Sunday, November 17

Our first snorkeling trip was shortly after breakfast.  I’d been happy to hear that the water was at its warmest this time of year and we wouldn’t need wet suits.  

Setting out on the skiff.

The fish were spectacular if you just stayed near the reef and didn’t move too much.  I had a new underwater camera so I tried that out.  The battery died after 10 minutes but in a way that was OK.  First, it meant I could focus on enjoying the fish.  Second, I knew nothing about underwater photography and got a lot of blurry blue pictures.

We were in nearly an hour and I was getting uncomfortable.  I didn’t realized how uncomfortable- later a couple on the skiff said I’d looked pretty bad and seemed almost disoriented.  I wrapped a towel around myself but was still cold.  We were soon back on the ship, where I gratefully stood under a hot shower, dressed in multiple layers and had a few cups of hot tea and finally started feeling normal again.

After lunch we went for a hike to the ranger station of a National Park.  The gift shop had a great geological map of lava flows on the island but unfortunately it was dated a few years ago so it excluded the ne last year.  The park ranger said they were working furiously to update it.