Adventure for the ages

By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 01/05/03

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Ann and Evan Pugh can't stay out of the water. The Lexington couple have found that snorkeling is the key to an active, outdoors trip that doesn't tax their bodies. Always a fan of "soft adventures," such as hiking and camping, Evan, 68, joked that "it gets softer as we get older. Snorkeling doesn't take a lot of exertion."

Though they have snorkeled in Cancun every winter for 20 years, it was a chance meeting with Joel Simon that turned them into devotees, said Ann, 71, a retired librarian. She and Evan, a retired physicist, met Simon on a snorkeling outing he led during a Smithsonian Institution tour in Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles. Simon, who studied marine biology at Stanford University, operates a California-based snorkeling tour company called Sea for Yourself (www.seaforyourself.com).

"The farthest place we've followed Joel was to Fiji," Ann said. They have taken several trips with Sea for Yourself, including to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Bonaire, the Honduran Island of Roatan, and to west-central Florida to snorkel with the manatees in Crystal River. Their most recent was to Belize, last spring. Most Sea for Yourself trips cost $3,000 each, not including air fare.

Their group of about 15 travelers stayed at the Blackbird Caye (pronounced "key") Resort (www.blackbirdresort.com), which is a short boat ride from Belize City to the Turneffe Atoll in the Caribbean. Except for the boat ride there "in the driving rain," the weather was great, with temperatures in the 80s during the day and close to 70 in the evening. The Pughs had their own cabin, and when they weren't in the water they were walking the beach and swimming, except at night — "because the crocodiles come out," Evan said.

"Each day you go to a different part of the reef," Ann said. "Our tiny island looked like the classic desert island and has a fairly famous colony of boobies," she said of the red-footed tropical seabirds.

"Another one of the famous things out there," Evan said, "is called the Blue Hole, a pretty circular deep sea hole, probably better for divers than snorkeling. But it happens to have nice things around the edges for people like us."

Evan couldn't get over the beautiful sea worms. "They don't actually move but stay in holes in the coral. There's the Christmas Tree worm that looks very much like a candy cane. The other nice ones are called feather duster worms. The underworld is a fascinating group of things."

The couple call themselves scuba dropouts. "Our first open water dive was a November off Gloucester, and we tried again in April," Evan said. They were turned off by the cold and the murky water. Plus, he joked, "floaters look down on sinkers."

"One of my ideas of bliss," Ann said, "is lying on my stomach in the water with my arms out and looking down. Snorkeling requires no bulky equipment, only that you are comfortable in the water. A plus is that the fish and other sea life are most colorful in shallow water."

The Sea for Yourself trips include information on sea life and environmental concerns in the area. "Joel is very knowledgeable, and he just loves it. He gives you the feeling that the world is a wonderful place," Ann said. The tours also feature cultural side trips, to villages in Fiji or ancient ruins in Guatemala.

The Pughs are just starting to take photos while snorkeling. "We finally got a camera that takes pictures underwater," Ann said. "Photography is one thing that Joel is into. Every night we look at slides and underwater videos of that day's trip, and you see yourself, what you saw that day, and things you may have missed."

Their oldest grandchild, 8, is already snorkeling. They look forward to initiating the other three.

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ddaniel@globe.com.