Night of the Mantas

After arriving back at the hotel fairly late in the evening, things get moving a little slower than usual in this morning. We don’t have any real plans to start the day, so after breakfast, the kids head down to the pool, and I soon join them for a little Kindle time. By 11:00 though, we are recharged and ready to hit the road – which road is still to be determined.

As I mentioned earlier, swimming with manta rays is a big deal here, and is something on my bucket list, so we decide to call around and see what our options are there. There is a boat the leaves from a dock about 100 yards from our hotel and takes you back pretty much those same 100 yards to snorkel with the mantas right in front of the balcony we watched them from a few nights back. On principle, I have a hard time $100 a person for that little of an effort, so we end up booking with a boat from the main harbor in town under the theory that a sunset ride up the coast will be a nice bonus.

With that out of the way, we have most of the afternoon free, so head north to the resort part of the island where the big beaches are. Driving there, we’re reminded just how much bigger this island is than the others, as what looks fairly close on the map, turns out to be almost 40 minutes away. As promised, the beach is amazing. Wide, sandy, and with waves just the right size for the kids to body surf, it is an easy (ok, very easy) place to spend a few hours. Joey gets braver every day here, and holds his own with his bigger brothers, getting swamped by a wave, only to pop back up a few seconds later and run back in for another go.

On beach days, the boys invariably end up playing a game where they each build a sand fortress just above the surf line (complete with walls, moats and outpost towers) and see whose can survive the longest when the big waves come in from time to time. They can do this all day, so when it is time to go, no one wants to leave. We have a schedule to keep though (the boat won’t wait around for us), so we pile back in the car and drive south the harbor.

Now while hanging out by the pool and relaxing at the beach makes for a good day, it is the night that really takes the cake. Snorkeling with mantas is phenomenal, and easily one of the top 5 things I have ever done. It starts with a 30 mine ride to the site, where the guides talk about mantas and what to expect in the water. Our original plan was for Sam and Joey to stay in the boat, figuring they were a little small for night swimming, but they want to go, and the guides assure us they will be fine, so when darkness falls, everyone jumps in the water.

While its possible to see manta rays during the day, night works the best, as bright lights attract plankton, which in turn attract the mantas that feed on them. The set up here is for all the snorkelers to hold on to a floating ring and shine their flashlights down to bottom, while divers kneel on the ocean floor (about 30 feet down) and shine their lights toward the surface. This creates a concentrated column of light chock full of planktony goodness.

Almost immediately, we see the mantas. These one are medium sized – about 8 feet from wingtip to wingtip, and as you bob along the surface, they come right at you, mouth wide open, scooping in as much food as they can. As they pass through the light column, they arc backwards toward the surface to get ready for another pass which brings their belly literally within inches of yours. Its almost hypnotic to watch a wild animal this big (about 800 pounds) glide through the water repeating this process over and over again, and you lose all track of time.

All the boys do great. For their first time in rougher waters, at night, with something ten times their size bearing down on them, they were amazing. Seeing nature this close up changes you, so to be able to watch them have that experience so young adds an extra layer of awesome for Ang and I.

We don’t have any underwater gear with us to take pictures, but along with our group is a videographer that records the whole thing and I’m sure does a much better job than we could have done, so we order up a copy and will pick it up in a few days once she has had time to splice it all together.