Oh, the Places You'll Go: Where the Coral Isn't Dead

I spread a handful of sunscreen on my wet skin. I can already see sunburns on my Friends but there is too much sun and sand to fix it now. We sit under the umbrella and shove hats on our heads and drink water and eat sushi but we will still be burnt tonight.

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We see a sea turtle, blinking in the murky water, flippers swaying in the waves, and he is magnificent. I want to hold him, to drop him off in the most beautiful part of the reef where the coral isn't dead and there's food for him to eat and there are no boats to disturb him. When people ask why I am an environmentalist, I hope this is what I can tell them. 

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I am a tourist, heavy camera slung around my neck like a trophy I did not earn. Sand is kicked against my calves as I wade through burning white sand dunes, unsure of where to point my camera because when everything is beautiful you can't take an ugly picture. 

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I chase a stingray through the water. He is faster than I am, gliding through the water without effort, more part of the water than I am of the air. My Friends are frightened of them but I don't mind, as long as I keep my distance. These rays are not pets, they are wild animals, and I don't want to bother them. 

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I sway with the tilting of the boat and watch as whitecaps collide in a wild, chaotic dance, in time to a disorganised version of Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies. It is mesmerising, salt spray on my face. 

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This must be what it's like to be young; sandy and wet and tired, surrounded by Friends, salt on my lips, the horizon sharp enough to slice through sea and sky. I feel like napping for a month, or like building a sandcastle, or like splashing through the water until my legs give out from under me. I do none of the above. Instead, I hang off the side of a hot pink blow-up pool, dangling my legs in the water, and trade jokes with Friends. Sometimes we fight the current. Sometimes we let it guide us down the shoreline. Sometimes, it doesn't matter, and that's what makes it perfect.