Mr. W pointed out that I didn’t post any underwater photos from our snorkeling trip at the Bora Bora motu, and I said I didn’t think we had any as he took all underwater videos and not stills at this point in our trip. He said he was able to pull some stills from the videos, and showed me where the files are. So here they are. As always, rest mouse pointers over photos for captions.
This is the Hawaii state fish. Humahuma something or other. Mr. W likes saying the full name and will say it at any opportunity.

Here’s where things got creepy and I stayed cautiously away from the following underwater creatures.
I swam right past this and was called back by Mr. W. Even though he pointed, I didn’t know what I was supposed to be looking at.

Suddenly, as Mr. W got closer, it changed color.

If I didn’t have a snorkel in my mouth, I would’ve probably made some obscene sound. But I think the octopus disliked us, too. It quickly retreated into a tiny little crevice at the side of the coral.

Mr. W spent a significant amount of time here prodding, poking, luring, shaking out the octopus…but he failed. Eventually, this caught my eye instead.

Simultaneously, I discovered that I could swim backwards. I wanted to leave the area, but decided to hold off a bit just to make sure the eel wouldn’t follow. In my head I was making emergency plans about what I would do if the guy decided to swim UP. Thank goodness it didn’t and stayed on the sandy bottom of the sea.