Sea turtles | Paradise | GoPro | Butterflies | Love
Hello world,
My names Alexandra Catinazzo and I live in this beautiful sub reality called Okinawa, Japan. A little gem southern of the main island of Japan (where Tokyo and Osaka are). I have lived here going on two years now and probably should have started my blog way before now. So here goes nothing, I'll be updating as much as I possibly can, especially with the highlights of adventure and travel.
Yesterday, we found a small slice of paradise. Tokashiki island is an 'island of an island' as I would call it. It is still considered part of Okinawa but an island of our island. So much beauty in such a small place. It was my second time going to this island from Okinawa.
From my house on camp foster (a marine base in the middle of the main island of Okinawa) to the Naha port Tamori with traffic takes a good 45 minutes to an hour to get there. We decided to take the car this time while my family was here visiting so we could all get the full experience of the life on tokashiki. From the port it is an hour and 10 minute beautiful ferry ride to the smaller island. If it's your first ride, take some Dramamine, it can get pretty rough but on a day like yesterday it was smooth sailing.
We arrived at tokashiki around 11:10 am and drove the car we brought off the boat. There is a beach that the buses full of tourists do not get the luxury of viewing because of the sea turtles and baby coral. We drove to this beach which was empty besides a few locals.
Right away my husband jumps in, he's always the first in the water. First to snorkel out and see what the water is all about. I slowly trek in afterwards. He comes up and yells sea turtle! Mind you, I have been on this island for almost two years and have been trying to see one for that long. So I'm flying, fins are going as fast as they go. I see my husband starting to approach me rather quickly, and as he does he stops for a quick second and yells shark! With so much adrenaline we both push inward towards the shore even though half of my body wanted to turn the other way and try to find him.
After the adrenaline wore off a little we trek back out in hopes of finding the shark or sea turtles. We get a decent distance from the shore and then spotted a huge sea turtle. If it's possible to smile with snorkfel gear in my mouth, I was sure doing it. My moment had finally happened and it was breathtaking.
The turtle I would say was a good 4 feet long. On the larger scale, I started swimming around with him. Such an amazing site and something I sure as hell will never forget. We watched him for a good 10-15 minute and played around with him. To my surprise he did not scurry away. He was just swimming along in a very slow motion and I got to get right up close and personal with him. Very exciting. My go pro hero 4 I'm sure was thrilled getting all this amazing footage, something you see in movies.
So this brings me to admiration and humbleness..
I am humbled
I am very thankful and humbled of the way I live my life. Little moments like yesterday remind me of that and how I should never take these moments for granted because not many people get to expierence the world I live in at the age of 24.
My family traveled over 8,000 miles to see myself and my husband and the looks in their eyes when they see Okinawa's beauty reminds me of how lucky I truly am and how I'll never be anything but humbled, here in Okinawa and then wherever life takes me.
Thanks for the read, many will follow.
:)
