The Beautiful Deep Blue

So today I went snorkeling in a couple of places. It was kind of weird in couple of regards: 1) To take my clothes off (outer ones, that is) in public after having so consciously made efforts to ensure that I was appropriately covered for almost 3 months now in the Islamic countries with long-sleeve shirts and long pants/long skirt (not to mention having been covered for many months before that due to the cold weather back home!), and 2) To wander to and from the water in my swimsuit, albeit it is a one piece, racing-style. (There was no way I could bring myself to bring a two-piece...) Granted I was more fully covered than many of the other women but I felt so completely naked, so to speak.

Anyhow, one of the places I went to is called the Canyon and the second place is called the Blue Hole. Both are locations that the scuba diving outfits in town take newbies (the former) and those looking to get more experienced (the latter). There are so many diving clubs! It's very big out this way in the Red Sea as well as the Sea of Aqaba as there are many beautiful reefs to check out. Unfortunately, as I'm informed, many of the diving spots are gradually being destroyed by the overwhelming number of tourists looking to obtain their diving certifications and the government hasn't made too much effort to controlling the overuse and destruction of the diving spots.

I got a chance to see some of this snorkeling at the Canyon. The area where the divers and snorkelers are supposed to wander into is not a rock area but actual reef that is now dead from all of us trampling in and out of the water. Away from this there are still some very nice marine life to watch. Very similar to other areas that I've snorkeled in.

The Blue Hole was something completely different, though. Although I have really wanted to learn to dive (and had thought I might be able to on this trip), snorkeling around the Blue Hole reefs has really firmly blown that idea up in my head. There was so much color and designs, immense marine flora and fauna, and such mystery from the walls of the sea canyon that seems to just drop away infinitely. It's like something straight out of a National Geographic/Discovery/Animal Planet/etc. marine show! It was also very cool to watch the divers taking pictures of some of the tunnels burrowing into the reef, learning new dive techniques and just generally having fun. The bubbles that they release tickle as you swim over and through them. Some of them are so big that they almost look like some kind of jellyfish. A dive master that was snorkeling with me freedived down about 10 meters or so to touch this porcupine fish. (Here's a link to a picture of the fish I'm talking about: http://www.divegallery.com/porcupinefish.htm.) It was all so completely incredible! As I've mentioned before, I have always daydreamed about learning how to dive but have been lazy about following through...now I am going to actually going to do it! As a matter of fact, I received a serious offer from the owner of the hotel I am stayed at to become a dive master so that he can try and capture the small but growing number of Chinese tourists as well as to head up the development of massage therapy services to be offered by the hotel! Things that make you go "Hmmmm...."!

Here's some links to websites with some pictures to give you an idea of Dahab and the bodies of water in the area:
http://www.divernet.com/travel/0602dahab.htmt http://www.divesitedirectory.co.uk/
http://www.anatol.org/images/egypt/dahab_all/index.html
http://www.divesitedirectory.co.uk/dive_ site_red_sea_dahab_reef_the_blue_hole.html
http://www.sinaidivers.com/redsea/diving-dahab.html