Red Sea fishes

After almost a week away from Egypt, my memories are starting to blur together. I will try to capture the last days of our holiday before moving into the next phase of my time off work - ma famille à Paris.

On Monday Alison and I went snorkeling with the Red Sea Aqua Center. We met at their boats right by the resort and headed out around 8:30. For some reason, I have never snorkeled in nice weather, and this day was no exception. It was cloudy and windy, and while it was still shorts weather, it wasn't bask in the bright sun weather. We went to four places to see different fish in different snorkeling conditions -- the first was from Paradise Island, where you walk into the sea and directly into a fairly beaten up reef. The only snorkeling experience I had previously was in Hawaii where the message, "Don't touch the coral! You'll kill it!!" is repeated loudly and often. Here, there are so many tourists from so many places and the ecological aspect of tourism hasn't really sunk in yet, so it took some effort to get out beyond the damage caused by people and see the good fish. Fortunately our guide took a liking to me and led me out to the far reef where I saw a puffer fish (shaped like a box with rounded corners, not unlike many Russians), a giant clam (Rock Lobster!!), a stone fish, a clown fish and many, many other cool fishes.

The Napoleon Fish

The second, third and fourth stops weren't beaches, but spots to jump directly from the boat. We saw a Napoleon fish on the second stop -- it must have been at least three feet long and its lips are huge! The colors of the fish were amazing and the water was crystal clear so visibility was great. At the third stop one of the other guides brought me over to see the Morey eel coming up from the rocky bottom. Huge. Scary. So cool. By the third stop I was free diving down as far as I could along the sides of the reef. I was able to focus on smaller fish this way and look at the patterns created by different sizes and colors of fish all swimming together. Under water paradise -- no apologies for how cheesy that sounds because it really was.

The fourth stop involved jellyfish that were pink and about 6 - 8 inches long. One brushed my neck and caused little prickles on my skin - which didn't hurt as much as freak me out. I can handle swimming with creatures that have eyes and teeth, but give me a eyeless blob and I get out of the water faster than Roy Scheider.

My preference for free diving over snorkeling on top of the reef makes me think that scuba diving may be for me, so I've set it as a goal to get certified before going back to Egypt next year. Spending a day swimming amidst beautiful fish in the Red Sea (hello again Moses!) was special for me. More than once I gave thanks for my life and the crazy bundle of circumstances and choices that got me in that ocean at that moment.