Fernando and I went to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park for a snorkeling adventure last weekend. I've been in Florida for nearly 10 years and have only now made it out to the reef. Fernando is new to snorkeling, and was excited to swim with the fishes.

We thought we would enjoy a short camping trip, and so we packed up the Honda and drove about 100 miles (160 km) south from Ft Lauderdale to Key Largo.

After sleeping for maybe 4 hours in the soggy, billion-degree tent, we had breakfast at Waffle House and showered. We couldn't cool off, so we enjoyed the Honda's a/c for about an hour before heading over to the boat, which left at noon.

The snorkeling experience itself was awesome. The reef is so astounding; anyone who is in the area and likes snorkeling should definitely check it out. It costs about $30, plus your gear rental fee, and you go 3-5 miles offshore to one of the many reefs out there. The reef you go to depends on the captain of your boat. They have boats that leave at 9am, noon and 3pm, and you should reserve in advance if you can, otherwise it's first come first served.

I didn't think that an hour and a half would be long enough to enjoy it, but the time flew by and the captain called us back to the boat just when I started to feel a little tired. I could have easily floated some more. Fernando, who's not a strong swimmer, was fine for about an hour before he started getting tired.





There are some things you have to keep in mind: You can't touch the reef! This includes basically everything that you can see when you're floating on top of it. Everything that looks like a rock or a plant is coral, which is fragile and dies when you come in contact with it. I saw lots of people disregarding the captain's instructions on that point. It's actually difficult to stay in a completely horizontal position. When the reef is shallow and you tread water on top of it in a vertical position while wearing swim fins, you are risking damaging the reef. I don't think the captain did a good enough job explaining this to us tourists. He did so after we arrived and anchored, and everyone was milling about, eager to get in the water. He asked for our attention, but he didn’t really have it. I could barely hear him where I was sitting.

Well, other than the ecological disater of allowing people on the reef, it's an amazing experience if you're into that at all. It was just like swimming in a big aquarium.

The camping part of our show, however, didn't go well at all. Of course, that was completely our fault. Anyone who goes camping in south Florida in August is just asking for trouble- we knew that going in. Our tent was too small and the humid air and heat from our bodies created an environment like a tropical rain forest inside the tent. The moisture and heat couldn't escape, and so after our late-night game of travel Scrabble, we sweated it in while sand fleas feasted on our blood all night. It was horrendous! :-) Next time: Large tent, fan, winter!