st. thomas: day 2 (part 2: coki point beach)

After donning our swimsuits and lathering up with plenty of sunscreen, we piled in the Jeep and headed across the island to our first beach destination: Coki Point Beach.  First, though, we had to make a stop at the Kmart to pick up some snorkel gear.  We finally arrived at our destination, were directed to park by some locals standing in the parking lot, and escorted to the shore past a graveyard and between some beach bars.  We were welcomed to Coki Point and told that it boasted the best snorkeling on the island...or was it in the whole Caribbean?  The locals asked if we wanted to rent any chairs ($5 each) and we settled in a partly shaded spot among some rocks.  After some fuss with getting all the snorkeling stuff out of the plastic packaging, we flopped into the water (so clear and blue--it was my first time being in tropical water like that).  I was armed with my Pentax Optio W90 (waterproof point and shoot) as well as a questionable waterproof housing for my DSLR that had a history of letting water in (but my brother took some silicone to the leaky spot and I hoped for the best).  Swimming with a DSLR in a puffed up plastic bag is a lot of work!

We ended up parking precariously under a tree.

White sand and blue, blue water

Evin with the W90

There wasn't a huge variety of fish here, but there sure were a lot of each type swimming around. 

Pretty blue fish (it was hard to get closeups of anything with my D80 since I had my wide angle lens on and had troubles going beneath the surface for whatever reason)

The black in the corner is from the housing (oops)

We all know who the star of this photo is...the camera even focused on the fish while Evin and I are blurry in the background

White sand and shadows

Iguanas roam all around the island.  The ones at this beach weren't afraid of people...

We fed carrots to this guy and when a wave came up he got scared and we all screamed and thought he was going to jump up in the chair with my dad

Aaaand back into the water (these photos taken with the W90)

These fish really like MilkBones and swarm around anyone who happens to have one

With a little cross processing, I don't think the photos from this camera look half bad

Too many bubbles (Evin is in there somewhere)

After the beach we went home and played in the pool a little bit before going out to get some dinner.

I'm not sure why it is but I actually really like this photo