I felt that I needed to upate the snorkel maps I had put out last November. Since we've been here this time we have snorkeled from Garcia, Orchid and Green beaches. After three trips to the island I would list the best snorkeling something like this:
#1 Punta Boca Querada (off of green beach) You've got a long swim to this one but it is the very best coral we've seen so far on the island. I have a map of it below. The pink line is nothing but sea grass. The orange line is where we snorkeled. Be warned there's a strong current out in that water. Good thing we had on our vests it was a long swim. One caveat with this spot, it is access by water only as it is in the restricted area:
#1 Punta Boca Querada (off of green beach) You've got a long swim to this one but it is the very best coral we've seen so far on the island. I have a map of it below. The pink line is nothing but sea grass. The orange line is where we snorkeled. Be warned there's a strong current out in that water. Good thing we had on our vests it was a long swim. One caveat with this spot, it is access by water only as it is in the restricted area:
#2 Left side of Orchid beach as your looking out into the ocean. We saw a super huge ray out there and lots of larger fish. Since we've been on Orchid this time people have spotted rays, octopi and barracudas. I've noticed some people going out to snorkel what I'm talking about on Orchid. They return saying they didn't see much. What I think is happening is they're not getting out far enough. You really need to get out and around that point...imo. Here's a picure of what I'm talking about. We've had people tell us they've been seeing eels on the other side of the beach. Anyway..here's the map:
#3 is the isle off of Playa Chiva. We've not been to it yet this trip but we know that the west side of it is pretty good.
#4 East side of Caracas. Easy to get to and lots of juvenile fish.
#5 Last place we've snorkeled this trip is the little cay off of Caracas and Garcia. We did 3 of the sides. The surf was up that day so it was kinda rough. Lots of sea fans. Here's the map:
My battery was dead on the video cam when we were at Punta Boca Quebrada today. I wish I had some video to show. It was really fantastic. We spent the afternoon there after having spent 8-12 at Orchid. The tradewinds have been so strong on Orchid the last few days that you just can't really snorkel. I did tend to the rock sculptures though.
I'm sitting here typing this in at Casa Dos Chivos. Someone just went flying by our house on a racing ATV. Loud as hell. For an instant I thought I was back in rural Indiana where it seems like every red-neck has one of those annoying things. Jeez...
:-)
Glad you managed to snorkel out off the East side of Orchid and sorry you didn't manage to get vid footage. Fond memories of snorkelling East of Orchid last November and fairly sure it was out off the point the rays showed up.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I had battery left on my camera and got some footage which I uploaded here .. the moray eel peeked out but gave the camera the slip :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxsSXWrkENg
Good to hear that spotted eagle rays are still in evidence .. are lionfish still plaguing the area nearer the shore ?
Great video thanks for sharing. No didn't see any lion fish. We saw a huge spotted eagle ray off of that east point. It was beautiful.
ReplyDeletecurt
when I taught my eldest at the age of 5, I found the best way to deal with panic attacks if the water came down the snorkel was to have him climb on my back for a rest and to sort out his mask. This was achievable as all I would do was hold as much breath as possible and shallow breathe until he had finished using me as a life raft!Snorkeling in Nusa Lembongan
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