SWIMMING WITH MANTA RAYS
Snorkeling in the middle of the Indian Ocean is a humbling experience, much like standing in the midst of the Alps, in awe of the magnitude of nature. I stare down through my mask into an abyss of turquoise blue water, floating on the border between worlds, waiting and looking. My mind jumps back to a conversation I once had with a diver who told me that you would feel a shark before you ever saw it. My breathing quickens and I decide to wiggle my fins in the direction of the others in our group.
It isn't sharks that we are looking for on this sunny day in Hanifaru Bay in the Baa Atoll of the northern Maldives, but manta rays, who are here to feast on the mass of plankton that washes through this tropical atoll and concentrates around the reefs at this time of year.
Hovering above one of these reefs, nothing can prepare you for the moment you first clap eyes on a manta ray. Its beauty, gracefulness and incredible size (12 feet across) quite literally take your breath
