Marietas Island Tour - or - Let's harpoon Dieuwer2.

The morning of New Years Eve I had booked a snorkel tour with Vallarta Adventures leaving from the marina terminal. Convenient, as it was next door to the Crown Paradise Golden resort. Was at the marina gate at 7:30 am, paid the port fee, walked to the quay, and sat down to wait for the boat to arrive.
About 80 people showed up for the snorkel tour and after half an hour boarding off we went to the Marietas Island.

It was a great day to go snorkeling: sunny, a nice cooling wind in your face, birds swarming the boat and in the distance the sprouts of three humpback whales.
After an hour of boating, we arrived at the hidden cove, got into our snorkel gear and swam to the cave opening towards the hidden beach. It was marvelous! Sat on the sand for a while enjoying the scenery and explored a few sea-caves of the main before heading back to the boat.

Back on the boat we soon went to the prime snorkeling spot of the Marietas Island. I was exited to test out my new underwater camera and see if I could snap a couple pictures of some beautiful fish.
When we got to the snorkeling spot, I grabbed my gear, jumped into the water and swam to the reef where the fish where hiding.
Several fish attracted my attention. There was this fluorescent blue one, one with yellow with black stripes, and some that looked like snakes with big eyes looking at me, etc.















Unfortunately, the fish didn't want to sit still for a portrait so I was veraciously chasing them until I suddenly felt multiple stings near my abdominal and left- hand palm.

Man, that hurts!

Decided to break-off the chase and go back to the boat to see what's up. Turns out my left hand and abs where literally harpooned with tiny black needles about half inch long. Ouch! Asked the crew for a small tweezer they dully acquired from another boat nearby and I started the task of pulling out the needles one by one. I think I had about a dozen to be removed. Tedious work, but felt relieved when I got most of them out.

The rest of the boat trip was uneventful and we were back at the marina around 4 pm.