Snorkeling is amazing! To see the colorful fish and the coral reefs is a great experience.
At least that is what Liz tells me.
Here is why I say that: recently Liz and I had the opportunity to visit some islands in the Mexican Gulf, and with the clear waters and bright sun, it represented the perfect setting for snorkeling.
So we packed our masks and anxiously waited until we would be in a place where we could do it.
The first occasion was on a beach in Roatan, Honduras. Since the coral was in shallow waters I was able to see some of it and some fish, but I had to stop frequently to remove the water that accumulated inside my mask. I blamed it on my mustache preventing the mask from properly sealing against my face. When we were done I believe about a liter of water came out of my nose (or maybe 100 ml – but it felt like a lot).
Two days later we were going to be in Cozumel, Mexico and we were told that they had an amazing place for snorkeling, so Liz suggested I should shave my beard and mustache so the mask would seal better. Great idea.
Well, it would had been great if it had worked. The place was indeed amazing, based on what I could see during the 15 seconds I had my head under the water. Using my full brain power I was telling myself to stay calm and breath through my mouth. Breath in… breath out…
It should be easy, but somehow I got water inside the mask again, so I got it tighter and tried another 15 seconds at full mental concentration. Maybe is the size of my nose, or maybe it is my famous anxiety, but I still could not do it.
Liz was going around observing everything, like this was easy. When she saw me gasping for air, she swam in my direction and told me I needed to swim back to the shore. I still tried to persist, but she said that my eyes were bigger then she had ever seen them. She saw panic on my face. I told her to continue and I swam to the beach and stood there watching her snorkeling around. Pretty embarrassing.
I may make a life application of this experience in a future blog, but this is getting too long and I need to go practice snorkeling in our bath tub. So long.
