Somehow, miraculously given how jam packed our vacation schedules were, we managed to not have anything scheduled for the next morning. John and Pat were booked in to go deep sea fishing, but that wasn't until noon, so we all had a bit of recovery time. Since Maya and I didn't have to be anywhere until much later in the afternoon, we decided to spend a few hours at the beach near our condo. It was great to just lay in the sun for a bit, and stretch out in the water.
We had something pretty spectacular planned for that evening, so after the beach, a quick shower, and a snack, we packed ourselves into the van and headed back to Kona to pick up the boys. We only had a short time between picking up the boys and our next activity, so we headed to Wendy's for dinner. THANKFULLY there was a Thai place nearby where Maya and I were able to grab something of the non burger variety. Though yes, I did sneak in a Frostie from Wendy's.
What we had in store that evening was night snorkeling with Manta Rays! Yeah, I know, that's a pretty freggin' spectacular way to start off the year!
We headed back to the now very familiar docks and got geared up into our wet suits. I had never worn a wet suit before, and um, they ain't so easy to get on! Fortunately, we had THE LLAMA there to help us out. After getting into his wet suit, John got to do the rounds and zip the rest of us up. I don't remember exactly at what point of the trip Maya dubbed John the llama, but I do know it stuck. And by the end of the trip, the llama was not so happy about this.
We all boarded the boat, with the four of us kids heading right up front and centre of the boat. We got to watch the sun go down as we got geared up with snorkels and flippers and made the short trip out to out manta ray sighting spot.
On this tour there was a guy from National Geographic who was filming the manta rays for some TV program about how this was the awesomest thing to do in Hawaii. So he talked to us about the manta rays and how there was nothing to worry about with them, and not to try and touch them. He asked those of us who were taking pictures, which Pat and I were, to hold our cameras in close to us when we did so, as the electromagnetic field of the camera and of our hands reaching out could be confronting for the manta rays. And you know what he told us that probably would have saved me years of dolphin related trauma? He told us that our snorkel masks would make the manta rays look bigger than they are, and that they would likely look like they were coming straight for us. But rest assured, they are not!
***
It was early 2001 and I was on vacation in Zanzibar with my family. Zanzibar remains the most spectacularly beautiful place I have ever visited, and one day I will return there. And if my life ever turns to complete shit, I am packing up and moving there to heard cattle or fish or pick fruit or whatever. But not all my memories of Zanzibar are happy ones. Maya was big into dolphins, and swimming with the dolphins was one of the things you could do through the resort we were staying at. And so we did. We were driven out to a beach about an hour from our hotel (it might not have been that far had there been actual roads) and were packed into a rickety boat, given some snorkel gear, and off we went!
We were taken out into the ocean depths until our crew spotted the very wild dolphins. "Quickly! Quickly!" We were pushed off the boat and into the water. And what should I see when I open my eyes? Six MASSIVE dolphins swimming straight at me!!! I screamed, the dolphins laughed, it was all very humiliating. And of course, them being totally wild, they had a whole ocean to swim around in. This meant when they swam off too far, we had to haul ourselves back into the rickety boat from the water while it sped after the dolphins, where we would yet again be pushed out into the wilderness to be these evil creatures play things. Oh god! The memories!
***
Our manta ray crew had come up with this rather ingenious device to prevent us from having scaring memories of our time with the manta rays. They had made this floatational device with lights rigged up to it (the lights being to attract the food for the manta rays), and we were instructed to swim out to it, grab on, and stick a pool noodle under our ankles so that we don't kick the manta rays as they swim underneath us. This device also prevented us from creating a mosh pit in the water.
Once we had been briefed it was time to get in the water! It didn't take long for the first manta ray to show up, and rest assured, it was pretty freggin' spectacular! She seemed to be in a playful mood, doing loopdy loops and swimming right up close to us. I'm pretty sure she grazed me and John's legs at one point. We saw two manta rays, one with a wing span of 6 feet, and one with a wing span of 8 feet. We also saw lots of needle fish chomping away on all the plankton floating in the water around us. Words don't really do the experience justice, so here is my only picture!
The white spotty bits are plankton, and the rest is manta ray. Her eyes are on either side of the picture, and those flappy whiteish bits are her mouth. I had my camera right up against my body when I took this picture, so yes, she's pretty darn close!
The reason this is my only picture is because shortly after taking it, my camera decided that it had seen everything it needed to see in this life time and made it's way to the big shutter in the sky. What was really weird was that Pat's very new digital camera decided to do the same thing. The family seemed pretty convinced that this was due to the mysterious electromagnetic field emitted by the manta rays, but GUYS! That's crazy! Our cameras did not die because of the beauty or the electromagnetic fields of the manta rays. They died because they got water in the bits that aren't water resistant. I have a vague sense that when, in the heat of the moment, my camera froze up, I may have popped the battery casing open to force restart it. I, I wish I could say I know better than to do something like that. But the truth is, I probably don't.
So yes, I no longer have a digital camera. Since the camera I did have was a free one I'm not too broken up about it. I'm glad that it didn't break until I got that awesome shot of the manta ray, towards the end of my vacation. I do wish that I had brought my film camera with me. I debated taking it and honestly am not too sure why I decided not to bother with it. Oh well, live and learn. Fortunately, our memory cards were both fine and compatible with the parents' camera, so we were still able to take gazillions of pictures of the rest of the trip. Which I will tell you more about soon!
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