TravelwithMitsugirly

Aruba 2021

Boca Catalina

Day 2 of vacation and beach hopping took us over to Boca Catalina after an already full day.

We arrived and we put our things by the rocks. Only I don't remember all of these rocks. I was looking around and thought this doesn't even look like the Boca I remembered. I remember this open area along the tall rocks that you could go in. It was a sandy bottom area and snorkeling was on both sides along the wall. It was different kinds of rocks and where's the sandy area you go in at? I went back up to the street to make sure I was actually at Boca or did I just discover some place new???

Yep, the sign confirmed it was Boca and now I was all kinds of confused. I would have to get on my website when I got back to the house and had wifi and see where I went wrong. Have I been telling my followers that Boca was some place else? Oh lordy! I have failed my people.

Well now you would get a tour of the real Boca I guess. I grabbed my gear and me and the hubby went in. Guess who decided not to come and draw instead? This child! Where has my water loving, snorkeling child went to and what have you done with her?!? I don't even know her anymore. She's always been right by my side when I'm snorkeling.

I would find some aiptasia filefish. They were just everywhere on this vacation. I use to have one of these in my salt water tank...I bought it just so that it would eat some aiptasia I had growing in it.

Then i came across this (what I think was some type of shrimp) little guy who was very busy at work. He was moving all over the place and so darn cute to watch. I watched him for awhile and was so excited that I got to see something I had never seen before. I couldn't wait to get back and show Sakari the pictures and the video I took of him. She was really missing out!

A cute little smooth trunkfish greeted me with his presence. There were TONS of these the entire trip as well.

Bluehead Wrasse

A pair of French Angelfish appears. Another fish that is EVERYWHERE here in Aruba.

Ok, I'm about to tell you a VERY SAD STORY! At least sad for me. So I'm going to start by saying I was right up by the shoreline and the entrance leading out to the water. The hubby and Sakari were sitting up on the rocks above me. I was looking down and found this weird looking green fish. I'm going to be honest in saying it kinda looked mean and it was staring me down. A few times it actually darted out and then back. Now I'm use to that from the damsels, but this thing was a pretty nice size....and then I noticed it had a friend as well. They looked the same but one was a little smaller.

I was SO FOCUSED on this fish (and what came next) that I didn't even notice, nor did I get a picture, of this weird looking red creature above it. Look at the following picture and you will see part of it in the top half. I don't know if it was an urchin or what but it was very unique. I was right beside it and didn't even notice. I'm about to tell you why...

I can not for the life of me figure out what this weird looking green fish is. I have looked everywhere to find what it is and I just can not! But anyhow...I was watching these weird green fish (which we would see later on in the trip and Sakari kept seeing them too and telling me about them but I had no clue what she was talking about at the time) and out of the corner of my eye I found this coming my way...A Goldspotted Eel

It was so beautiful and on the hunt not paying a bit of attention to me....or the green fish that got very defensive that it was invading it's territory. The green fish came out and I was about 99.9% sure there was about to be a battle break out. I waited and waited and the green fish stood on it's fins and kept guard. But that .1% is what happened...absolutely nothing. The eel never paid a bit of attention to the fish and just kept getting closer and closer, but still nothing happened.

Another couple of French Angelfish appeared

A school of blue tang surgeon fish

More Smooth Trunkfish

Just a sea of fish....everywhere

Now the Christmas Tree Worms were just amazing here as well. They were every color you could think of and so pretty.

A Squirrel fish and their big eyes always peeking out from under a rock always crack me up

Now I'm honestly thinking that I have never seen these fish before. I was seeing them in bunches everywhere while snorkeling the whole time we were here. They were a pretty cool orange color and I got excited every time I seen them just because they were new. They are called Glassy Sweepers.

I feel like these fish are pretty rare to see...or maybe it's just that they are very hard to spot because they are so small and usually hang out under rocks. They are called High Hats and I'm sure you can tell why by the way they look with their little high hat on top of their head. They wiggle back and forth when they swim and it's so cute. Honestly I have only seen these in the fish stores before...until the last 2 times we were on vacation I think it was.

Now I'm not that sure what type of fish this is, but I think it might be some type of Porgy

The hubby wasn't in as long as I was...I was still exploring around the area you go in when he decided to get out and hang with Sakari, who was still on the shore drawing. But he would come and dip in every so often to cool down.

It was getting later in the day and the sun was about to go down. Sakari is a BIG fan of sunsets and takes pictures of them everywhere and actually has a big collection of them AND makes videos combining them all together. That's how serious she is about her sunsets. Last year during home schooling, she would run outside DURING class just to take a picture during the sunrise. So here would be my collection of tonight's sunset.