Snorkeling at Kahaluu Beach Park

All the tourist info kept pointing me to Kahaluu Beach Park to the South of Kona to scratch my snorkeling-itch. I wasn’t too sure if I could even swim with the injury from two months ago still giving me some minor pains, but as it turned out the swim was good medicine with no major pain and the activity seems to have removed all future pains too, but I digress…

Thanks to choosing to stay on Mountain Time, I arrived well before the crowds and rented a set of flippers, snorkel, and prescription goggles (I didn’t know these existed, but they saved the day since I could not have worn glasses inside the goggles, rending me pretty much blind if not for these goggles) and set out into the warm waters of the bay. An underwater smile crawled across my face when I realized I was swimming with just about every fish from Finding Nemo. I swam out as far as I could before a sea-wall prevented me from entering the truly wild ocean. Way out here, away from the other swimmers, schools of fish picked the coral clean of anything edible. You can actually hear the tick-tick-tick of hundreds of fish pecking the coral, like an underwater popcorn popper… tick-tick-tick.

The star attractions of the snorkeling were the sea turtles. Protected by Federal Law I was required to give them a wide berth as they did their thing. However, as I hovered in place watching one, he – I assume it was a he – chose to swim directly under me. Only inches separating me from Federal lawlessness. I held me breath, watched, and kept my hands to myself. It is a memory that will last the rest of my life.