Snorkeling

I love to snorkel and fortunately had the opportunity to snorkel in some of the best places in the world.

Marlowe, Athena, Beth & Marc at Guaymas, Mexico

I had learned to snorkel on the Baja Coast of Mexico over 43 years ago in the early 1970s. Our family had lived in El Paso and driven down through the Mexico coast on vacation. One of our stops was at Guaymas, in Sonora state in northwest Mexico. We loved the beautiful beach where the movie “Catch 22” was filmed. Ed and I took turns snorkeling since we had three small children and one of us had to watch them while the other snorkeled.

The most memorable thing that happened there was that Ed saw an electric eel while out snorkeling, and decided to chase it. People kept yelling things to him in Spanish, but he didn’t understand so he just ignored it. Finally, one young lady swam out and explained to him that it was an electrical eel and very dangerous. He came back to shore.

Another interesting experience there was dinner one day. I had packed lunches for us, but a Mexican family was making home-made enchiladas over an open fire on the beach. Our oldest son, Marlowe somehow began talking to them (he knew a little Spanish from attending El Paso’s bi-lingual school. They offered to share food with us so we ate the very best enchiladas I have ever tasted, and they got to eat our bologna sandwiches. We definitely got the best end of the deal.

I remember thinking of Robert Frost’s poem as I snorkeled and saw all the wonderful sea creatures; I adapted it to my situation.

“The ocean’s lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And children resting on the beach,

And children resting on the beach.”

I really learned to snorkel when we lived on the big island of Hawaii, during the last years of the 1970s. We lived on the rainy side of the island near Hilo, but it was a short trip across the volcano road to the Kona side of the island.

Marc & Marlowe at Beach 69, Kona Hawaii

Our favorite beach was “Beach 69.” There was a telephone pole on the highway with the mile marker “69” on it, and if you turned off the road where the telephone pole was, it would lead you to a beautiful secluded cove perfect for snorkeling. Waialea beach is the official name of it and it is one of the most popular white sand beaches on the Big Island. There is a rich variety of marine life to sea, and plenty of coral around the rocky areas of the bay. There is no life guard on duty, but there are showers, covered picnic tables, and restrooms.

Diana in Kona, Hawaii 1979

My husband Ed more scuba dived, than snorkeled, diving deep to pick up items on the ocean floor. I just loved to drift watching all the varieties of fish. Once some people ran into a jellyfish which stung them, and we used our baby’s wet diaper to ease the sting.

I don’t swim well, so I always worried about my children going out too far, and once my youngest son, Marc, went out too far, but someone noticed him, and before my husband could get out to him, they had rescued him.

With four children, including a baby who was six months old when we arrived in Hawaii, Ed

Cleaning off snorkeling equipment in Hawaii

and I had to take turns snorkeling and watching the kids.

Another memorable time was when I took the children over to the beach to celebrate Pioneer’s Day (24^th of July), the day the pioneers entered the great Salt Lake valley in Utah. I thought it would be a fun excursion, and we made pancakes, but they ended up being sandy from the blowing sand. But it was still a fun time.

My last time snorkeling (to this time) was when I took my two grandchildren, Jenni, 18 years old, and James, her brother, 21 years old on a vacation to Guanacaste, Costa Rica in august 2016. We stayed at Playa del Coco beach where our resort hotel offered a snorkeling tour which we took.

My grandson, James, shows pufferfish in Costa Rica

We drove out to the big rocks in the bay and snorkeled around it. I was in my early 70s and although I wore a safety vest so I couldn’t sink, I wasn’t as strong as I remembered, but I saw some interesting fish. The guide showed us a pufferfish and a spiked pufferfish while we were out in the bay. My grandson, a much stronger swimmer than I kept finding me and checking up on me.

A Spiked pufferfish

Later the boat took us to a secluded beach where we could snorkel in shallow water and find shells. 

Snorkeling is just as fun now as it was 45 years ago.