Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Los Roques - SARQUI and ESPENQUI

We left Noronqui and headed to Sarqui, which is right next door to Espenqui. Artemo was there so we exchanged hello's (they headed off to Agua Cay that afternoon) and Phillip and I went snorkeling. This was, to me, the most beautiful of all the islands I've seen, just the setting, the abundance of marine life, the clarity of the water - it was just incredible. We dinghied over to Yanqui (a tiny deserted island about a mile from Sarqui) but the beach was surrounded by reefs and while I tried to find a way in for the dinghy, everywhere I snorkeled led to a dead end or rocks or coral. So we abandoned that idea and went to Espenqui to snorkel. The photo below is Espenqui.


My camera is in an underwater casing which is essentially just a strong plastic bag with a lens cover - that's what you see in the top left hand corner (sorry). This is a shot of Espenqui.



Sunset from Sarqui (below). There was an absolute feeding frenzy in the water for about an hour around sunset - constant fish jumping and birds swooping down - not just one fish here or there, but everywhere you looked there were fish jumping. It was amazing.


Espenqui again.


Snorkeling between Sarqui and Espenqui. My camera doesn't do it justice.



There were so many fish, in every direction. We truly believe this is the birthplace of all the fish in the Caribbean - there were just so many of them, all shapes and sizes, from fish the size of a dot in huge massive swarms (that's the only real way to explain them - saying a school or shoal of fish really doesn't express just how huge they were). It was almost like hallucinating - fish everywhere, all directions, up down sideways, glittering in the sun.






This photo below always makes me chuckle - I know it's the fishes' gills but they look like they have great big smiles on their faces. If you click on the photo, it should enlarge.








So many fish - I couldn't resist taking a video, although it's not very good.

My favorite fish is the trunkfish - a huge one swam right in front of me and came so close to the camera. He more or less came and looked right in the lens - of course my camera wasn't switched on at the time (the camera auto switches off after 3 minutes of no use) so I missed the best parts.



After Sarqui, we left for Agua Cay - somehow I didn't take any photos! But after Agua Cay, we left first light for Isla Las Aves.