Night Snorkeling
29 March 2012 | Central Holandes, San Blas, Panama
Liz
A couple of nights ago, we had a "night time" excursion to snorkel on a near by reef. After the afternoon snorkel to the outer reef, we stopped along the way back to the boats to set a large fender on an anchor to mark the shallow reef for the night dive so we could find it again in the darkness. Each dinghy prepared a thermos of hot chocolate and brought along some rum or cognac to add in after the snorkeling. We set out just after sunset and anchored near the marker buoy. We waited about 10 minutes for the darkness to settle over us and everyone slipped into the water with their dive lights. At night, the reefs are alive with creatures that remain hidden during the daytime. We saw several lobsters out walking, including a slipper lobster, eels, tons of brittle stars crawling over the reefs and about a dozen toadfish (Sapo Bacon). It was incredible! After circumnavigating the shallow patch reef, we returned to the dinghies and rafted up to enjoy the spiked hot chocolate and some banana bread and chocolates with the moon glow on the water.