By Rachel

While Jon ventured out into the SCUBA world, the girls and I have been satisfied with snorkeling and all the amazing things we can see from the top of the water. The weather has not allowed for endless snorkeling – between rain and waves and murky water, we have only had a few opportunities to get out. But we have made the most of the good days and have snorkeled at West Bay, West End and Utila. See photos below! (When you hover over them, you will see a caption with more information.)

The reef is absolutely amazing with so many colorful fish of all sizes, corals, anemones, eels, sponges, and sand dollars. Some of our best sights: a sea turtle (Jon) and a squid (Rachel). We’ve been studying marine life (in the water and on land), and our learning increased exponentially when we had a guest speaker come talk to us about the reefs. Mickey Charteris is a professional photographer and diver, and has published an amazing book called Caribbean Reef Life. We learned so much from his presentation and we continue to learn as we regularly thumb through his book.

We look forward to a few more snorkeling outings before we go. I really want to see a sea turtle!!

We got to join the scuba divers for a little excursion away from the beach.

Jon and Sylvia snorkeling off the boat. It was a beautiful place to snorkel!

Warming up after a nice snorkel.

We had to wait for the divers to finish on a really rocky boat. I did not feel so good…

Snorkeling from the beach in West End.

Snorkeling off the dock in West End.

The reef at Blue Bayou on Utila

Awesome snorkeling at Blue Bayou!