A spot of snorkelling
We had a wonderful lie in today, well deserved I think, because of the constant 7am wake ups earlier this week. The hostel offered breakfast, so I decided to have mango pancakes, delicious! As we had a spare day with nothing planned, we decided to check out the snorkelling whilst in Moalboal. At noon, we wandered down to the beach front, where the dive shop is located, and borrowed a snorkel and mask each, very kind of them. The dive shop was right on Moalboal’s beach, so we waded into the water and began snorkelling straight away.
Right from the get go, we were not disappointed. Just as we’d expected, the crystal clear water in Moalboal offered an abundance of ace snorkelling sights. The corals and fish inhabiting it were amazing by themselves, so varied and colourful. That wasn’t all on offer though. Moalboal corals descend into a coral wall, and you can’t see the ocean floor below. It’s cool because you have both shallow water and then deep should you wish to venture out. Not far after the coral wall, there were millions of sardines dancing in the water, completely surrounding me. That was a surreal experience, and I believe it’s one of the things Moalboal is famous for.
Turtle spotting
Despite the colourful corals and super sardines, our real mission was to spot some turtles. I’d never seen any in the wild before, and we’d been told they were plentiful around here. We swam along the coast keeping our eyes peeled, but didn’t see any turtles. Once we’d gone so far, we decided to swim back, but this time in shallower waters. Not a minute later, we came across a huge sea turtle in a metre of water, very shallow, and he was pecking at the foliage under water. We were both in awe of it, the turtle was so calm and tame, not scared or aggressive at all.
Neither of us could take our eyes off of it, such was the awesomeness of the turtle. After 10 minutes, we carried on swimming back to the dive shop, happy at our sighting. That wasn’t the only one though, we had no less than 7 turtle sightings in total! All of a sudden they were everywhere, we couldn’t move for turtles. What I didn’t like so much was when there was a crowd of people around a single turtle. They tried to get photos or videos with it, I felt quite uncomfortable for the turtle. I’m sure at least one person stepped on it, even just by mistake. Just before the dive shop, we managed to see 2 turtles on the reef wall in their nest, coming up for air. They were so cool to see in their natural habitat.
Drying off
Once we got back to the dive shop, we handed the equipment back and regaled our stories of the sightings. Of course, these guys see this stuff everyday, but still, I was thrilled. Anyway, Mat and I dried ourselves off, not difficult in the blazing sunshine, and then had dinner nearby. I had a large meal fit for 2 people I’m sure! It kept me happy anyway. After a long day snorkelling, we walked the streets of Moalboal and returned to our hostel, tired but happy.
Both of us rested up for a bit, before going to the social area to play cards and have a drink. After a short time, our German roommates, Phillip and Kenza joined us, and we had a good evening full of talk and laughter. Once we’d had our fill of card games and talking, not to mention the pestering mosquitoes, we bid them good night, and retired.
