The Great Barrier Reef

We spent the entire day out on the Great Barrier Reef snorkeling, and it was amazing.

The Reef is unimaginably long, roughly 1,430 miles, and is one of the few organic structures that can be seen from space - without a telescope. Equivalent to our beloved Amazon Rainforest in it's biodiversity, the Reef hosts the earth's most abundant collection of sea life.

We were lucky to see soooo many species, many more than we even knew we were looking at.

We did our tour with Silverswift - which both of my sisters used when they came here.  We did 3 locations and had a lunch at our second stop.

At our first site, I was immediately blown away by how beautiful it was. Almost instantly we saw a huge stingray. Tons of bright and colorful fish were surrounding us.  The coral was just as impressive. There were both hard and soft coral and I doubt the pictures from our disposable underwater cameras will do it justice. We found Nemo! We saw huge parrot fish, and some other massive fish, but my favorite were the much smaller and colorful ones. Someone in our group saw a reef shark. Harmless to us, but I probably would have freaked out because they didn't tell us that first.

Our second stop was probably my favorite. It felt a little more diverse, fish wise, but the reef also felt more impressive. We also saw giant clams here. When I say giant, I mean it. I think it could eat me! 

Lunch was delicious. The fresh fruit was so good. I think Mesa and I ate all of the kiwis! The sushi was also very tasty!

Our third and final site, we were holding out hope that we would see a sea turtle. They said the second site was our best chance so I didn't know how lucky we would be. But Mesa spotted one almost right away.  She said she screamed out "Christie" through her snorkel because she was so excited. I would probably have done the same thing - but I couldn't hear her. We were lucky that we were still by eachother because it was swimming away from the reef and I was the only one with a few more pictures left on the camera!  The turtle was big! It was beautiful. No one else in our group saw that turtle. Our guide also brought up a sea cucumber and a few different coral pieces. There was also this HUGE fish that came right up to us when we were by the camera man so he got a shot of us with it and we were able to touch it. In the picture of just the water, the spots you see are the reefs. 

The only thing I would change about the day was the motion sickness. I get so queasy and when I no longer have land to focus on, it's never a good thing. I didn't get sick, but there were a few moments that were questionable. I was so happy to be back on land again. We sent Anna Plewacki a video that she can share with you if you want! :) We got back to our hostel a little after 5 and Mesa made delicious pb and banana sandwiches while I played music videos on youtube. Check out Thrift Shop by Macklemore if you'd like to know our video of choice right now. Or, a Nicki Minaj Starships cover by Megan Nicole and Lindsey Stirling. Ok, that's it for now.