Bobbing Along At the Bottom of the Beautiful Briny Sea!

I woke up on my own this morning.  They keep changing ship time, and for some reason, my phone doesn't update to the ship time.  My watch hasn't updated to the correct time since Daylight Savings Time kicked in.  I was planning to get up at 7:00 and have a nice, leisurely time getting ready.  Have breakfast with Bruce before disembarking for my submarine trip at 10:30.  Sleeping in didn't cause me any problems, though.  Everything was packed and ready, and all I had to do was get dressed and go.  And I had three and a half hours to do it in.  So, I got up and we were docked.  

By the time I took my meds, people were disembarking.  I finished getting ready, and Bruce and I headed upstairs.  I had my purse packed with the camera, extra batteries for everything, my ticket, sunscreen, money – everything I could need except water.  We had breakfast.  I had sausage links and roasted potatoes with tea.  We ate leisurely, watching people walking out along the pier.  Then I headed down to the 4th deck, where I picked up 2 waters, put them in my purse, and headed out.  Apparently, Bruce went up to the room and out to the balcony, taking stalker pictures of me leaving.

They have all kinds of photo backdrops in the shopping area between the pier and town.  The same shops we saw at every port, but all this statuary is kinda new.  

There is even a little iguana park, and they have signs asking that you leave the iguanas alone.

I walked out of port and everything was closed.  I could have spent $12 for a taxi to go about 1 km (½ mile) or walk.  I chose to walk.  It was flat and I wanted to see what all was there.  Besides, last night we went to the shop to get some chocolate and potato chips because the deserts on the ship here tend to suck.  I ordered chocolate cake one night, and it wasn't very good.  There are no pies.  Just little tarts that aren't very sweet or cookies.  The cookies are good, but I'm getting tired of cookies!  Everything except the Pemex was closed, but I made note of some of the places that might have what we wanted for a reasonable cost.  Last night, a Toblerone bar was priced at $8 and a tube of Pringles was $5.  I saw several possibilities, including the Pemex.  The town's letters (at least one set) was on my way, strategically placed so a cruise ship is usually behind it.

When I got to the submarine place (I booked privately, not through the ship), it was still closed.  So I walked around into a little resort club spot that wasn't open yet and sat down.  The guys painting the bar shelter didn't run me off.  

When the Atlantis Submarine Agency opened, I went in, and the girl told me there was a sub leaving at 9:30 that had room, and she could move me up to that one.  I agreed.  After paying the park fee ($11 US), I looked around the shop a little and found an adorable onesie for Baby Frankie who will be born soon.  We watched the movie about boarding the sub and things, then boarded the boat “Ana” to take us out.  We stopped at the pier along the way to pick up those who had purchased from the ships.  I saved some money and was taking the same excursion.  

When we got to the submarine, we loaded through the top hatch and went down to take our seats.  "Octopus's Garden" by the Beetles was playing on a loop.

The trip was amazing and the views were spellbinding!  The pictures are not representative of the beauty I saw.  My camera had fits!  Not only was it not in water taking pictures under water, but it was going through three and a half inch acrylic windows to do it.  There's lots of distortion here, both in color and focus, and that doesn't count the reflections, which they kept to as much of a minimum as they could.  You can tell they get mostly US tourists in this sub because the altimeter is in feet instead of meters.  We descended quickly and leveled off the first time around 80 feet.

As soon as I turned from the altimeter and looked out, I had the opportunity to shout, "Tortuga!" and the guide let everybody know there was a turtle.  He was cruising right along.  This was my best shot, and even with the post processing tricks George taught me when we got back, this is the best I could get it.

Lots of little fish on the reef.  THIS is what a reef is supposed to look like.

More of the beautiful, thick, and wonderful reef.

I do not have video editing software, so this is how the video came out of the camera.  The in-person visuals were sooooo much better!  There were lots of trigger fish, which are some of my favorite.  Two of them are in this video.  

Surgeon fish

Triggerfish with his tail fin closed up

This is maybe a tilefish, but I'm not sure.  They're not supposed to have spots.

Ray, probably an Atlantic ray, but they were moving around and I didn't get a good enough look.

Yellowtail snapper

Triggerfish

We started to descend further and played with 110, but I could only catch the altimeter when it was at 109 feet.

Soon after, I saw my first colony of garden eels!  Once they plant themselves, they rarely move, though they are able to swim and will do so for mating.  They eat plankton as it swims by.  This was amazing!

A couple of angelfish

Close to the end of the ride, we went by a shipwreck that had either been sunken or left below water to help grow the reef.  Here is a part of it with several fish, including a pretty shot of a sergeant major.

It was a wonderful sub ride, and if you've never taken one, I would strongly suggest doing it.  Next time, I want to snorkel, though.  This is a nice reef, and I'd like to see it from above.  We did pass some divers while we were around 80 feet.  I hope they were going deeper.  It's a fabulous reef!  

After the sub ride, they loaded us back on the Ana and showed us the QR code to download our certificates.  

Then they took everybody back to the Atlantis office.  They gave the option to everybody to either walk back to the port or they had transportation for those who were picked up at the pier.  I walked so I could find the chips and chocolate we were looking for last night.  I got a bag of Sabritas (which are made by Lays) for about $2 and 2 Milky Ways and 2 Snickers for about 75 cents each in a little tienda.  And I was able to pay in dollars for a reasonable exchange rate.  Even a like-to-like comparison can be made.  This little tienda had Pringles for about $3.00 a tube.  Even with import taxes on the price, it was $2 cheaper than at duty free!

Bruce had also mentioned that he wished he had gotten a Pirhana Joe's T-shirt.  Pirhana Joe's is a shop in the port shopping area of each stop.  So, once I got back in the port area where all the shops that have a contract with the cruise lines are, I found the Pirhana Joe's and got him a T-shirt.  He was standing on the balcony watching for me when I came back.  He has me Lo-Jacked on Life 360, so he was checking.  And, like the stalker he is, he took pictures again.  Now I know why it took so long for him to wave back at me.  It wasn't because he didn't see me!

We had a snack in the buffet before I dumped my pictures.  Dinner was surf and turf (lobster and filet).

The next day was at-sea, and I hadn't walked the ship yet.  I tend to like to see all of the ship, even the parts I don't use.  It is a pretty ship, but they did something at the pool area of the Lido deck that really upset me.  The staff had an organized game going on with some of the passengers, and they were using what looked like white plastic bags, maybe large kitchen garbage sized.  While I was on the sun deck, I saw one of those bags go flying out into the ocean.  I walked back over to where I could see the pool, and they were still playing with bags, so I assume they pulled another one out.  The Regal Princess (aka The Love Boat) is a pretty boat, though.

We stopped and got some boudin on the way back home to Biloxi.  Not much time left before heading back north!