I was Skin Diving the clear blue waters of the Mexican Riviera about 40 miles south of
Cancun when I suddenly I noticed a very large shape directly beneath me.
My brain was attempting to rapidly process the visual input and ID this strange looking creature.
I knew that I had never seen the likes of anything like this before!
Thoughts ran through my head, mostly about what this strange creature was!!
My instincts told me that it wasn't dangerous so I did a surface dive to get a better look.
I approaced this ocean swimming creature on the right and swam directly along side.
It was then that I decided I was having my first and extremely rare encounter with a
full grown ocean swimming manatee that came into the inlet I was skin diving in.
Lady Luck was smiling on me, because I happened to have my underwater camera with me
at the time and I was able to expose two great shots to document my encounter.
My underwater photos revealed a huge fully grown female manatee that even had barnacle
like encrustations on her back.
I enjoyed swimming along side of this magnificent
creature for for several minutes.