July 19

Our balcony is our center of activity for our meals, doing bird photography, cleaning and drying our wetsuits and enjoying beautiful sunsets. Above left: looking south; right: looking southeast

Our morning dive (#11 of this trip) was at "The Cliff" which is the farthest north we've been diving on this trip. Starting at around a depth of 25 feet the reef plummets, almost vertically, for about 40 feet or so. We like to hang out at the top of this fall off and take advantage of the deep blue background for photos. Above left is a star coral and to the right - finger coral.

Also at "The Cliff" - top left: Stoplight Parrotfish; top right: Barjacks; bottom left: Scrawled Filefish; and bottom right: Spotted Trunkfish next to star coral.

The afternoon dive was at the Te Amo site. Above left are the staghorn coral that are growing back up at this site. In October 2008, Tropical Storm Omar wiped out this fragile coral at many of the dive sites but it is resurging. We saw new staghorn coral come up here in July of last year, saw more in January of this year and even more now. Above right: there's a Scorpionfish in this photo and your job is to find it.