Sharks or Barracudas?

(sorry, no pictures.... my underwater camera apparently drowned...)

Would you rather face a shark or a barracuda? I asked myself this question yesterday while snorkeling at airport beach. But to go in order, let’s go back in time to about a week ago, at the hospital.

Me: “Hi, I am looking for doctor B., is she here?”
Nurse: “yes, she is the one in that office”. I walked to the office and waited at the door.
Me: “Doct. B.? Hi, I am Barbara, I was wondering how are you enjoying our beautiful island” (I knew she arrived few weeks ago).
Dott. B: “Hum, yes, it is wonderful”
Me (taking out of my bag an homemade jam, a box of chocolate and a card): “Well, here I have a special present for you to make your permanence sweeter”.
She took the package, looked at me perplex, looked behind my shoulders, either to see if I came with somebody else (“is this a kind of reality show?”) or maybe she was just planning an escape route in the case I turned out to be a crazy woman.
Me: “please, read the card, it is a surprise!” (all excited).
She read the card, looked even more carefully behind my shoulders and asked me if she is in a reality show. Then she hugged me and thanked me. I felt like a very good person… and then I asked her to give a look at my open feet (still bleeding from the glass cut).

Few weeks ago, while a was in Oregon, a friend told me that her aunt was coming to American Samoa to work at the hospital. Well, let’s surprise her! I think there is nothing in the world as receiving a hand-delivered unexpected package. Especially if you are in a small island in the South Pacific and it is homemade jam and chocolate from a relative living far away.

Yesterday I took Dott. B. snorkeling at airport beach. I like this place particularly because it has deep pools and is well protected from breaking waves. Lucy, Oscar and another visiting guy, Ben, joined us.
The snorkeling was great, until Lucy shouted “Shark!”. She was farther out than us. I got to Oscar as a iron nail to a magnet.
Me: ”Did she say ‘shark’?”
Oscar: “Yes”
Me: “Did she say what kind?”
Oscar: “No”
Me: “Did she say how big?”
Oscar: “No”
Me: “Do you want to get out?”
Oscar: “uhm… Yes”.

Very bravely, we stayed on our spot for a little bit to make sure Lucy was fine (and that the shark was not coming for us). “It must be just a friendly reef shark anyway… Lucy knows how to deal with it… yeah, yeah…” Then, all close up together we started swimming to the shore. Until a massive fat silver thing separated Dott. B and me from Oscar…

Me: “Oscar! Barracuda, Barracuda! She is coming for you!”

It was the biggest barracuda I ever saw in my life. My first thoughts were a mental scan of anything silver that I may be wearning… the ring! Covered! The camera? No, I left on the shore, it broke. The earring? Covered! A barracuda bite must not be pleasant, and they go for silver things. Considering the size of the barracuda… (why do they do silver underwater cameras? They should be orange or red or something like that! Don’t they know that there are barracudas out there?).
Barracudas just have that decided predatory look that does not make you think anything like “uh! What a cute fish!”. Plus, let’s face it, I was born and raised in Rome. The bigger alive fish I ever saw in my life were those huge fat red fishes that the Chinese restaurants keep in their aquarium. Barracuda and sharks are definitely still very exciting for me.

I though of the soft sensitive nose that sharks have. I imagined Lucy swimming with a soft cute teddy-bear shark. I missed her, I wanted to be with her…
Sharks or barracudas? If it has to be, sharks please…