How I destroyed a coral reef and gained a scar

I know, I know I have been on the internet a bunch today, but I hadn’t really had a chance to catch up on things previously and besides I figure I should just say a little bit about my day. Basically I did something really stupid and dangerous, but yet it all worked out okay. Early this morning after arriving on the bus from Sharm, Z and I were talking about what to do today. I said I was thinking that I might go snorkeling, I wasn’t particuarly in the mood, but I figured what the heck else should I do when I am staying in a hippy beach town where the reef is only 30 meters away. Z said he might go kayaking and so we set up a time to meet, then I ran into Grace in the internet cafe (we had rode the bus together from Sharm) and after writing a bunch of blogs and bumming around I figured I really had to go snorkeling.

So I got ready (a process that involved multiple steps because we had to have already checked out of our hotel and I had to rent goggles and flippers) and headed off down the beach to find a place get into the water. I found a spot to store my stuff and headed into the ocean. I soon realized that getting out to the reef was harder than I realized, but I managed and soon I was floating along looking at amazing coral and fishes. Then I kinda thought to myself, hmmm the waves are kind of big here and um there is a current, and umm, I don’t have anyone with me and ummm maybe this is kinda stupid of me. Soon after this realization I decided to head back, then my decision was confirmed when a stray peice of coral teamed up with a wave and bit my hand. This started to bleed rather quickly, and remembering information about blood in water and predators, I decided it was definitely time to head back in. I managed to get myself back up to the beach and applied pressure to my hand (the coral also bit my leg).

When I got back to my clothes on the beach, a waiter from the resturant noticed my predicament and came over and got me some iodine and a bandaid and helped swab up the scratches on my leg. Then I got myself cleaned up and while I was doing this, he also brought me over some juice and made sure my hand was feeling better. All of this without one word about baksheesh or any slimy stares (I was wearing my bathing suit after all) and I have to say this one interaction with an Egyptian man totally makes up for a lot.

But anyways the realization of my stupidity was growing on me and then when I finally met back up with Z and Grace for dinner, Z filled me on the depth of my own silliness (he had assumed that I was snorkeling with Grace when we were making plans in the morning). So there you go Parents, yes I can be stupid sometimes, but I guess I am also pretty lucky, cause I am still in one peice.