After the (mis)adventures of Salt Pier, I thought I’d give a shot at another favorite, Lac Cai. When I was there last fall, I was lucky enough to see a nurse shark! I made an attempt to go around the north part of the lake along Kaminda Road to get to Lac Cai Beach and wow, my poor little rental car could not handle the road. I’ve seen logging roads in better condition! So I turned around and headed south. I stopped at Barends Elshout as it looked like it may be a good launch spot, but after observing the large numbers of windsurfers spread out over the cai, I reconsidered and headed back to town. I spent the afternoon alongside the promenade, trying to improve some of my photo quality.

I got some great shots of bigger fish, including my first-ever pearly razorfish, a pair of transitioning French angels, a nice chain moray eel, a trumpetfish ineffectively concealing itself, and a chain moray eel.

Some amazing shots of copper-colored sharpnose, a small goby with another fish inside, a tube worm family, and some juvenile glass sweepers in the surge, which excited me to no end.

And some curious behaviors, like a trumpet stalking a parrotfish, a needlefish stalking me, a rambling anemone, and one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen, a mass of fireworms wrapped around some fish scraps.

I hadn’t checked out Te Amo yet, so I stopped and had lunch at Stoked Food truck which is conveniently right next to the beach. Warning: the parking lot for Stoked/Te Amo has the worst surfacing I’ve ever seen, so as soon as you pull in, slow down to a crawl. Te Amo is all sandy, so visibility was significantly worse than at the pier, especially as the wind gusts were increasing.

Te Amo is a beautiful sandy beach, the kind you think of when you think tropical beaches. There is a reef parallel to the shore that is in awful shape. Most of the coral is dead, but there are a few live patches.

However, there are still a wide variety of fish hanging out and hunting for crustaceans, I suppose.

Beyond the reef wall is a downslope to the deep, so it can be interesting to go along there and note some deeper-water fish.

I did also get a hilarious picture of a redlip blenny who looks like he’s posing for a dog show.