Snorkeling: an Underwater Adventure

One thing people should know about me is that I had never been afraid of water. Growing up I was the first person in the lake, I loved tubing (I never was able to water ski) and being on the river was a favorite pass time. Fast forward to high school when I was getting certified to be a diver. I loved the classes (being in Montana, these classes took place in a swimming pool at the local YMCA), and our big finish was a trip to Lake Dismit in Wyoming for a ‘natural’ dive – we saw one fish. Then came a trip to Venezuela, and I quickly realized that once the fish out number me, I am not such a fan of the underwater scene. So, now we are in the Galapagos, and I hear the snorkeling is pretty impressive. The water was warm, and my husband was super keen to jump right in – so I thought ‘what better place to reintroduce myself to the water and see how it goes.’ I pulled on my wetsuit aboard the Letty, climbed into the zodiac with the other travelers, added the Defog to my mask, and prepared to jump in. Our first snorkel was at Genovesa, and was considered a deep water snorkel because we started from the zodiac, not the shore. Ryan jumped right in, and turned to wait for me. I jumped in, feeling pretty nervous, but found his hand and we started swimming together.
I was taking deep slow breathes, and feeling pretty calm when all of a sudden there was a slight stinging feeling across my face. Shocked, I lifted my head out of the water and started running my hand on my face trying to figure out what had happened. My hands started to sting. I had been jellyfished! A stray, thin, tentacle had floated right onto my face. It caught me off guard, but I knew the guides would know how to take care of me, so I put my arm into the air (our sign that we wanted to get back into the zodiac) and the guides came right over for me. I hopped out and they handed me a bottle of vinegar. “Make a salad of you face” they explained – motioning me to splash the vinegar onto my sting. After several minutes of “making a salad’ the sting lightened, and I jumped back in the water to join the group. The colors and the fish were quite amazing, and totally worth testing out the water.