Day 11: Costa Maya - Our Snorkeling Adventure (part 2)

After walking around the Malecon, we are ready to get back in the water and cool down.  Our second snorkeling adventure turns out to be a better than the first.

As you can see there are lots of Blue Tangs here:





Blue Tangs have a white or yellow spine on the base of their tail as seen in this picture:


Hubby finds a live conch:


A Blue Striped Grunt on the left and a Stoplight Parrotfish (Initial Phase) on the right:


Dark Blue Tangs, Grunts, and Stoplight Parrotfish:




Grunts, Blue Tangs, Blue Head Wrasse, and Banded Butterfly Fish:


And they seem to be going in one direction.  Okay, there’s a trick to underwater photography.  Patience and watch the light underwater:







There’s always one or two swimming in the wrong direction:







Do you know how hard it is to get them to turn around and pose together?  What a photo op!

Day 11: Costa Maya - In and Around Mahahaul

 We spend some time walking around most of the Malecon in Mahahual. A rather large piece of driftwood on the beach:


Watching a segway tour go by with a fellow cruiser:


The rather rustic rooms at Blue Kay:


Single one room huts at Blue Kay:


A view from the huts:


New rooms being built at Blue Kay:


Looking back along the Malecon:


Nice, huh?


The north end of the Malecon with a view of the Caribbean Princess:


Also we find the lighthouse:


We head south a block past Blue Kay where we find this new building/hotel:


Mangos anyone?


A private beach club, Pitaya:

Great view from Pitaya:  

We pass by Tropicana beach club:  

Entrance to the Krazy Lobster beach club:  

The cart full of candies:


Snacks, anyone?

Further down the Malecon and another view of our ship, Caribbean Princess:  

Day 11: Costa Maya - Our Snorkeling Adventure (part 1)!

Where do I begin?  It’s still chilly as in somewhere in the 60s.  Hubby is waiting for me to jump in the cold water.  I take my time getting my snorkel gear ready.  I figure in five minutes the temperature will go up another 1 degree towards warmth.  Still, I can’t wait to get in the water no matter how cold it is.  

Here I am taking a quick photo op before dunking myself.  Can you see how the clear the water is here:


Love the early morning light dancing over the star coral:


Purple sea fans are abundant here:


Light dancing over the brain coral:


A young purple coral:



Here's Ocean Surgeonfish:



Here’s a Blue Striped Grunt:


A young Blue Tang:

Ocean Surgeonfish:



A Banded Butterfly fish:


Ocean Surgeonfish:


Blue Tang and juvenile Clown Wrasse:




Sea Fan:

If you look real close over to the right side of the coral, you can see the quills of a sea urchin:  

I am heading back to shore and I happen to look down and see an interesting coral.  So, I thought.  Then the coral blinked back at me.  I quickly turned on my Nikon camera and had a photo op with this Yellow Stingray:


It’s moving pretty fast, but I manage to keep up:


I close in on it and then it swims away from me:




We spend an hour snorkeling and decide to get out and have what appears to be second breakfast or an early lunch.  We are given Spanish menus and decipher the items on the menu.  Good thing I can remember some Spanish from my high school class. The waitress only knows bits of English and we manage to figure out what we want.  The other thing is to figure out the conversion from pesos to USD $.  We dine on fresh grilled fish tacos and guacamole and chips.  Life is good!

I forgot to mention that our entrance fee into Blue Kay is $5 per person which includes a lounger and free drink.  They gave us bracelets to wear for the day.

After lunch, we wander around the Malecon and head south along the beach.  What would be construed as the next block or two, we notice the area changes from being quiet to more upbeat.  The music is more lively and louder and the beach is extremely crowded.  There are many more resorts and restaurant as well as vendors selling their local crafts.  We also came across a few vendors selling fresh cut mangos, popcorn, fried plantains, and one guy selling colorful candy from his wheelbarrow.  Yes, you heard me right.  I have pictures of all this which I will post when I get back home.  Right now I’m focusing on beach and snorkeling pictures.

Next up…our 2nd snorkel adventure in the afternoon!