I recently got the chance to visit Miami. During my stay, some of my friends and I headed south to snorkel at the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, located in the Florida Keys.
![Getting off the boat](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel2-1024x823.jpg)
After a brief boat ride out into the ocean, we put on our snorkel gear and orange snorkel vests. I also prepared my camera, a Canon S100, for its time underwater. After slipping the camera into a DicaPac case, we jumped in.
![Thumbs up!](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel3-1024x845.jpg)
Everyone caught on quickly and we began swimming towards the reef, which was about 20-25 feet away from the boat.
![Yellow stingray](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel_still1-1024x576.jpg)
One of the first things we saw was this yellow stingray, swimming along the bottom among the seagrass.
![Reef fish](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel6-1024x768.jpg)
An abundance of life in a myriad of rainbow colors greeted us as we reached the reef, including these blue striped grunts and a sergeant major.
![Colorful coral](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel10-1024x768.jpg)
The fish weren’t the only colorful ones, the living coral was also extremely eye catching.
![Spotted trunkfish](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel_still2-1024x605.jpg)
This spotted trunkfish was weaving its way through a coral alcove.
![Reef fish](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel_still4-1024x576.jpg)
The reef was quite shallow, making it easier to see some of the fish hiding underneath coral like these fish: a yellowtail snapper, redband parrotfish, and a blue striped grunt.
![Barracudas](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel_still6-1024x576.jpg)
There were also many barracudas just hanging out.
![Stoplight parrotfish](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel12-1024x768.jpg)
Here’s one of the many stoplight parrotfish we saw.
![Nurse shark](https://www.carl-olsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/snorkel_still5-1024x576.jpg)
During our snorkeling, we saw three sharks, including this nurse shark. Not pictured is a bull shark we saw later.
Overall, snorkeling was super cool. I saw a bunch of amazing creatures and caught a glimpse into the underwater world.