Turquoise It Is

Yesterday we went to Turquoise Bay with a group of friends. It's a beautiful spot.

They sure picked an apt name - turquoise it is.

Debi had made arrangements for Alejandro to take us out in his boat. Don enjoyed the view.

Debi and I loved the boat ride out to the reef.

Snorkeling over part of the reef, looking for the lionfish Alejandro had spotted. He was down pretty deep, hard to spot

Beautiful water, beautiful snorkeling. The coral is much prettier here.

Alejandro has constructed a very large shark pen now populated with 14 nurse sharks (not dangerous), several turtles, stingray, blue trunkfish and at least one lionfish (see above). This guy was hanging out on the ladder into the tank. Bob flipped him off with the tip of his fin and he came up close to the surface where I could grab this shot.  This is a side view. His head is facing left. Not the greatest shot, but you can see his stripes - mostly black and white, like a zebra, and his fringes. Those fringy projections from his back are the poisonous ones - do not touch!!

One of the turtles coming up for a breath. The water in the pen was rather murky, so I stayed up top where I could get better shots.

We didn't see any turtles out on the reef but some in the group did see some stingray swimming past. The coral out around "The Gate" was fabulous. Much healthier and more colorful than on the west end of the island. We also saw lots of starfish, conch, sand dollars and colorful fish, although nothing very large. It's a beautiful spot to snorkel and commune with nature.