The Red Sea

We celebrated our last day before school starts with a day at the beach!  I was so excited because I finally got to swim in the Red Sea.  The water is so salty that you barely have to do anything to stay afloat.  Out of habit, I started treading water until one of the other teachers said, "Try being still for a minute.  You'll still float."  And sure enough, I did!  Every once in awhile, I found myself doggie paddling, and had to force myself to stop and just relax, trusting the water to hold me up.  It was a foreign concept for me, especially since there weren't waves to hold me up - just salt.  By the time I got home, there was dried salt all over me.  I'm not used to that much salt drying on me.  It was even in my eyebrows!

Despite the salt, the water was so refreshing.  The pools on the compound are so warm because of the sun, so it was nice to swim in water that was actually cool.  It felt about the same temperature as the ocean in Florida, or even a bit cooler - but without the waves.  The beach we went to cost 80 SAR to get in (a little over $20 USD), and we had a huge umbrella to put our stuff under.  We were allowed to wear our bathing suits (without our abayas) since it was a private beach.  However, there were a couple of women who had on a wetsuit abaya (it was basically a loose wetsuit or Under Armor type material).
The beach also had a restaurant where we ate lunch.  It reminded of the Keys, where you can eat right on the beach.  I rented a snorkel and mask from the dive shop for 10 SAR (about $3) and spent most of my time looking at the amazing fish and coral reef.  There was a little inlet for people to swim, and beyond that was the reef.  It was a shallow shelf like on Finding Nemo, and then it dropped off further out.  I didn't see any "Nemo"s, but I saw some colorful Angel fish, a lionfish (which was kind of scary when it started swimming right towards me because it's all spikey!), parrot fish (so beautiful!), some pipefish (they looked like a straightened seahorse), a sandperch, brain coral, and lots of other fish and coral that I don't know the names of.  I'm going to try to find housing for my camera so I can take it underwater next time I go.  The view was breathtaking.  I felt like I was in another world.  Some of the fish came so close I could touch them (but I didn't, just to be safe).  I can't wait to snorkel at other beaches to see the variety of fish and coral that live in the Red Sea!

The view of the Red Sea from our umbrella.

The inlet where people swam.  I swam out to the end to snorkel.