Snorkeling the Reef at Puerto Morelos

 

Eight intrepid snorkelers left the campground early today to sample the reef off Puerto Morelos. Pat and Mike rode with Elaine and Reed while Rob and Shirley rode with Helen and Me. It’s only 38 miles or so to P.M. and we were there in no time. The weather forecast for today was for 70% chance of rain and I was concerned. Around 3:00 AM we had some rain and at daybreak we had some heavier rain and I started to worry a bit. Actually, the weather cleared and we had bright sun but breezy weather for the trip.

Here the group is preparing to board the boat under the watchful eyes of Juan and Julio.

Helen is looking happy to be doing something other than reading. She’ll get her time in the water today!

Most of the group is ready to go!

A very nice picture of a trumpet fish courtesy of Elaine. She seemed to see a lot more fish than I did, and she was able to document her find with pictures. I did see a trumpet fish.

Here is another of Elaine’s pictures and I never saw this triggerfish. Nor did I see the barracuda or many of the fish she saw.

Miscellaneous colorful fish hanging around the coral. No, I missed this, too.

After the dive we gathered for lunch. Checking out the menus around the square in Puerto Morelos, we found the prices very high. The restaurant “Amor” was recommended to us and I asked for directions from one of the guys at the snorkel kiosk. He told me where “Amor” was and asked if we really wanted Mexican food or seafood. When I replied “seafood”, he told us about a little restaurant right on the beach just a short way. We ended up at “La Playalita” where the food was very good and a fraction of the price “downtown”

Not shown are a bunch of pictures I took of everyone getting back on the boat. Since I do not want to make enemies of this group, those pictures will never see the light of day. I hope that if anyone has such an unflattering picture of me, they will do the same.

All in all, I think we all had a good time. The current at the first location was brisk and it took an effort just to hold a place in it. To make actual headway required an extra bit of work. We all survived, so it was never that bad. Just one more interesting day out of Xpu-Ha.

Later.