I am reclining in a chase lounge on the front balcony of our condo here in Cabo San Lucas in Baja California. When I look above my monitor, I see a wide white beach speckled with early morning shadows from yesterday’s footprints. The only sounds are the crashing waves, chirping birds, the tapping of my fingers on the keyboard, and an occasional sip of my coffee. This could be paradise. The water is emerald green close to the shore.

Yesterday I had a very scary experience while snorkeling with a few friends. It was me, Danny, Johnny, and their dad John.

We had already snorkled in two different coves, and we were looking for a new adventure. On the tip of a local snorkler, we pulled off the road into a dirt parking lot. We found a quiet, remote cove where only the locals hang out.

We strapped on our snorkling gear and began our trek along a 1000 foot stretch of corral and rocks that extended perpendicular from the shore. As soon as you dip your head underwater, you see beautiful tropical fish swirling around you. It was quite an adventure exploring the choral. I saw every sort of fish I’d ever seen in exotic fish tanks…

I was floating along, peacefully exploring the beautiful underwater world I turned and saw a giant Devil Ray six feet in front of me. Everything else underwater was small and friendly, but this was a monster-sized creature, wing-to-wing over six feet wide. I was scared to death. Words can’t describe how startling it is to see a creature that large so close to you. All week we’d pulled sting rays out of the water while fishing, and everyone warned that their razor-sharp tale could whip you to shreds. This big black monster was 10 times bigger.

I screamed and shot up out of the water to look for Johnny. I yanked my head around shouted for him.  At that moment I saw two black fins, each eight inches tall, sweep past me five feet away. I didn’t know what they were–all I knew is that I had to swim to safety. It was a nightmare.Soon Johnny came to the surface. We were both scared to death.

I yanked my mask down below my chin and started to paddle towards the shore 150 feet away. I rolled over and began to backstroke and looked up to the clouds in the sky and I started to pray. I knew that at any moment I could die. Within seconds I I repented of my sins and I called on the archangels to come down and protect me. I felt so helpless and terrified. I didn’t know if these were the last seconds of my life. Terror.

I kept paddling. With every inch that I swam closer to the shore, I was more grateful to God. As I got closer, I heard Danny and John laughing at me. I wanted to yell at them to pray because I wasn’t clear yet. But I didn’t want to waste the energy. A few seconds later Johnny joined the group. Soon we were all floating together, looking back at the the nightmare we had just escaped. We didn’t know if those fins were sharks or what, but we knew it wasn’t worth staying in the water any longer to find out.

I’ve never been so thankful to climb out of the water. I was too startled to make sense of what had just happened over the past two minutes, but all I knew is that I was grateful. By the time we pulled off our fins, there were Mexican children standing on the rocks pointing towards the water. We climbed up on the rocks and scanned for the fins, each of us telling the story about what happened to them.