Behold the fish! (Cozumel Day 2)by Cl. Panic, renowned guest blogger

It's been a few years (and a few hurricanes) since I last visited Cozumel, and it was great to be back in the water. The reef hasn't completely recovered, but diving in California doesn't even come close. The water's 82°F (instead of 55), and there is a nice current that lets you just drift by all that there is to see.

Nonny Nu demanded pictures of fish. By the time this vacation's over, she just might be sorry she asked. (I think she prefers fish with Maggi Sauce... just don't tell that to Stumpy!). Armed with a new digital camera and underwater housing, I'm prepared to give the NN readers a first-hand view.

On our first two dives, we saw all kinds of stuff and I had to play with the settings on my new camera. Like macro mode. Some of the most amazing underwater animals (and real camera hogs) are the turtles. Their grace underwater is amazing, especially compared to those clumsy land turtles we're all familiar with. A good-sized smooth trunkfish got within shooting distance, as did a shrimp.

Okay you Where's Waldo fans... try and find the fish in this picture. Need a hint? I nudged him a bit and he swam off. See, it's fun searching for flounders! Oh, I can't forget to talk about the green moray eel. It was huge... probably as thick as my thigh. Okay, so most readers have never seen my thigh. It's not this big. Anyway the eel was and probably 18 inches around. (My significant other chastised me for taking that last picture... lots of underwater finger shaking).

After a nice day of diving, we're back at the resort relaxing. To give you real insight into my vacation, I present a first at TWoNN: A QuickTime VR view from the beach. Simply download and open with QuickTime.*



*Be sure you have the latest version of QuickTime installed, with support for everyone's favorite compression standard: H.264!