Diving and Playa Mar Chiquita in Manati

Yesterday David, Raul and I went to the cuevas at Shacks and spent over 100 minutes underwater - 75 minutes of it on the outside! Raul used an 80 and a stage bottle (40 cubic feet of air) and David used his 100...I used an 80 (and had 1600 left). It was a great dive and we saw an eagle ray, loads of colorful fish and a gigantic lobster. Raul couldn't get it, but did get this one.

OMG is that a measuring tool he is using? It is!

Today the three of us scouted out some new territory in Manati. David had been here once before and suggested we try it since conditions were pretty darned perfect. It is a beautiful little beach. We went between these boulders to the outside and headed out against a little current for an hour. We turned back when Raul had used his stage and was at 1000 in his 80. It took us 38 minutes to get back.

We headed north and then west. It reminded me of diving Neah Bay in Washington State. It was very exposed with neat rocks. Oh, but the water was 84 and the skies were blue...nope not like Washington.

This is a second little channel to the right of the one we went out. The beach is a perfect little beach with hot water in it. It was very clean and not super crowded. The parking is right there and so are the pincho people with snacky things and drinks.

This is looking to the east (right) of the rocks.

Here Raul is heading back down the rocks after checking out conditions.

This is just to the right of the rocks and supposedly nicer to dive. It gets deeper but you have to swim out. Conditions would need to be great like they were today. I say we BBQ too.

On the way home we checked out a spot in Arecibo that the guys are gonna try tomorrow. Right across from the water entrance there was a field with cows and this one, lonely pink flamingo.

The guys are gonna swim out to this rock tomorrow and beyond if conditions are good.

All in all it was nice to explore another place. Manati is past Florida so it is a little far but the beach was a really nice little beach. There was even a cavern entrance we drove by. Didn't look like it was a cave, but Manati has the island's only natural lake and there is some unique habitat as well as petroglyphs somewhere nearby as well.