Our first stop after lunch is Shark Ray Alley. We have been eagerly awaiting this since we first started planning our trip. I was a bit apprehensive about swimming with these big fish and rays�but my trepidation is short-lived once in the water.
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It's amazing! The schools of fish are so friendly, obviously used to people. It's an unbelievable experience in this crystal clear water, having huge rays and sharks circling us.
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Alan takes almost a whole roll of film. One huge ray comes right at his head while he's trying to get a picture of it swimming towards him�he gets knocked over and comes up laughing out loud!
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We play around in the water for awhile and then head off to Hol Chan for another snorkel stop. This time, it's the coral and smaller brightly coloured fish that take our breath away. We swim out towards the cut in the reef and the drop off and walls of coral are incredible. Bicho's son does some free diving, hanging upside down in the water below us and pointing to some interesting sights. I followed a HUGE beautifully coloured parrot fish for awhile, watching it catch and eat smaller fish. Photos will never do justice to what you see here!
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The current is quite strong in one place here�tide going out�and Alan finds himself right in the middle of it and struggling to get back to the boat. So, we pull anchor and go pick him up. It's our first snorkel of the trip and we are anxious to come out to the reef again later this week. We are thrilled�snorkeling here is everything we hoped it would be.
We're back at the Banana Beach dock by 4 p.m. We're sunburned, exhausted and absolutely ecstatic about our amazing day! We are way too full to eat supper, so we snack on the pastries we bought from La Popular yesterday and retire very early. Tomorrow we will take a water ferry to Caye Caulker and do some sightseeing there.
To be continued�