Snorkeling at Concha y Perla
pretty morning, but WiFi was working so i took advantage of that and brought my Blog up to date :) .... by that time it was after 1pm :(
while i was working, Scott from California arrived, we visited and then decided to check out Concha y Perla .... a little snorkel spot with mangroves on one side and a rocky reef out front, protecting it from the big waves of sea.
Concha y Perla is over by the dock where we landed, which is about a 1/2 mile from the quiet little town of Puerto Villamil .... here's a Google Map ....
a $1 taxi to the dock, then followed the nice wooden boardwalk through the mangroves.
it is a small area that has quite a network of lava rocks (reef) out in front of it. i had read that you can scramble over the rocks, or if it's high tide, swim over them; and get to a larger area where you can continue snorkeling. so that's what we did ... the tide was in just enough that we could slide over the top of them.
the first fish of significance that we saw was this Balloon Fish, which was much larger than any i've seen so far ....
there were a lot of those black Spiny Sea Urchins as well ... and i've not seen them here ... stay away from them ...... they are nasty ... and i believe this might be the Warty Sea Cucumber that i thought i saw before .... he looks kinda 'warty' ....
there were quite a few beautiful Blue Striped Sea Stars scattered around ...
i saw a lot of Chocolate Chip Cushion Stars ....
and this bright orange Cushion Star .... it looks like the Chocolate Chip Cushion Star, but it was beautiful orange ....
on one of the tall lava rock formations out in the water was a Blue Footed Boobie ....
a lot of smaller fishes, like this Super Male Rainbow Wrasse ...
and there were a few large ParrotFish .....
we snorkeled pretty far from where we started, and saw another 'island' .... we were literally 'washed a shore' by the waves, and i have some nice algae stains on my shirt to prove it ....
this was an island where they burned white coral to make mortar ....
Scott wanted to continue snorkeling, across a bay, to another island ... but it looked like a long way and i thought the current looked pretty strong. i wasn't up for that much work; so we parted... 'woosie' again :)
i got back in the water in a nice calm bay and continued my snorkel back to Concha y Perla. i was glad i did .... i saw several Marine Iguanas swimming .... YEAHHHHHHHH ....
they do NOT use those HUGE feet for swimming ... only that HUGE tail ..... i have some video ....
it actually reminded me of an Alligator or Crocodile .... but i dismissed that thought quickly :) .... and he wasn't interested in me ...
i ran into that same BalloonFish quite a few times, .... at least i assume it was the same one, since i spent a lot of time just snorkeling in that area ....
then i saw this really cool Cushion Star .... different from all the rest ... striking ...
i haven't seen one of these since i left San Cristobal .... a Pepino Sea Cucumber ....
these little Panamic Sargeant Majors have such a pretty blend of colors .....
i kept deciding to go in because i was getting chilled, ... but then i'd hit an area of warmer water; .... or see something else .... and i'd stay .... i finally called it quits ..... i was in the water for over 2hrs .... a good day of first snorkeling here on Isabela Island.
came home, cleaned up, and went to get something to eat, ...when the power went out again .... just as the sun was setting ....
i decided to get home before i couldn't find my way, .... out here on an island, with no power .... the streets would be very dark, and i didn't have my headlamp .....
they had a candle for me to take up to my room, but after only several minutes it was back on .... it was out a total of about 30min .... not bad ....
no WiFi, ..... so i went to sleep early
No comments:
Post a Comment