Wednesday, June 17: Snorkeling

Today we woke up to sunny skies. Even with that, it did rain a few times during the day, but we simply ignored it. It was warm enough, and the rain was fairly short, so we dried off almost right away.

We spent the morning and part of the afternoon on the beach or in the apartment. Gail went for a massage at a hut along the beach. We also hired the same woman to braid Kayla's hair (and do extensions). While that was going on we swam, sat in the rain, swam, laid on the beach, and generally relaxed.

At 3, we jumped onto an old boat with a glass bottom to go on our snorkeling adventure. Hiring the right captain was a long process. Everyone that you meet on the beach wants to sell you something. I decided to ask the apartment owner, and he called his friend who came over to explain what he had to offer. It turns out he was from the same boathouse as the other guys I had talked with on previous encounters on the beach, but he seemed to have a better explanation of what he would do for us. When he cut his price in half, we agreed to go with him.

I think the glass bottom boat, despite its decrepit shape, was the better choice. It allowed everyone to see what was under the water before jumping in, and for those not snorkeling, it offered a view of the ocean that would not have been possible in the outrigger that Robert (the previous captain) was going to take us out in.

On the way to Coral Garden (a spot off Nyali beach) we stopped to pay the guard the admission fee to the marine park. The ocean was pretty uninteresting all the way to the destination, then suddenly the floor opened up to a beautiful showroom of ocean life. We anchored the boat, donned our gear, and jumped in. Snorkeling is great fun; I highly recommend it to anyone that has not done it before.

Kayla, David, Sarah, Lisa, Evey, and I snorkeled. The others stayed in the boat. One of the crew dived for starfish, sea urchins, and other items. He brought them to the boat so everyone could see and touch them. Everything was thrown back before we left. We spent most of our time there, then moved on to Starfish Garden.

Starfish Garden was a rather shallow area, and we were a bit cautious because there were lots of large spiny sea urchins, black, with very bright silver spots on the top. We did not want to step on them. Because of the danger, we only stayed there a short time, but we did get to see a lot of very large starfish, some twelve inches or more across, and more fish.

Next, as it was getting windy and darker, we headed out to the reef. We anchored the boat in very shallow water, and got out. After walking through ankle deep water, we came to the reef, which is a coral island usually covered by the sea, but at low tide, it is out of the water, or just below the surface. It is full of interesting life. It was a little like walking on water. The reef is probably one half mile out from shore (I am not good at judging distances across water, so this may be inaccurate) and runs for a long distance parallel to the shoreline. The waves all break at the reef, and the waters from there to the shore are relatively calm. In fact, the shore is pretty boring for a seashore. We did have some breaking waves (about a foot high) at high tide, but most of the time it is less forceful than Lake Erie on a calm day.

The trip back to shore was short, which was good as we were all tired. We paid for our excursion, walked up the path to the apartment, and then started supper. We made Chapati pizzas, an interesting and delicious combination of ethnic foods. Evey popped popcorn and we made coffee. Now it is time to go to bed. Tomorrow is our last day in Mombasa. We spend the night on the train to Nairobi.