I had only ever seen colorful fish and coral like these on TV, or in aquariums. TV and aquariums are great, they can teach us a lot about our world, but nothing beats seeing these creatures up close and personal in their natural habitat. The ocean is another world, and I was privileged to glimpse a little bit of their world on my short trip.

My husband and I decided last minute to take a weekend trip to Freeport, Bahamas for our 3rd wedding anniversary. The trip turned out to be more expensive than we would have liked, but we got to have an experience of a lifetime. Neither of us had ever been snorkeling before, but we had always wanted to, so now was our chance and we weren’t going to pass it up.

We found out the morning of, just after the tour guide picked us up that sadly, we weren’t able to do our original tour where we planned to kayak to a little island and snorkel around the reef off the island because the winds had picked up and visibility would have been poor. But the tour kindly took us on one of their other, equally excellent tours that involved snorkeling at Blue Hole and snorkeling at Paradise Cove, then kayaking on a lake with mangroves.

This was mine and my husband’s first-time snorkeling. Our first stop, Blue Hole, was just that, it was this blue hole in the rocks just along the shore. The water from the ocean crept through a little opening in the rocks. For how windy it was in some parts of the ocean, this hole was completely calm. The water was only a foot or two deep so fins were unnecessary, we just moved around with our hands.

Walking through the pool, I hardly saw anything at first, it just looked like rocks. When I got in the water with my mask on, it was like another world. There were many rocks with mini caves and crevices, a mini mountainous terrain. Hidden within these little crevices were fish of all shapes and sizes and colors. It was like I was in an aquarium.

The first fish I saw was a curious little fairy basslet, he had the brightest yellow and purple. He didn’t know what to think of me, was I a friend or foe? So, he would hide behind a rock then pop out again, then swim back to the safety of his rock and out again. I could watch this little fish forever. For the first time, I was in his world. The rocks were his home; he lived here in the warm gentle waves of the ocean, and I wished I could live there, too.

At the crown of the Blue Hole was an even deeper hole. Suddenly the shallow blue waters turned into blackness. The edge just dropped off.

The guide said it was 80 feet deep, even he was too scared to free dive it. I dared not get close to the edge of it. My husband, on the other hand, spent a good fifteen minutes asking the guide about it. He was seriously considering freediving into the hole, but then backed out. He had tried diving in but couldn't get far down because the pressure and pull was so strong. I’m glad, I didn’t want to lose him!

Instead, we went near another edge of the hole where I had seen some of the other snorkelers hanging out. As soon as I got there I saw why. Here the water was deeper, maybe three to four feet. The wall of the hole ran straight up and down and a crack ran deeper between the wall of the hole and another wall just in front of it. In this mini trench were more fish than I could keep track of, all different kinds. I saw a fish that was black and white spotted with red accents, his patterns reminded me of a checkerboard.

They were more curious and hardly shy at all.

The next fish I saw was a beautiful bright blue fish. I wiggled my finger around him and watched as he swam towards it and away from it. He was curious but still unsure. I played with him for a few minutes and enjoyed his company

I later realized it was an Atlantic blue tang. I was honored that I got to meet this beautiful little guy.

While I was swimming back to the ladder, not wanting to leave this underwater paradise, I saw a little-spotted goatfish feeding along the bottom. He was white with three black spots on his back. He blended in with the bottom so well that I almost missed him. At first, I thought he was dead because he was so still, but then he moved and the way he seemed to crawl along the bottom made me think he might be a sort of tiny lobster. But no, he was a little goatfish, again another fish I had never seen before.

I could never have imagined I would see so many beautiful fish in this little hole. I didn’t want to leave but I was excited about our next snorkeling spot at Paradise Cove. After experiencing snorkeling for the first time, surrounded by beautiful colorful fish and coral, I was hooked and so was my husband. With eagerness we climbed back into the van ready for our next experience what new creatures would we encounter this time?