Snorkeling off Ramon's Dock and at Boca del Rio

Twice last week I took Liam snorkeling off the dock at Ramon's Village (Lochlan did not want to go). A surprising number and variety of fish hang out there, primarily because they feed the fish, but also because they've expended a fair bit of effort to create artificial reef structures that provide some habitat. On our first trip, we saw two enormous southern stingrays fighting over the remains of a dead jack. We watched them from just a few feet away until a barracuda arrived, at which point we promptly got out of the water.

Two massive southern stingrays

On our second snorkel, we saw a lionfish! Unfortunately these beautiful fish are native to the Pacific and Indian oceans and are devastating the reef habitats here in the Caribbean.

Lionfish!

Last weekend we took the boys out on the Hobie for a snorkeling trip to the reef. This time we sailed to Boca del Rio (mouth of the river) which is a pass through the reef near a channel that connects the lagoon side of Ambergris Caye to the ocean side. We out-sailed an approaching squall (try that in a monohull!), tied off to a mooring buoy on the north side of the channel, donned our snorkeling gear, and plunged into the turquoise water.

The great thing about snorkeling here is you always see new things--on this particular trip, we saw an octopus (!) and several spiny lobsters. We also got a really good look at some juvenile French angelfish, which are quite striking and look entirely different from their adult form.

Running from the storm

Lochlan wearing goggles so the spray from the bow doesn't get in his eyes

Tied off to the mooring

Brain coral

Sea urchin

Liam with his new underwater camera

School of small blue-striped grunts

Unfortunately we see far, far too many of these plastic bags, the scourge of the sea!

This is the octopus! He is hard to see, hiding in this hole, but you can make out his eye (surrounded by pink) in the middle of the tan/brown portion in the center of the picture

Liam spotted these spiny lobsters not too far from the octopus' hiding place

Juvenile French angelfish