We tried snorkeling in each of the places we visited in the San Blas. There are reportedly 365 islands in the San Blas archipelagos – one for each day of the year. We only visited a few of them. We used the dinghy to take us to the edge of the reefs, and even outside the reefs trying to find good places to snorkel. Usually the western or eastern edges of the reefs were best in the places we went – when a passage led out to sea. We had one interesting snorkel a ways off a wreck on the reef northwest of Chichime Cays – there we saw the largest live elkhorn coral I’ve ever seen (nearly 30 feet across!).
Our favorite location though was in the western-most islands of West Holandes Cays (WHC). There were reefs near the pass between the two islands of the anchorage there. We anchored Tahina in a sand patch such that we were quite close to the reef. So, we could not only easily jump off the back and swim to the reef quickly, but we also were able to use the VideoRay ROV underwater video camera quite easily. We’ll have some video footage from that to share eventually (when I find time to process the video). We spent several days in WHC and had a great time in the water, and exploring the islands! It was wonderful.
We saw many of the usual reef fish (parrot fish, wrasse, tangs, damsel, jacks, butterflyfish, hinds, etc.). But, the overall population was lower than we’ve usually seen on reefs like these. And, some fish we often see were either absent or in much lower numbers (angel fish, squirrelfish, jacks, trunk fish – only one seen, yellowtail snappers, etc.). We did have more unusual sightings like: triggerfish, spotted eagleray, spotted drum, lionfish (more on this later), reef squid, etc.
The following gallery of underwater photos are a mix of photos from all the locations we went (make sure to select the full-sized version of the slideshow). I’ve only roughly mapped the location of the shots. Most are from WHC, but a fair amount from Chichime Cays at the end of the gallery. There are over 100 photos – they tell stories all by themselves. Enjoy!
View full-sized slideshow
I loved the underwater pictures. The parrot fish is my very favorite…it doesn’t look real, it looks like a toy. The blue spotted damsel fish is pretty too. The sea fan is weird, it also doesn’t look real. I loved the kissing blue chromes. Now that I know how to snorkel, I want to try it again!
The underwater shots were terrific. You are improving in technique and quality of white balance. The detail was the best i’ve seen. Thought I saw a Humuhumunukunkuapoaa among the fish there. the squid and parrot fish were very colorful. The coral appeared to be very healthy, which was a little unexpected, considering the locale being so near to major shipping.