note This will be a longer post with pics at bottom.
Okay so snorkeling La Paz is in the books, and may I add it was an incredible time at that. There was six of us that made it out - Crispy, Grandmaster, Saus, Reef, Nuey and myself. Excuse me I almost forgot our beloved tour guide who had the personality of a wet mop. I definitely prefer a guide that keeps his mouth shut for the vast majority of the time and maybe points out different landmarks etc. But we managed to snag the only guide on the Baja who doesn't speak or think to bring bait on a fishing trip. Yes you saw that right. I should have known something was up when he Showed in a winter coat and jeans for a snorkeling adventure. So in total our morning was:
-woke up at 7 am showed up at 7:30
-paid to snorkel/fish (food beer etc. as well)
-2 of us got fishing licenses so that everyone on board could indeed fish
-didn't get out on the boat til 9:30 am or so
and the guide forgot bait. YES BAIT! How does that happen? Like honestly that's like Santa leaving kids I owe you's. No, even worse it's like Santa leaving notes saying "I don't owe you, and you will receive nothing this year kids as Santa has gambled your Christmas away". Well not really but you understand my frustration /rant. Austin and Nuey tried fishing for about 30 minutes or so but apparently bait is a fairly big deal and fish aren't fooled by only hooks. We moved on shortly there after


Afterward, things were as close to livin it up as I have experienced. Six of us on a boat, a few cervesas, some cebiche, couple sandwiches and of course snorkeling gear which our host was kind enough to remember. We were on or merry little way to hang out on a beach and sip our ballenas for a bit first, Crispy was in great form. His first play for the day was dropping his 1 litre beer in the sand FAIL. It was then we were swarmed by killer bees from hell for the next 10 minutes. That really shortened our beach stay and off we went to the snorkel headquarters.

After about an hour of convo from poker to music and how much each of us would spend to own random islands we'd passed along the way( and how wed develop on them). We were there! Nothing disappointing whatsoever. We each suited up and hit the sea. My entrance wasn't all that great. After all I was in a Wetsuit, life jacket, goggles, snorkel and flippers. How great a splash could I possibly make wearing all that you ask (insert weight joke here).Well here it is my mediocre entrance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSO0vfSAck
It should be noted that by mediocre I meant Kick Ass! After my 9.4/10 entrance in to the water ( I leave some room for improvement) our day got truly epic. I swam through schools a fish, and was literally a flippers length from groups of sea lions. Although I wore the life jacket for style mainly, It deserves some credit as it allowed me to last a bit longer than had I gone without. Toward the end we even got some footage of our favorite Sea Lion right near the boat hanging out.
http://www.youtube.com/user/rickyrey.../1/ZOonLj1dbWA
We hopped back in the boat had some sandwiches, some seafood/tuna salsa's of sort called cebiche and we were off to another beach.

Not a ton to report from the other beach other than the fact it was the clearest water I'd ever seen and it was where I got the most sun. All of us hung out in the water around the boat, just shooting the breeze talking about our pasts and what not. Truly a cool group of guys that I will not only keep in touch with but look forward to traveling with again.

From there we were headed back for the shore when the unthinkable happened... Saus overheard the guy over the intercom say there was a Whale Shark in the vicinity. Obviously our cue to track down a shark. I'll be honest I was happy watching Manta ray's fly out of the water, swimming through thousands of fish to get to the Sea Lions, it was all great. However something about asking our guide to take us to a shark that's over 5 meters in length seemed a little bit on the "crazy side" or more like the " Remind me, why the fuck are we doing this side?" But hey, when in La Paz... We ended up seeing three of them and the locals were riding them by the fins, this obviously being Saus and Nuey's cue to go voluntarily swim with a shark. I was totally going to as well but the guys needed a camera man so I reluctantly stayed behind and bit the "proverbial bullet." The guys tried their best to get close to them while swimming, but he was a tough shark to get a hold of! They were absolutely massive and our boat actually went over one of them, I definitely thought we were going for a flip at that point. Link to the bit of the shark I caught on film
http://www.youtube.com/user/rickyrey.../2/tDr12TPeP8E


We then ventured back to the mainland, enjoying the rest of a nice boat ride. Saus and I were getting our Ipods on and of course Austin and Kyle being the party animals they are were counting sheep. All in all it was definitely a cool experience and one that I will never forget. Pound for pound the most fun I have had on this trip!

Shark Watch


Snorkel Destination


Our buddy


Saus


Blue Steel


Party Animals


Crispy Pressing Blankets


Joe Cool


Team Snorkel


Johnny Pylon (tour guide unextraordinaire)


Crispy and I


The Last Beach We Stopped At


Crispy and His Spilled Ballena