A Snorkeling Trip

We are now anchored at Isla Coronado, near Loreto. We'd heard about great snorkeling on the other side of the anchorage, so we went this morning. My mom and brother wore their jellyfish suits and me and my dad just wore our swim suits. There was a gorgeous sandy, blue water cove near the reef so we anchored the dinghy there.

Once we were in the water, the first thing I noticed were the jellyfish. Jellyfish look like see-through umbrella tops with several long tentacles. It's the tentacles that touch you and sting you several times. Getting stung feels like an electrical current is running through you. I started swimming toward the reef. And sure enough, I was attacked by huge jellyfish! Most of the time, you can't see jellyfish, but these were easy to notice in the clear water. I swam back to the dinghy and stared at the bumps growing on my leg. Once they died down, I got back in.

I swam around to the other side of the reef where everybody was. By the time I got there, Harrison was cold and wanted to go back. He'd been helping my dad collect scallops, so we switched places and I helped my dad instead. While he was collecting, two big fish kept following us, trying to get to the scallops. They were pretty fearless, so we had to kick them to make them go away.

The snorkeling was great. There were tons of fish and starfish. There were needle fish, angel fish, and butterfly fish. To go from one side of the reef to the other, you had to go over a deeper part, which was between two reefs, because the reef itself was too shallow to swim over. On that route, there was a huge school of thousands of fish that swam the entire side of both reefs back and forth. The starfish were very unique. There was a five pointed one that was green with brown spikes and a pink multi-pointed one with blue spikes. Some starfish were just the normal five long points.

On the way back, my dad saw an eel. We both saw lots of jellyfish and rockfish. And then, I got stung again! This time, it was on my hands. Right away, my hands turned bright red and welts popped up.

I loved the sea life in this snorkeling trip, except for the jellyfish. I guess I learned my lesson though: always wear your jellyfish suit unless you want to get electrocuted!

Danielle (in Isla Coronado)

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