World Class Snorkeling In Maui

Snorkeling!!!

Yes! One of my favorite activities. We used to go as kids to Red Reef Park, just a few minutes from the old neighborhood, and I had recently rekindled my love for it in Nicaragua last year, and more recently in Cabo this past May. Both awesome, but none came close to how amazing the snorkeling was in Maui. It was mind-blowing.

While there are tons of tours and charter boats you can take to the so-called best snorkeling areas, we had our guide Ben with us, who took us to a remote beach near Makena in the southern part of the island. After a quick hike over some rocks we hit a nondescript area of the beach, where Ben announced ok here we are. He scanned the surface of the ocean and smiled noting that there were no "white caps", meaning there was very little wind and we were in for some great snorkeling conditions. Alrighty

Upon diving in, and seeing the reefs below exploding with vibrant color and activity, I quickly realized that I was in for a real treat. It was outta this world.

Now, the reefs and fish are amazing, don't get me wrong, but that's not what we were there for. What we were really hoping to see down there were turtles. While spending time in Nicaragua last year I had really developed an affinity for these amazing creatures, capturing that in two separate posts: Tortugas Pt 1 and Tortugas Pt 2. Seeing one climb up onto shore and lay eggs for the first time was magical and then seeing those eggs hatch, and helping the babies down to the shore where they awkwardly marched their way into the sea was really something special. But I had not yet seen a turtle in its natural environment, casually swimming about. Maybe today would be that day ;)

After a bit of snorkeling about, I felt a nudge at my side and turned around to see Ben pointing at something. Based on the urgency with which he was motioning and making inaudible noises underwater, I had a feeling this was it, and it was! After a few moments of scanning the water, a murky, slow moving object came into view. Turtle!!

Wow, the first thing I noticed was how graceful it moved underwater, as if it were in slow motion. Ever so slowly moving his flippers, peacefully moving through the water with a calm, sort of dazed look on his face. Haha it was so freaking cool!! As we gained proximity he finally took notice of us and decided to flee, although we discovered we could actually swim about as fast or faster than he could haha. So we followed him around and after a few minutes he just resumed going about his business. At one point, I was observing him from about 10 meters away and he decided to swim straight at me. I remember thinking to myself is this massive creature gonna ram right into me?? Should I be scared right now?? Lol, but he veered to the side at the last second. A truly incredible experience.

After about an hour or so the winds picked up and the water started to become choppy so we made our way back to the entry point. As we made our way home, reflecting on what an amazing experience we just had, unfortunately I couldn't help but feel a small bit of regret for not bringing my GoPro camera with us to capture what would have been some really incredible moments.

Sharing that sentiment on Facebook

Fortunately though I would get my chance, because for as much fun as we had that day, we were all pretty keen on going again the next day. So the next morning, armed with my GoPro camera and hoping for the best, we made our way back into the water, and this is what we got :)

Talk about getting more than you bargained for!! Hoping to just get to see one turtle that day, we ended up seeing five or six, the biggest of which swam right up and posed for the camera!!!

For those couple of hours, we had the privalage of swimming alongside these amazing animals, and getting to appreciate them up close, which to me was priceless.

Needless to say, we were all quite giddy coming out of the water that day, and I captured some of the most amazing footage my camera, or my eyes for that matter, have ever seen.

Mission accomplished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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