The silver minnows shimmer by, one after one in an unending stream of thousands. Three large bluish fish float together near the bottom. Black and yellow fish gyrate around each other, coming and going from the cragged cliff which houses anemones and many-colored aquatic plants. As I approach a recessing crack in the cliff I note half a dozen motionless, semi-transparent, orange fish. They seem afraid of the dark and skirt away at my presence.
I need to go up for air. As I surface, I notice the giant school of minnows is nearing its end chased by some fish a little bigger than my hand. Going down again, I see the orange fish but they have recessed further into the crack so I can’t get close, instead I follow 5 bright yellow fish with blue stripes as they swim among the crags snagging a piece of the plants here and there for food.
Later I go to the blue grotto. The cave has three entrances and you must go underwater between them. It is so named because going between the two main entrances the water in front takes on a bright, almost florescent, blue which reminds me of Mary’s clothes, as I imagine them in heaven.
As I enter the cave this time, among the rocks at the main entrance, I spot a red, white and brown striped crab. His long spindly legs give him a comical aspect as he scuttles behind a rock. I continue on.
This is how I spent a good portion of my vacation, exploring the fish in a bay that is the Italian equivalent of a state park. How much detail God puts into creation!
