Champagne Beach, Dominica

Marco read somewhere that this is one of the best snorkeling sites in the Caribbean, so this is where we`ll go today. After some more rain the whole morning, we left. This time prepared with our colorful ponchos! Into a local bus, and off we went! We were dropped on a little hill, and followed the signs to the beach! `No expectations!` Marco said, when he walked the wooden trail next to the water, with only black volcanic rocks, and no white beach! Here we are, so we put on our snorkels and got into the water, and a whole world opened up! No expectations! The boys saw a huge turtle swimming gently,

and I saw the huge parrot fish nibbling on the coral, and schools of colorful fish swimming all over. I reached a place of sanctity…just me hanging in the quiet of the water above the cup sponges and vented sponges standing around like ancient cathedrals! A little further I hanged among hundreds of bubbles seeping from the ocean floor, swimming upward, leaving a silver trail!

Champagne beach, I realized as I touched the bubbles trying to catch them in my hand! I was hanging in a champagne glass! Salute to life! Afterwards we read that it is indeed the reason for the name! Small gas bubbles continuously rising from the volcanic sea bed, and the spot is indeed one of the five best in the Caribbean! We left the ocean, with the memory of the elk horns , and the Venus Sea fans and the tiny fish. And we were grateful to be allowed into their world for a little while.