Snorkeling in Jamaica

January of 2019, I went to Jamaica with my boyfriend and his family. Of course, I tried to take as many opportunities as I could because I knew that this would be a once in a life time vacation, for me at least.

We went on an excursion where we got on a bus and drove about an hour away from our resort. It was an all day excursion and we were going to be in the water so we brought bags and a change of clothes. It included going on a sail boat all day and making a stop in the ocean to go snorkeling in a coral reef that was about a mile off the coast. After that, we stopped at Rick’s Cafe to eat, swim and enjoy all the entertainment.

Snorkeling was an optional activity so if people didn’t want to go, they got to stay on the boat for the time being. My boyfriend’s parents didn’t want to go they said, “we’d rather watch you guys, take pictures, and relax.” His brother didn’t want to go because his girlfriend is creeped out by the ocean, and my boyfriend, Casey, didn’t want to go because his unrealistic thought that something was going to kill him. “I’m not going, I don’t want to die in the ocean from a shark,” I let him believe what he wanted, but I still wanted to go because again, I was wanting to take every opportunity I could and not take this trip for granted.

I decided I was going to go by myself. I was standing in line to get the flippers and snorkle and someone stood behind me and it was Casey! I was so happy the he was going with me. “My mom made me go with you,” he explained “she didn’t want you to go by yourself.” “Well thank you for not making me go alone,” I replied with a big grin. We got all our things on to go snorkeling and we look up and his brother was getting all the things he needed to go snorkeling as well. I’m pretty sure Casey was excited to see his brother because he didn’t have to be the only one kind of afraid to go snorkeling.

We got into the crisp, clear, beautiful blue waters of Jamacia with around 20 other people snorkeling and looking down into the 20 foot deep waters at the fish and plants. I was sticking with Casey or was trying to because we both kind of just wandered away from each other looking around. As the people were starting to get back onto the boat, I wasn’t going to wait around so I kept looking and Casey was swimming towards the boat to get out as soon as possible since he didn’t want to go in the first place.

As he was swimming towards the boat, his brother and I were swimming next to each other and we looked down and a school of fish was around Casey’s feet and legs. We told him and he freaked out. It was hilarious. I’ve never seen Casey swim faster in his life which is why it was so funny.

Once we were all back on the boat, he was telling everyone he pretty much almost died. He was being so over dramatic about it since he was scared of the fish around him. What I told him was, “a school of fish is a lot better than a shark around you.” After that, he silently agreed but still went on about the tiny fish, that aren’t harmful, that were around his feet.

Photo by Len Radin on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA