we got back on the boat, Mr. Allan identified the ray for me which I then realized the short tail is a key characterization of the lemon ray and not the ray having it chopped or damaged. Another awesome spot came just before I headed up for the safety stop, a pair of Caribbean reef squid appeared and just cruised around us. Although they let quickly as I’m sure our large size scared the small squid away, I loved the experience as I have never seen wild squid before. We then took the short ride back and got lunch then headed to the turtle farm/hatchery. I liked the place for about ten minutes till I felt bad about the restraining conditions they are limited to. The five foot long turtles were crammed into a pond which looked like a Dallas lake, visibility was at a minimum compared to the crystal blue water in the ocean. I also found the positioning of the turtle butcher to be oddly close to the turtle center making me think most are sent to the butcher. I did end up going into the gift shop and buying some gifts for the fam but no detail can be given since I sure they read these. Later in the day, we embarked on a night snorkel were a large tarpon stalked us for the whole time. It even swam under me but personally I’d rather have it on the other end of a fishing rod than be swimming with it. We didn’t see any thing of similar size, there were some shrimp to the light. That pretty much wraps up today, but I am looking forward to three dives tomorrow including a deep dive and a visit to stingray city.
