Effie & Jamarra
We woke up bright and early to see the manatees this morning. At the dive shop we all struggled into our wet suits and loaded our snorkeling gear onto the bus for our drive to the river. We took a boat ride up the Crystal River to where the the manatees stay during the winter when the Gulf and Atlantic water is too cold for them. The water in the Crystal River comes out from springs and stays a constant 72 degrees year round.
When we arrived we had to take the first plunge into the water. The water actually proved to be much warmer than I had anticipated and we saw the manatees almost as soon as we got in. At first the sleeping manatees looked a little like large mossy boulders, but I had only been in the water for a few minutes before I looked down to see one of the larger adults swimming by underneath me. It is amazing, if not a little frightening to find yourself so close to a creature that large! However, the manatees were very peaceful, and would often glide up to us, allowing us to scratch their leathery, algae-covered backs. It was an amazing experience.
After the manatees, we had lunch and then went snorkeling down Rainbow River. We were all a little reluctant to get back into our wetsuits which hadn’t sufficiently dried from our last adventure. The cold ride in the boat with damp suits roved worthwhile once we got in the water. The water was very clean and with our masks we were able to see right down to the bottom of the river, except in the very deepest spots where the bottom would sink away into a beautiful turquoise blue abyss. Other time, we would come up on a forest of sea grass growing up from the bottom, which was so tall that we would have to float on the surface to prevent our flippers getting tangled in it.
The bottom of the river was often covered in cracks and furrows, and it was in these furrows that many people in our group were finding fossils: shark teeth, pieces of old turtle shells and even arrowheads. I think this was one of my favorite things so far, even though I didn’t find anything.