The water was a refreshingly cool 72 F. The sun beat down through the tree canopy and glistened in speckled patterns upon the dark waters of ginnie springs. I adjusted my mask and blow pipe and stepped in. Swimming a little bit out, I looked underwater with my masks and was transported to another dimension. The still, sleek water was a portal to another world - a world embodied by nature's pristine beauty. The water was crystal clear and had a tinge of blue - a halo almost.I paddled at a brisk pace and came across an underwater cave entrance about 30 feet deep with scuba diver's at the bottom. The sunlight filtered through the water in shafts and rays, creating spangled art on the bottom and glinting off the mass of bubbles released by the divers. The real world's sounds were drowned out, the problems of daily life forgotten, and nothing mattered except the sight I beheld. I wallowed over the divers for some time, flitting between their bubbles and the spring's air bubbling up from the rocks soaking in the moment. Then, I dove in and made it half way to the bottom of the cave entrance but the pressure forced me to come back up again. Now, I understand to most of my american friends snorkeling is not a big deal. Its one of the things almost every american has done while growing up. But to me it was something I had only watched in movies and to actually be here and experience it was mind blowing. We then decided to go to a spring that was a mile downstream connected by the Santa Fe river. This spring was bigger , slightly shallower, had a bigger cave entrance and lot of fishes. Again I dived down near the cave entrance and watched scuba divers exploring the underwater grottos with their halogen flashlights. I chased a couple of fishes as I followed the contours of the spring as it fed the Santa Fe river. I left behind the other swimmers as I neared the coalescence of the spring and the river. I turned on my back underwater and looked up at the trees on either side of the spring, the sun shining through them and then the water. It was one of those rare moments that I felt so close to nature - almost one with it. I just cannot explain that feeling in words....One will have to experience it to fully appreciate it.
