“SHARK!”
I am fairly certain that most people would panic if they heard someone yell “shark” in the middle of the ocean. And for good reason.
But not me. This is the exact moment I had been dreaming of for years!
At first time just stood still as I watched a beautiful 5 foot-ish Caribbean reef shark glide past me. It went right under Peter so close that he couldn’t move his legs or he would have hit it with a flipper. Then a second one appeared! It was truly a magical moment, I think I even forgot to breathe for a minute. Then I remembered I was the one holding the GoPro, not Peter, so I started recording the activity in front of me. No one back home would believe this!
Ever since I was a child I have loved snorkeling. My dad taught me how to snorkel when we lived in south Florida and spent many weekends in the Florida Keys. Some of my fondest memories of our time there are sitting with him under the water and watching the stingrays float by. But then as an adult I never got the opportunity to snorkel again until about five years ago when we began exploring the Caribbean. After our first time snorkeling in St. Croix I became obsessed with snorkeling once again! Now every time we book a trip to the Caribbean I have to make sure there’s good snorkeling options. So you can imagine how excited I was when I discovered that Turks and Caicos boasts the third largest barrier reef system in the world, behind the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and The Belize Barrier Reef. While there are some good snorkeling locations along the shoreline of Providenciales, the absolute best snorkeling in Turks and Caicos is (not surprisingly) only reachable by boat.
And fortunately for us Club Med Turkoise, where we’ve stayed twice, offers twice a day snorkeling trips (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) at no additional cost through Seafari Turkoise a dive center based on the resort. These daily excursions are of course based on the weather conditions, and are also limited to the first 40 guests who line up. While you are more than welcome to bring your own mask and fins, they do have equipment for you to use, including a life vest that everyone has to use.
The good thing about these snorkeling excursions are that they don’t go to the exact same place each time. They have about a dozen dive sites to choose from, so there’s a good chance every time you line up you will go to a new location to snorkel around the barrier reef. Lining up for our first excursion only increased my excitement as we talked to others in line and they shared with us everything they saw on their previous outings, including sharks! After a brief safety demonstration we were on the boat and heading out! After a short 15 minute ride we were at our destination. Equipped with a mask, snorkel and flippers, we were eady to jump into the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean!
It was like swimming in an aquarium – so many colorful underwater friends to see! And the visibility in the water was so clear that we were able easily spot so many different varieties of fish such as Angelfish, Needlefish, Damselfish, Blue Chromis, Tangs, Triggerfish, and my favorite, the Parrotfish! I even saw some eels sticking out from coral formations that were probably telling me “hey, get off my lawn!”
I will admit that it was a bit intimidating at first being out there snorkeling on the open water. It took me a couple of minutes to stop worrying that I was going to be swept away by the currents and actually enjoy the experience. I would put my head underwater and then pop back up after 30 seconds or so worried that I was drifting too far from the boat. But then after I relaxed and just floated and watched the world below me.
This was the first time I have ever used a GoPro under water for videos so it was a bit of a learning curve. I plan to play around with it a bit more before doing something like this again. Most of the video clips were taken by Peter. I also learned it is not attractive to take a selfie with a snorkel in your mouth!
It was on our second snorkeling excursion that we actually saw the sharks. I was just floating around then someone in our group spotted the shark. At first I didn’t know where it was, but then all of a sudden it appeared right next to me! A few minutes later a second one appeared! We didn’t get much footage of the sharks because I was the one operating the GoPro and I was so excited to be swimming with sharks that I honestly forgot to record most of the encounters. So here is all we got:
The next day I started getting a lot of texts and Facebook messages from friends and family all wondering if we were out snorkeling again. Apparently another tourist on the island had just gotten her leg bitten off by a shark!
Now I know some of you may be thinking that it’s waaayyyy cooler to scuba dive than snorkel, and you are probably right. Now that I have snorkeled a few times out in the open water I am really curious to try out scuba diving, but still extremely nervous to! Maybe next time we are in Turks I will work up the courage to take the diving lessons offered by Seafari and go out a time or two!
Snorkeling and Other Tours to Consider
If you are planning a trip to Turks and Caicos but not staying at Club Med Turkoise, here are some other excursions and tours to consider:
Have you snorkeled around Turks and Caicos? If so, I’d love to hear about your adventures in the comments!
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