Swimming with Turtles

Continuing the theme of moving more, we wanted to spend more time in the water. All of my friends ( popular island....) who have visited previously recommended a boat trip. On our trip into Bridgetown we saw some really gorgeous boats - lots of sexy, sleek Catamaran's ( Cool Runnings stands out with their classy Navy and White gorgeous boats). But while they are absolutely my kind of thing to sail around, if we were wanting to swim or snorkel experience tells me the fewer people the better. I've had too many experiences with many completely clueless swimmers knocking my mask off with their fins to know that the bigger the boat, the worse the swimmers.

So a bit more research found me a fisherman's boat with max capacity 6 people which is a run by an Islander called Charles Bisante who runs Cliff Sharker ( http://www.cliffsharker.com/en/mobile). Charles specialises in turtle trips and teaching people to free dive. It took a few days for him to be running the trip we wanted but a couple of days before we returned home it was go, go, go. 

The boat was cool, I didn't get  good photo of the front but it had a cool painting of an ample chested mermaid. Charles was a delight - friendly, patient and generous with his rum servings. There were 5 of us on the trip, and after we waded into the water and into the boat we travelled up the west coast towards Carlisle Bay. The trip left at 7am so we were nice and early to see the turtles. Barbados has the second largest population of the endangered Hawksbill Turtles in the Caribbean, along with a large number of Green turtles. I've seen Turtles before when diving - such cool looking animals - Disney got it dead right with their portrayal of the chilled out family in Finding Nemo. 

Before we got into the water ( and I was desperate to get in, I'd already seen a green turtle swimming close to our boat and the water was crystal clear) Charles gave us some do's and dont's to protect both the turtles and our forearms when we fed them. He also explained to some others in the group how to snorkel properly ( which was actually really interesting, I've snorkelled a lot as a result of diving I guess, but to have it properly taught was good for me too). 

Geared up, in I went. It's so refreshing not having an Oxygen tank on your back that snorkelling can be a delight sometimes compared to diving. Within minutes two Green turtles arrive, followed by a baby turtle. Slowly a Hawksbill turns up - an old guy who was much less sociable/ interested in is than the people pleasing Green's. We were with them, just us 5 for over an hour. At one point we had 6 turtles with us. Just swimming around and they swam with us. It was without question the best animal experience of my life. I've been lucky enough to have some great experiences - swimming with whale sharks in Westerm Australia, seen a lion hunt down and kill a Zebra in the Serengeti and many others but this was so intimate. I got knocked on the tummy by the baby. I had several big long swim's eye to eye with the young Green's. They made me laugh just with their old funny looking faces, but wow they are graceful swimmers. Charles let us feed them, and apart from the first bit of fish he gave me going right down my bikini top ( not where I want a turtle nibbling for food) it was awesome. They got so close to us. Breathtaking. 

The rest of the trip was great, we visited 3 wrecks - one of which was a Colombian drugs boat caught in 1990 and sunk not even 10 metres off shore. I was actually impressed how much you could see even if you didn't free dive down closer to the boat. Lots of fish and coral starting to form. 

We then cruised into Bridgetown with the obligatory Bob Marley pumped up, we drank Rum Punch and we sped down to our beach back down South laughing and smiling all the way.