The Great Barrier Reef

We just got back from our 2 day/1 night snorkel trip to the Great Barrier Reef and it was absolutely amazing! We did 2 snorkels yesterday and 2 different locations and 3 snorkels today even before noon! We woke up today at 5:30 am to do our first snorkel of the day at 6am. It was early, but the water woke me up pretty fast. We saw all sorts of creatures ranging from some cool looking fish, Sea turtles, sting rays, jelly fish, and even sharks. The sharks that come into the Great Barrier Reef are not very dangerous. They basically just come in to cleanse themselves. There were little things that sting in the water called sea lice or sea glass which are basically just mini jellyfish that sting. I got stung in the face a few times it just feels like an uncomfortable stinging sensation. I did not have any sun screen so I got burnt SO bad. It was the first nice day we have had here without the rain so everyone got pretty burnt. Joe (a guy on the trip) got advanced certified for scuba diving. I didn't do scuba diving because of the time and money. Snorkeling was still a blast and we saw a lot of cool creatures! One of the coolest things I saw was a bright blue star fish. There was also a gigantic clam that was between 80 to 100 years old. The reef was fairly damaged from the recent cyclone Yasi. The instructors said that it is actually healthy for the reef and will regrow just like a forest fire. We are going out tonight in Cairns and then we are off to Sydney tomorrow to meet up with even more people from our school there.