Coki Beach 2022
We had booked Sea Trek with Coral World and had some extra time between walking around Coral World and the time for our Sea Trek excusion. So... we headed over to Coki for some beach time and snorkeling.
I think it has one of the best spots on the island for snorkeling and I was excited to get started.
We stopped by the vehicle to gather our bags with our beach towels and snorkeling equipment and over we went. Of course we were bombarded with someone wanting to rent us chairs and umbrella's and another person wanting to get you drinks and eventually another person wanting to braid your hair and another wanting to sell you jewelry. You know vacation has officially started for tourist when all of this happens...especially here at Coki.
We declined everything and took our towels out and sat in the sand under the trees. See...it's free here!
I immediately headed for the water of course. The water was a little cold, but not as cold as Sapphire was yesterday. The girls followed me in and off we went.
I have to say, I really wasn't seeing as much as last time. This was really weird. The last time we were here there were tons of beautiful purplish-blue coral (blue bell tunicate) everywhere. However, the above picture does have a reddish strawberry tunicates) was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. But this time, there wasn't any along the sides. We started heading on down and going around the corner. As we did that, we started to see more coral, which was a good thing. I was really starting to rethink if I wanted to actually dive at Coki this time around.
This guy was saying cheezzzeeee to the camera:
Now I did give Kiera a lecture before we headed out about snorkeling and using her snorkel. She does have a dry snorkel and I explained how it worked. She had first said that she wasn't going to use it and I told her since she had never done it before, she needed to try because she needed to get used to breathing through her mouth because that's what she would be doing when we go scuba diving.
She started out with it but once we got out there she pulled it out and then took it off and had Sakari holding it while she swam. She said she really didn't like using it. That had me worried about whether or not she would have issues breathing in a regulator with diving.
I have to admit, the further around the corner you got, the better the snorkeling was. So, that was a good sign.
I found quite a few flamingo tongue snails. They are so pretty when they have their "giraffe" looking "cover" over them. But it does retract and become white.
I was very happy to see the purplish-blue coral (blue bell tunicate) flourishing at least in the area out away from the beach. I still wonder what happened to all of them that was up closer.
Now this was pretty neat. The way the formation was...I thought it was so cool.
I come across an orange spotted filefish. I love these filefish as well.
I ask Sakari if she was doing ok. I didn't want a repeat of the last vacation. She said she was doing good. But I thought it might be time to head back and that's what we did.
We were all getting hungry and me and the girls decided to head up to the stand to see what they had. We waited around forever and they were extremely slow. I finally got a chance to ask if they accept a card and they told me no, cash only. We headed back to our spot on the beach to let the hubby know and I ask if he'd just go up and place our order and take cash. I still had some snorkeling to do.
I wanted to head over to the other side to see what the snorkeling was like. Last time I was here, it wasn't as good as the right side, but I do remember some pretty purplish-blue coral that I so adored. The girls decided to stay back this time around.
Well, it definitely wasn't what I expected and not a whole lot to see.
However....
I did manage to come across this little gem....
I have to say he was one of the biggest octopuses that I have seen while snorkeling before. So cute!! This picture reminded me of Squidward. Can you see the face on it?
I decided to head back to gloat about the great find I had just seen and show the family my pictures. Food had arrived and it was quite expensive. Each plate was $15 each from hamburgers/fries and chicken wraps then drinks on top of that and it ended up costing $80+. I wish I would have packed lunch instead. I thought the hamburger tasted really weird. It reminded me of the hamburger I had at Arashi Beach in Aruba last time. It didn't taste like hamburger at all.
Coki was getting quite busy now. There were several rows of chairs and umbrella's lined up. This is always one of the busiest beaches to go to.
The girls went out to cool off for a bit.
As always, it was a good day at Coki. I highly recommend this place and the snorkeling is just AWESOME! If you go along the right side and around the corner (toward Coral World) I think you will find probably the best snorkeling on the island. It's just really great and an easy snorkel.