Tuesday, September 1, 2009

snorkeling at La Jolla Cove

As I did not expect any crazy adventures during my recent trip to San Diego, the nicer surprise it was that adventures still caught up with me :) Thanks to Bartek we went on a package deal that included kayaking and snorkeling with a guide in La Jolla Cove.

To my surprise even kayaking was lots of fun. I do not feel fully comfortable kayaking in the ocean, but luckily waves were not too big that day, which made me feel more relaxed. Also, on the way back from the cove, we could see hundreds of sharks already from our kayak! So if you are not into snorkeling or you do not want to be too close to those sea beasts, you can opt for kayaking instead.

Snorkeling in the cove and going through several of its narrow passages was pretty cool, even though we did not see too many different species of fish. It seems that the most abundant fish there is Garibaldi. Or maybe it is simply the easiest to notice it because of its orange color?

After we came back to the shore we parted with our knowledgeable guide and went snorkeling by ourselves. This is when we managed to get close to several groups of leopard sharks. I was surprised how big they were - when you see them in aquariums they definitely seem much smaller. They were also very quick. Even in the fins we had no chance to keep up with them. They were also moving with way more grace than we were... But in the end, we are land, not sea animals ;)

Of course I had my underwater camera with me, so you can see some photos that I took during this adventure, a well as a movie that I put together (my very first iMovie project!) Unfortunately, the quality (both of the movie an the photos) is not too great. I still need to work on it.



Kayaking in fins :)


Bartek and I near the cove:


La Jolla Cove:


The caves:


Lobster:


Garibaldi:


Many more Garibaldis:


Stingray:


Leopard shark: