In an Octopus' Garden, in the Shade

TODAY WAS SO COOL! Yesterday the octopus I saw was just hiding in a hole, but today I was just swimming and all of a sudden this dart of maroon shot underneath me. It was an octopus, propelling itself backwards! It proceeded to climb up the piece of coral right under me, changing color and texture faster than I could have imagined. I mean, I've seen a zillion videos of this happening, but watching it in real life is SO MUCH more spectacular! It scuttled across the top of this massive coral right beneath me and then shoved it's body into an impossibly small hole and sat there changing colors. I watched it for a really really long time and probably could have stayed there all day.

We also saw another stingray, this one was in much shallower water so I got a much better look at it.

Yesterday I followed two different sharks around. First a white-tipped, then a black-tipped. The white-tipped was much bigger and faster, I got much closer to the black-tipped. At one point while my snorkel buddy Katherine and I were following the smaller one, it sort of turned around and looked at us and then started swimming straight towards us. It was only a little longer than my arm, but a shark swimming towards you is still a shark swimming towards you. Katherine grabbed my arm and sort of hid behind me (good to know where your snorkel buddy's loyalties lie). The shark came within about ten feet of us and then sort of swam around us and away again.

Did I mention my life is amazing? Cause my life is amazing. And of course, I didn't have my camera for any of this.

I also forgot to mention that one of the adult professory type peoples brought his two daughters, Emmagen and Eliana with him here. They are 7 and 3 I think, and freakishly adorable. Children are way more adorable when they have tiny accents. Note to self: if I ever decide to reproduce, I should do it in a foreign country so that my children will acquire adorable accents.

Okay, lecture is happening now so I should probably stop typing. Have a lovely day!