Tour day. Signed up what I thought was a snorkelling tour. Got in the boat and had a quick chat with a young couple that thought it was the same. Three snorkelling destinations, we'd be gone most of the day. The weather was overcast and starting to rain, but I was still excited.
First destination. Hmmm, look like we're headed for Dolphin Bay. Maybe just a pleasant side trip? About 5 other boats were already in the area idling along and it was obvious they were onto the dolphins. There were only a few though - I counted 5, could have been 6. Not near the league of Baja Mexico. It was an odd site as well. No waves to speak of, just a gentle chop to the water. The dolphins were behaving like whales (yeah I know, whales are dolphins too). Meaning that they would surface, exhale, inhale, dive for about 30 seconds to a minute, repeat. No jumping, no horseplay, no quick in/out of the water. Seemed odd to me.
After a few minutes a few boats turned off their engines and just floated near the last sighting.
The driver of our boat then cranked the engine up to about half-throttle and starting circling the fleet. Within seconds the dolphins were in out wake and putting on a show. Sorry to report my camera wasn't capable of overcoming my atrocious video skills, so this is the best I got, just before the theatrics.
Onto the snorkelling, let's go!!! Next stop was supposed to be Zapatilla Island, and uninhabited National Park and sea turtle nesting ground. Great, should be some excellent snorkelling there. But first......lunch. Really? One hour into the tour and we're stopping to eat? and it's not even 11am? 40 minutes we sat waiting. I should also mention at this point that the tour guide did not speak any English. Only three people on the boat did, and our Spanish comprehension wasn't quite cutting it.
Finally we were back in the boat and headed for Zapatilla. Not a pleasant ride. About 4-6' swells caused some pretty heavy landings. Took about 20 minutes to get there from the lunch spot. The driver dropped us off on the shore, then parked the boat just off-shore. No instructions that we could understand, except that we would be here until 2:30. Three hours, sounds great. Except the waves were WAY too big for any snorkelling. Visibility in the water was only a foot or so.
A few people set-up on shore, and others started hiking down the beach. I did the latter, might as well see the island. I walked half-way around to where the island faces the Caribbean Sea. Nice enough beach & view.....if you're into that kind of thing.
Interesting texture to this piece of driftwood
And it had a face!
Took some pictures, went for a swim, then sat on the beach chatting with the young English speaking couple. They weren't too impressed by this either.
We need to go that way, back to Bocas please
By 2:20, everyone had made their way back to the boat ready to head back towards Bocas and (do I dare hold out hoping) the snorkelling spot. The ride back was a bit smoother, but we still took our share of lumps.
Again we stop at the same restaurant on the water. Another 40 minutes for a late lunch/snack. During our stop I notice the boat driver picking up some snorkelling gear from a nearby shed (I had brought my own of course). Well, it's about time. After lunch we all pile back into the boat and take a 30 second ride to a spot within earshot of the restaurant. This is the snorkelling area. If we'd know that 4 hours ago, three of us would have stayed behind after the first lunch and not gone to the island.
Loads of time to snorkel though right? Wrong again. We got about 20 minutes. Not kidding. I complained about the trip when I got back and received a partial refund. No amount would have been enough, but you just have to let these things go and move on. I'll do that after writing this post.
As for the snorkelling, it was very high quality. Here are the best of the pictures, and the reason for the post title.
Nature or Jackson Pollock?
The two largest fish I've seen while snorkelling
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