Today made yesterday look like a dip I the kiddy pool. We dove 40 feet yesterday, child’s play, today we rocked the chimney and dove to 60 feet at Paul’s grotto. The chimney was awe-inspiring, literally, the fact the Jacque Cousteau, my idol, dove there and it was his second favorite site in the region was so cool and it was easy to see why.
At first the site seemed the same as the last but upon swimming but ten feet the site changed drastically. It went from flat to caves and hills and all sorts of exciting rock and coral formations. The best part was the chimney itself, a cave and narrow passage that leads right out. Inside we saw a massive crab, a graysby grouper and a juvenile queen angel. Upon leaving the crevice we swam out into the most colorful and diverse part dive I’ve seen. The only thing that could describe this site is totally tubular The second dive at Paul’s grotto was quite deep with the lowest point being 60 feet. The second was great, pretty flat with a slight downward slope for the most part. The coolest part of that dive was seeing the following three creatures, a barracuda, a trunk fish and a hawksbill sea turtle! The whole time we were on these two dives we did fish identification, and not to brag or anything but o have 50+ identified fish by the end. Then after a brief lunch we went snorkeling in the savannah bay and holy konoli it was beautiful.
The water was crystal clear and a lovely shade of blue and the water was full of life. There was coral anywhere from two to twenty feet deep and anything you could imagine could be found there, even a scorpion fish. We also got to learn about local invertebrates such as the flamingo tongue snail, the lettuce slug, which is really cool as it’s gills are on it’s back, and a few species of sea urchin. However, the coolest part was the 120+ school of blue tangs that were in the area.
Picture provided by Talatala, the big kahuna
