Sea Trekkin'
The photo posted at the end of the last blog post was of Dave and I "Sea Trekkin'" at Coral World two weeks ago. We got into Coral World free - we know people who know people.... so we thought we'd check it out to see what the fuss was about. Basically, it's got an aquarium or two.. an underwater observatory (not at all like the one in Jaws; this one just had a few windows here and here, so it seemed like a regular aquarium to me, no exciting tunnels to walk through, worrying about drowning if a big shark comes by and runs into the tunnel). We saw the turtle pool, which was quite sad - four or five big sea turtles stuck in a small area (the photo on their website shows just about the whole area but the turtles are quite bigger now). There's also a shark pool and a touch pool where you can touch sea cucumbers, star fish, and the like. And there are tons of iguanas all over.
We mostly went because we also got a free chance to go Sea Trekkin (usually $50). Sea Trekkin' is where you are given a huge helmet which lets you breathe under water, it weighs 75 pounds above water and just feels like 15 pounds under water. The helmet is connected to an air compressor on the surface, so it's like scuba diving in the old days; it's quite loud underwater inside the helmet. Our group was just the two of us plus another woman. Once dressed with the underwater shoes and gloves they provide, you walk down a ladder until just your head is sticking above water. Then someone places the helmet on your head and you continue down the ladder about 25 feet until you reach the bottom. At the bottom, you make sure your ears have equalized, then grab onto a chain about waist high that keeps you from wandering off.
Dave went down first and I followed. About 30 seconds after the helmet was placed on me, I chickened out and climbed right back out of the ladder. My claustrophobia had gotten the better of me. After the other woman went down (a little more nervous given that I'd freaked out), I gave it another shot. The person told me I could come right back up after I walked down the ladder if I didn't like it. Determined to see if I would ever enjoy scuba diving, I gave myself time to adjust and went down the ladder very slowly, taking deep breaths. Once I got to the bottom I thought it was fine.
The helmet just hangs loose and the air bubble just stays there because of the water pressure. So, if you lean too far forwards, you can get a mouthful of water -- a little unnerving. But on the flip side, you could also pick your nose with the helmet on (or so they told us...I don't think either of us gave it a shot). To get a good look at things on the bottom without letting water crawl up your face, you need to bend your knees to a squat position, insead of bending at the hips.
Since you can't really talk with the guide, she just points things out. She placed a few pieces of sealife in our hands to look at more closer. We touched a brittle star (a star fish), a west indian sea egg (an urchin), and a damsel fish. (Dave told me all of this after our trip.) We were underwater walking along the trail for about 20 minutes. We both enjoyed it, especially given that it was free for us. I think you can see just about as much sealife just by snorkeling or swimming at most beaches on the island. Especially at the beach by Coral World (Coki Point, the same place we saw the ramora), because I think the fish must get fed there...
I'm not too enamored by Coral World, but it was worth the hour we spent there exploring it before our Sea Trekkin' adventure.
We mostly went because we also got a free chance to go Sea Trekkin (usually $50). Sea Trekkin' is where you are given a huge helmet which lets you breathe under water, it weighs 75 pounds above water and just feels like 15 pounds under water. The helmet is connected to an air compressor on the surface, so it's like scuba diving in the old days; it's quite loud underwater inside the helmet. Our group was just the two of us plus another woman. Once dressed with the underwater shoes and gloves they provide, you walk down a ladder until just your head is sticking above water. Then someone places the helmet on your head and you continue down the ladder about 25 feet until you reach the bottom. At the bottom, you make sure your ears have equalized, then grab onto a chain about waist high that keeps you from wandering off.
Dave went down first and I followed. About 30 seconds after the helmet was placed on me, I chickened out and climbed right back out of the ladder. My claustrophobia had gotten the better of me. After the other woman went down (a little more nervous given that I'd freaked out), I gave it another shot. The person told me I could come right back up after I walked down the ladder if I didn't like it. Determined to see if I would ever enjoy scuba diving, I gave myself time to adjust and went down the ladder very slowly, taking deep breaths. Once I got to the bottom I thought it was fine.
The helmet just hangs loose and the air bubble just stays there because of the water pressure. So, if you lean too far forwards, you can get a mouthful of water -- a little unnerving. But on the flip side, you could also pick your nose with the helmet on (or so they told us...I don't think either of us gave it a shot). To get a good look at things on the bottom without letting water crawl up your face, you need to bend your knees to a squat position, insead of bending at the hips.
Since you can't really talk with the guide, she just points things out. She placed a few pieces of sealife in our hands to look at more closer. We touched a brittle star (a star fish), a west indian sea egg (an urchin), and a damsel fish. (Dave told me all of this after our trip.) We were underwater walking along the trail for about 20 minutes. We both enjoyed it, especially given that it was free for us. I think you can see just about as much sealife just by snorkeling or swimming at most beaches on the island. Especially at the beach by Coral World (Coki Point, the same place we saw the ramora), because I think the fish must get fed there...
I'm not too enamored by Coral World, but it was worth the hour we spent there exploring it before our Sea Trekkin' adventure.
posted by Kendra at 5:45 PM
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