NOT QUITE WALKING ON AIR AGAIN
Mrs. T had another superlative adventure in the underwater world back in Mexico but on the opposite coast from our winter home. Currently she is in the midst of recovery but should be ready to go south again come the end of October. Enjoy her story.
Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the world. (Note: Whale sharks are fish; actual whales are not fish. -dt) They are 30 to 50 feet (10-15m) long. But in comparison with the great white they are not scary at all. For one thing they are covered with polka dots. It is hard to be afraid of a shark in a clown suit. For another thing they have no teeth. Whale sharks are filter feeders, they eat by slurping up small bits like krill and plankton and tiny fish all in through plates in their mouths and spitting out the water. (Like true whales -dt) Really I suppose they could give you the world's largest hicky. But as that usually does not occur, people go to Holbox Island in Mexico in order to swim with the whale sharks when they migrate there every summer to feed. (There are other places in the world that they also feed including other islands near Holbox. - dt) And that has been one of the items to do on my 'bucket list'.
So when my marine biologist friend Oscar whom I know from Puerto Vallarta asked if I would like to go snorkel with the whale sharks I said, "YES!" I asked Dan if he wanted to go with me, but Dan is not a water person.
So here I am at the extreme eastern edge of Mexico where the whale sharks come to slurp. After two flights - it is nearly impossible to go anywhere directly from Columbus - I arrived at Cancun and was met by Oscar and his friend Fred. A long taxi ride and a short boat trip and we arrived at Holbox and rode a little golf cart to Hotel Mawimbi.
It was at Mawimbi that I began to see that Oscar knew lots of local people. This little hotel was right on the ocean and was operated by a friendly Italian family. Onny ran the hotel and her husband ran the dive shop and the boat. We met Alexandra, (Allie) who worked with dolphins, and her husband Luca who has a very nice Italian restaurant. Also Chile (Juan) whose boat we rented, and another guy who went to college with Oscar, and his family.
The whole economy of this tiny island revolves around whale sharks. The first day we went out there were 4 whale sharks and 59 boats full of people who wanted to swim with them. So we decided to skip it. We went looking for mantas. We found a group and went snorkeling with them. The people with me were 20 to 40 years younger than I. They were also more fleet of fin. Everyone would splash off in the direction of the manta with me paddling slowly but determinedly in the rear. The people on the boat could see better. Suddenly one called : "Rebecca, Look Down!!" I looked down to see a giant manta gliding up under me. For mantas it was small, about 10 feet (3m) across, but it was an amazing feeling to be gliding around above him or as they say in Mexico "asombroso".
The people on the boats were very protective of me. When we rode on the larger boat with 8 other tourists there was one seat that was especially nice with a back, as opposed to bench seats, of course everyone headed for that seat until the captain said that seat is for "La Senora." (You may recall Mrs.T's previous fall -dt) This was the second day we looked for whale sharks. Even though Oscar had assured me that they would be there later, something to do with tides and the relative temperatures of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, I was a little discouraged. They were everywhere! They counted 79 whale sharks that day, and when you are as big as a whale shark that is quite a lot. Also there seemed to be fewer boats so there were plenty of whale sharks for everyone.
When you first start swimming with whale sharks they seem awfully big. But everybody else was jumping in so I was not going to chicken out. Actually they are very placid animals. They just swim peacefully along slurping up the stuff floating on the water. When you swam beside them you could kind of draft them like a race car; they pulled you along in their wake. You could see their tummies and gills bulging and retracting as they sucked in and spit out water. Their small eyes regarded me thoughtfully as I swam beside them.
When the whale sharks sped up a little the younger snorklers put on a burst of speed and tried to keep up. Although I tried, I could not quite keep up and began to fall behind. "Rebecca, come back," the captain called. I obediently paddled back toward the boat where they pointed me to the next whale shark heading our way. (Hmm - sounds familiar -dt) This was not a problem because they were all over the place. Every so often the whale sharks would want to take a break. They would hang out tail down in the water doing nothing at all.
The whale sharks have a huge mouth 4 or 5 feet (1.5m) wide. But since they do not have teeth it was not too alarming. "If you see a huge mouth heading toward you do not panic," our divemaster had told us. "The shark knows you are there and when he gets to you he will simply dip down and swim under you." Well, usually. I was swimming parallel to a shark but about five feet away. The shark turned its head to look at me and then turned and swam straight towards me. Do not panic I thought; it is going to swim under you. But the whale shark continued straight toward me and nudged me with his huge mouth. Whether he was trying to taste me or getting fresh I really am not sure, although Oscar claims that the shark liked me more than any decent shark should. At any rate after a moment the shark turned and swam away. I continued swimming with several more sharks but none showed any more than the usual interest. I was exhausted but happy. And to put icing on the cake as we went home we slowed down to see the flamingos. (There will not be any in our yard! -dt)
On another day we practiced flying kites on the beach. Oscar and Fred fly large kites to take pictures of wildlife. (Oscar owns the kites. -dt) They can take pictures from a kite flying 500 feet (150m) in the air and not disturb nesting birds or swimming whales. Oscar gets grants and writes scientific papers about this. They have a remote control that points the camera and tells it to take pictures. It is important to practice on the ground because when they fly the kites from the boat they don't have much room and everything has to go smoothly. I did not really fly a kite but I did hold things. I like kites; it was really a very agile kite, and it was amazing how the camera worked. Oscar had two really good Nikons and a lot of different lenses filters and such. Too much light can be a problem when flying a kite so high. Of course he had special housings for underwater photos etc. Being a scientist does not come cheap!
So after we got everything checked out Oscar, Fred, and I went out - just the three of us - on Chile's boat to take pictures from the kite. Chile is a very good captain and can make very minute adjustments in speed or direction which are necessary when you are flying a kite from a boat. Again I did not do much but it was interesting to watch. The wind had to be at the right direction and speed for the whole thing to work. For example it took a wind of more than 6mph (10kph) to fly the red kite.
We went to the nature preserve on Contoy Island because the naturalist there wanted pictures of the nesting area of the magnificent frigate birds. Since we were taking pictures for them the naturalist gave us permission to snorkel in the preserve when no one else was there. This was the best snorkeling because the fish were not bothered by a lot of people. I saw: a school of large barracuda, parrot fish both large and small of all different colors, enormous fat brown groupers, tiny iridescent fish of different colors, wrasses, damselfish, butterfly fish, angelfish, tangs, needlefish, trumpet fish, rays , turtles, and who knows what. This was fabulous.
We went through the museum at the nature preserve and climbed on observation tower so we could look out over the area. Much of it is covered with mangroves since the water is brackish, i.e., a combination of fresh and salt water. One day Allie told us that some manatees had been spotted. So we headed out in Chile's boat to see if we could spot them. He told us he knew the area well. "Do you take people out to see the manatees?" we asked. "No," Chile replied, "I take tourists out at night to see the alligators and crocodiles." My enthusiasm for snorkeling with manatees immediately declined. In fact we saw two crocodiles but no manatees.
So I spent a blissful week, swimming with whale sharks twice, snorkeling on the reef 3 or 4 times, flying the kites several times - actually I mostly watched - and riding around looking at seabirds.
It was the last night and I was hanging up my wet suit in the bathroom when I slipped. "AYUDARME, AYUDARME, CAIGO!" I called. Help me, help me, I fell. Onny and Allie and some other ladies heard me and rushed to my room. Onny assessed the situation. "We need men," she declared. She stuck her head out the window and called about four hefty men who hoisted me to my feet but alas it was not to be. Both my knee and my ankle were in bad shape.
My Mexican friends were kind, gentle and helpful. They dosed me with natural cures, arnica, and a couple of others I can't remember the names of. They wrapped me in ace bandages and packed me in ice. After several discussions I couldn't quite follow - they were in rapid Spanish, I was in pain, and I was feeling a little blurry from the natural medicinal herbs - they decided not to air evacuate me; there was no doctor on the island. The general consensus was that nothing was broken because I could wiggle my toes. They even cut a flamingo walking stick to size for me and nailed rubber on the tip. The next day after helping me pack all I was transported to Chile's boat for the trip to the mainland. Chile's father was waiting with his taxi to take me to the airport where he helped me get a wheel chair. In Ohio after x-rays and ct-scans, I have a fracture and an immobilizer. But the doctor said if I had a fracture this was the best one to have. Glad I did it right. It was fabulous and I would do it again in spite of the rough ending.
Here are some photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157631088736982/
Most of the photographs were taken by Mrs.T; the great underwater photos were taken by Oscar and Fred. Ignore the date stamp. The link will appear twice as it will also be pasted into the email itself.
Mrs. T is on the mend. She is not getting around much however. She will be using a walker for about three weeks and then will have a knee brace similar to those used by athletes. We have no idea yet how long that will be on but it should be off before we head to the condo.
Hope you are staying cool.
Dan and Rebecca
www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com
