Fish out of water

Today was our second day of adventure in the Florida Keys. This time, we went to Bahia Honda State Park. There was a window of time when we got to swim/snorkel and I decided I would exercise my newly gained snorkeling skills. Enter, the first disaster. My phone was in my pocket and the screen has been black for the twelve hours since. After I hauled half of the sand from the beach into the van, we spent over an hour cleaning up a beach ravished by Irma and polluted with trash. We split into two groups of six and competed to see which group could collect the most trash. Sadly, my group didn't win and I assume a lot of the fault for that. I was preoccupied by the tide pools for a good fraction of the cleanup time- I'm sorry team.

Tarpon - some are human sized. 

Then there was lunch. I enjoyed the food but there were flies preying on us and in my attempts to fight back, I managed to get the attention of everyone and boy was it awkward. Awkwardness is like a hobby of mine I guess. Then there was tarpon feeding and kayaking. It was my first time being close and personal with gigantic fish and I definitely panicked and probably annoyed my tarpon feeding mate. I apologize. I suppose the aching pain for the bite/bruise I got on my hand is payback. We went kayaking through mangroves with lots of wildlife (including alligators!) and everything was cool until the mosquitoes joined in. My day finally lightened up when I saw an iguana swimming. Though, after kayaking I almost stepped on a Lemon Shark. Things started to lighten up again when I saw a hermit crab... but then I messed up and took it back to the hotel with us 🤦.

The good news is, like communities and ecosystems everywhere, life goes on. Disaster isn't new to the Keys. As we learned today, Irma isn't the first big storm to leave a haunting mark on the southernmost islands. But you know what? They recovered. When you burn a grassland, it grows back even faster. When you cut off an iguanas tail, it grows a new one. So, here's some motivation, #JustKeepSwimming. #LifeGoesOn

Links: Bahia Honda Post Irma, More About Tarpon