We woke up early this morning to go to the natural pools during low tide. The natural pools formed because a reef-y area about 100 yards off the coast filled in with sand. It's really crazy because you can just go out there and be able to stand up during low tide, even though you are in the middle of the ocean. This is a picture I grabbed from my fellow coach Erika:
If you look past her amazing eyes, you can see how people are just standing in the water. This is actually an area in the middle ocean! It's really cool.
At 7 a.m. we walked out to the beach and met this super buff dude with biceps as big as my head. He had a flat-bottomed sail boat. He and another guy rolled it down to the water, about 30 yards, using these big logs as rollers and then moving the back log to be in the front. It was old school but effective.
We hop on the boat and he unfurls the sail, and off we go! It was really smooth sailing. We got out there in a few minutes and he threw down the anchor and we jumped out. So exciting!!
Once we were in the waist-high water, the fish just sort of swam to us. We had schools of fish circling us. I felt like Aqua Man, or Poseidon! Most of them were these zebra-striped fish with yellow backs, about the size of my hand. This was great, and then we got the goggles and snorkel! I put it on and floated over the reefs while the fish looked at me. There were an arm's reach below me, but I was careful not to touch the reef. Most of the reef was dark brown, but down in the cracks there were bright pink spots. Most of the fish were dark brown with dark purple noses. There were also rainbow fish, were every scale seems to be a different color. I saw urchins in the reef too. I felt like I could have floated there all day.
After about an hour, the tide was getting higher. The waves were getting stronger and kicking up sand, so visibility was decreasing. I was the last one back to the boat! We sailed back in and paid the guy-best part, it only costs R$35.00, or less than USD$ 12.00. Incredible!
After a long shower and nap, I blogged all day. I caught up on week 3 only, sorry.
