Vanuatu (part 2) - Swimmin' with the Fishies

Luganville, Santo, Vanuatu

The weather on Saturday, September 3, was cold and rainy. That kind of weather doesn't lend itself to outdoor activities.  So I took Matt on a walking tour of the town and we stopped in several stores just to see what they had. Quite often the store had what the store next door had.  But it was fun to wonder through them, chatting, holding hands and enjoying our time together.  Then we found out about snorkeling on the little island of Aore just off the coast of Santo. Because of the direction of the wind, the Aore coast was calm, so we borrowed some snorkel masks and ran to the little boat dock that takes us over to Aore island and resort. We made it, but just barely.  We were the last ones on the boat.

Being the last ones on the boat meant we were on the front row. Between the rain and the choppy water splashing up over the boat, we were getting soaked.  We didn't mind.  But then the salt water spray started stinging our eyes and making it hard to see. What to do, what to do...?
We wore our masks the rest of the way.  It worked like a charm.

When we got to Aore the water was indeed calm and the beach was empty.  Perfect.

We walked down the beach a ways and found a good spot that wasn't in front of the resort beach houses.  I think I've only been snorkeling one other time in my life.  That would have been somewhere around 1993.  It took a while to get the snorkel masks to work right and to learn how to walk with the flippers on. 

There isn't a whole lot of grace when wearing snorkeling gear on land.  Matt told me it's easier to walk backwards with the flippers on.  So I tried that and soon we were swimmin' with the fishies.  It's a whole different experience to move when you're in the water. Here we are taking turns going a deeper.  The water was much more clear than it looks here.


The water makes us look more pale than we really are... or maybe it's the lack of pigment in our skin.  It's hard to say which one.

Another lesson we learned right off the bat is this... it's hard to smile or to look cute when wearing snorkel masks.  We did our best.

This being our first experience snorkeling in the open ocean, we were pretty excited at seeing as many fish as we did.  I'm sure there are places in the world that put Aore beach to shame, but we loved it.  Here are some cute zebra fish (can you see all 5?) and a star fish that looks like it's trying to climb out of the coral.

 Here's a closeup of some zebra fish.  


Matt was super excited when he found this blue starfish.   It was as snug as a bug in a rug, or as cushy as a fishy in the coral.  He went down to get a closer look.

We ended up finding several more of these blue starfish.  They really are a beautiful color and a kind of velvety soft.


Matt brought one up and... put it on his head (of course...?) 

Here's Matt and the starfish saying "Hi!" (or "How!" depending on your nationality.)


I had my turn with the starfish, too.  Not sure why my hair looks blazing red here, but my Grandmother would have been proud.

We swam and snorkeled and enjoyed several hours of ocean and beach to ourselves.   We took the boat back to Santo island and headed to our hotel for some hot chocolate.  The perfect way to end a super fun day.