Hawaii 2010

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos and videos from Don in AZ. Make your own badge here.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Swimming with the fishes.....and a special moment

This will be my last Hawaiian pictureless post as we head home tomorrow. I look forward to sharing some
of my favorites from the trip. Today the car stayed quiet and we got snorkel gear at 9am. First we played in the lagoon next to us and were surprised by the variety of beautiful fish in there.

Around town all the business ventures related to triathlon began to set up their booths, tents, displays....this is very big business. I love free enterprise. We have truly been surrounded all week by athletes from all over the world and heard families speaking so many languages while dining.

After lunch we went to the main dock area where all the action begins this week. We were told that the water of the reef there produces food that draws the fish in numbers, and we were completely amazed by the colors, size, and sheer numbers of the varieties of reef fish we saw with our snorkel gear.

The complete surprise that awaited us when we reached the beach was in intimate encounter with a 60 lb young monk seal in a friendly and playful mood. He loved to swim with us and spin and stare in our face
above the water, no touching, but he gave me a playful nudge in the back when I ignored him.

Only when we got in did we find the seal police insisting we not make friends as they are an endangered
species who need to be fearful of humans or they tend to get killed for pelts and meat by unprincipled hunters or fishermen. Sad, he or she was precious.

See you back on the mainland.

No comments: