Sun, 3 Feb - Part 1

i'm dividing today into 2 parts because the more photos i have, the more difficult it is to load them onto my blog .... so

Part 1 - First Snorkel
Lo Loberia


kinda cloudy and looked like rain; but the taxi picked us up around 10am and took us right to the beach.   there was a uniformed official-looking guy at the entrance and wanted to know how many we were ... 8 ... if there are more than 6, you have to hire a guide .... WHAT????????   ....so i said we were 2 groups of 4 ... those who spoke Spanish argued for awhile then walked away from him.   no one ever said anything about that, and what was he going to do ???   ...he didn't speak English, and we were only laying on the beach and snorkeling ....strange way to start the day ...

we walked along the black lava-rock beach ....

then someone spotted a Marine Iguana on the rocks ....

we stumbled out to get a closer look ....    he was another big one ... 3 feet ... and i actually saw him 'sneeze' out the salt water from his nose !!!!!   COOL ! ...

we continued and were almost to the beach when we saw this one traveling somewhere ...

the waves were pretty rough and i was wondering about snorkeling for the group, when i saw the protected cove ....

no trees or anything out here, ... we set up 'camp' ... and were immediately welcomed by a Sea Lion that inspected us and then moved on ...

i got ready and headed for the water ... the sun finally came out and it was hot.     i wore my 50SPF long sleeved water skin/shirt.      i wasn't 10 feet from shore, in water 4' deep, and i spotted a turtle who looked like he was trying to hind under a rock .... and just laid there.   

i tried to get someone's attention on shore, but they weren't looking.    Finally i got Will's attention, and they eventually all followed.    but by that time the turtle had started swimming around .... but no worries ... there were more .... i thought this was a turtle by another big rock, ... until i realized it was a very large turtle, not a rock ... and a smaller turtle ...

there were no shortage of turtles here either .... i am still amazed at how many turtles we saw .... they were literally everywhere ! 

Will came by and we took photos of each other with the turtles .....

there were a lot of fish too .... a Streamer HogFish ... they are very dramatic to see ... their long fins, with subtle colors, and big bump on their head ....

this is the first Moorish Idol i've seen ....   pretty colors and very long dorsel fin ...

ok, then i saw these turtles .... obviously males ... with HUGE tails .... that is his tail out the back with a little curve at the end ...

i mean they were GIGANTIC ...

i saw another one of these Sea Cucumbers.    i stopped at the Dive Shop, but their book was on the boat, so i still don't know the name ....

it's so hard not to take photos of the turtles ... there were so many of them. but i never get bored with them, ...hope you don't either  :)

but i forced myself to snorkel around looking for other fishes ...   i went  out by the rocks where they were surfing .... YIKES ... the water coming into our little cove from out in the sea was VERY COLD ..... i didn't spend much time out there before searching for warmer water ...

these are new fishes for me ... BarberFish ...

new > Reef CornetFish  ...reminds me of a cross between a TrumpetFish and a NeedleFish ...

then huge schools of some of the 'usual suspects'  ....YellowTailed SurgeonFish ...

i had gotten cold and started heading in to warm up .... when i saw this poor turtle that had a big scar where she had lost a piece of its shell ....  but seemed to be doing fine ...

but that was nothing compared to this poor little Sea Lion ....

a boat?    ... a shark?    ..... sad, but it seemed to be able to swim pretty well ...  i wonder what his fate will be   :(



i got out and warmed up in the sun for about an hour ...

Part 2 coming soon   :)