Yesterday morning Eric and I got up early to snorkel in a beautifully quiet, crystal clear ocean that hadn't yet been touched by the day's boats and swimmers. Unfortunately, it was a colder day than usual, with the wind blowing pretty hard making the usual still water bumpy with little waves.
We headed out anyway, in hopes of seeing the brilliant green moray eel we had seen a couple days before, along with my friends Mr. Bojangles and Sr. Barracuda. We were in the water for less than 2 minutes before I felt the first few little burns on my arms and legs. They were short-lived stinging sensations, just enough to make me kick my legs or wave my arms. We continued forth only to find that not only was the visibility not very good, but our little bay was full of tiny dime-sized jellyfish. The further we swam the more stings we felt. Eric even got stung on the mouth, not once, not twice, but three times! It was enough to make the most adventurous and tough snorkelers swim as fast as possible back to the beach.
After discussing our experience with some locals we learned that the "West Wind" ALWAYS blows in the jellyfish. Thanks a lot for the warning!
We decided to spend the rest of our day hiking in the gorgeous botanical gardens instead of being stung by mini jellyfish. The hike was hot and humid, but absolutely beautiful. Along with the fabulous flora, we also saw a number of cool lizards and a large rodent thing with round ears and brown fur. We got a few bug bites, but they were nothing compared to the thousand little stings of those jellyfish!
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