SHARKS!

I know yer prly sick of "when we were in Hawaii" as an intro but, hey-- I need to start these with something.  My constant amazement at the novelty of tropical warmth resulted in me either staring, mouth hanging open, up at coconut trees-- or squealing "This is the BEST DAY EVER!" --a lot. So after SharkDay and after HorseDay (please don't ask me what day that actually was because of grief week and jumping time zones I am still not entirely sure what day it currently is.) anyway--my buddy Rob asked "Okay which was really the best?" Chrissy pipes in with, "If you could only choose one?"  I can't. Both adventures were uniquely stupendous. Compare one to breathing, while the other is your heart pumping blood. How do you choose?

In an effort to stay focused I will recount the glorious 20 minutes we had in a shark cage.

  

We went out onto the Pacific, less than two miles from shore. We were in a diesel engine boat. The amazing guides explained how fishing boats bring the waste and debris from their work day out and dump it. The Pavlovian response of diesel engine noise and easy food has the sharks responding like clockwork. Thus my silly analogy that sharks are underwater raccoons, just playing in the garbage. That worked until I saw the mongooses (mongeese? lol). In Hawaii they have mongoose, not raccoons.

The sharks, these beautiful eating machines. These elegant apex predators. Powerful, sleek and evolutionarily perfect. I LOVE THEM. Faithful readers will recall the JAWS post. There were at least four, possibly six --at one point I was sure I saw eight-- but let me tell you. It was quite hard to count. It was my second time snorkeling and the ocean never rests. The guides were happy with the calmness of the water but it still moved constantly. Sea sick is a common response. Snorkeling is easy until a wave goes over the tube, or the flapper thingy goes inside out.  Also as you can see in the one shot, my feet didn't reach the bottom of the cage. So normal people can hook their feet in the bottom. Chris and I basically had to tread water.  Thank goodness Z rocked it with Chris's underwater camera! He took all of our underwater shots! Good lad!

The sharks came right to the cage. I quickly felt like teenage boys had just got home from school and were asking for snacks. I was not scared. There was no tension, just hungry boys looking in the cookie jar to see nothing they want to eat. I could have stayed in that cage all day. Pure awe. We were the zoo for these Galapagos sharks. It was mesmerizing and beautiful.

At one point I looked DOWN and it was never ending blue. It was just clear sapphire water. I don't know how to express the significance of my smallness in that moment. I saw how enormous the planet is, on this little boat, in this little harbor, on one island-- I felt so connected and so aware of my place in the food chain and my responsibility as someone with thumbs and cognition to take care of our home. We have to tread lightly.