Some things we’ve learned in a week on a Pacific Island:
Touching a sea urchin leaves a tattoo on your finger. Flush immediately with hot water.
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| http://aquaviews.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sea-urchin.jpg |
Coral scrapes hurt worse the next day, unless they are flushed immediately with hot water.
Those long blackish lumps dusted with sand are sea cucumbers, not dog dirt. But you still shouldn't step on them.
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holothuroidea_(Sea_cucumber_feeding).jpg |
Humbugs are cute little black and white fish that will come up to you and nibble at your fingers and toes. Nemo should have been a humbug.
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dascyllus_melanurus |
Picasso triggerfish, on the other hand, are territorial. They will chase a creature 10 times their size away from their chunk of coral. But they are so darn funny looking that they don’t really scare you.
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| http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Rhinecanthus_assasi_1.JPG |
If you sit still enough in a pile of rocks along the shore, you might discover a hermit crab nursery. The teensy baby hermit crabs are so minute that you can’t find them unless you study the sand closely and train your eyes to ignore the movement of the ants. Eventually you’ll see dozens of these little guys where before you saw nothing but sand, old shells, and ants.
The novelty of snorkeling still hasn’t worn off. From the hotel balcony, or the beach, or even as you wade in the shallows, the ocean appears green and blue with dark streaks that look like rocks or algae from above. But as soon as you put your head under, a new world appears. Hundreds of brilliant fish have been swimming around your ankles, and you don’t realize it until you’ve got your mask on and peek under the surface. Tiny clicks or snapping noises from the fish feeding on the coral sound thunderous underwater. I can’t believe you can’t hear it from above. I can’t decide which sight I love more: surprising a particularly colorful bannerfish or Moorish idol or puffer fish from some cave in the coral, or being surrounded by a school of hundreds of iridescent blue fish that look like spangles in the filtered sunlight. I think they are bluegreen chromis.
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| The Moorish Idol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zanclus_cornutus_in_Kona.jpg |
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| The Pennant Bannerfish or Coralfish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pennant_coralfish_melb_aquarium_edit2.jpg |
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| The chromis viridis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chromis_viridis_2011.jpg |
Although hotel living quickly becomes cramped and uncomfortable when you don't know how long you are destined to share two rooms with 8 people, including 3 or 4 who think the first thing you do when you reenter the room is to jump from bed to bed, run in the hallway, and fight over the tv remote, I think I will miss early morning snorkeling expeditions and walks along the shore - and having my bed made and trash removed daily - when we do finally move out.
