Snorkeling turned out to be alot of fun. I chose a company with a small boat; there were only 25 of us, including my buddy from the scuba class. It turns out he has asthma and had a bad attack after diving, so had to drop out. The reef is actually quite far from the mainland, so we had a two-hour ride out. The weather was beautiful, so it was fun. When we got there we put on wetsuits, masks, and snorkels. I took a flotation noodle too, since I was feeling unsure. It turns out you can see lots looking down from the surface, since the coral is only a couple feet below you. And there were fish everywhere, of all shapes, sizes, and colors. It was like swimming in an aquarium. Eventually I ditched the noodle, and found I could float fine. I even skin-dived a bit, and was almost able to get down to where the scuba divers were. We got an hour of snorkeling in, the they served lunch, then we went out to another site and got another hour in.

They were letting snorkelers do intro dives for $40US, and in retrospect it would have been better to do this than the free pool dive, since they actually went down a few meters.

Then I took the bus to Mission Beach. A Canadian guy in my room in Cairns said a place called Sanctuary is great, but I couldn't get in tonight, so I stayed at the Treehouse. It's pretty cool too, laid back with lots of people just chilling out. I'm pretty anti-social because of my ears, though. They hurt, feel blocked up, and my hearing is diminished.