Diving Into Blue

Ok, so remember when I talked about the big ticket items divers like to see? Small things are nice but when you get to see these big ticket items, it's really not too shabby! In fact, when you get to see some of the big stuff, it's like bragging about how big the fish was that got away.

So, I'm going to do some bragging right now about some of the big things we've seen this week.


We've seen a couple of sharks but they've been sleeping under coral ledges. Today, however, we saw a shark at Palancar Horseshoe Shallow that was five to six feet long. And he swim pretty close to us. In fact, if it wasn't for another diver that was swimming after it, I think that shark would have gone right under us. Oh well. I still got a great shot of him, and Greg's got some great video footage.
Green Moray Eels like to hide in crevices in the reef. This six-foot eel we found on Santa Rosa Shallow just THINKS he's hiding. He did find a hole in the reef but we're not telling him that we can see all of him.
Punta Sur Cathedral is our most favorite dive site. It's a deep dive that takes you through a series of swim thrus. The last one is a huge cavern that dumps you out in the white sand at about 100 or so feet. It's just a beautiful dive even when you don't see a darn thing but the awesome coral and swim thrus. Today, however, we had a treat like no other. Three minutes into our dive, Pingo, our Divemaster, motioned to us that he spotted a ray. We came up just a few feet and at the top of the reef, three HUGE Spotted Eagle Rays were swimming in formation. They were at least eight feet wing tip to wing tip. They swam with such ease and grace. They were beautiful and REALLY close. My picture doesn't do them justice at all. I've never seen one--let alone three- so close. I only snapped two pictures--one of which isn't good at all (hey, I'm still learning). Greg got some awesome video of them. Another diver swam toward them with his camera so they didn't stick around so long. But then they came back. Greg got some more footage of them, again, awesome stuff. We saw them for the third time--all three, swimming in formation in the deep blue sea--about 60 feet below us (and we were at 90 feet).