You’re at a beach in southern Spain, you can smell the salty summer air. After walking across the hot sand and stones, you can’t wait to take a dip in the sea. It’s a hot day, and everyone's having a great time playing in the water...so you decide to partake in the fun. 

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You’re now ankle deep in the sea. It’s slightly colder than you imagined, but bearable. A few steps more and you’ll be able to start snorkeling. The water seems to get colder with each short step; so cold, in fact, it’s producing pain, lots of pain. “OW, OW, OUCH, OOOOO,” you yell as you run back to land. Great, now the locals think you’re crazy. 

‘I thought the Mediterranean would be warmer,’ you think to yourself. You have to go in; it’s too hot otherwise. So you muster up the initial dedication to get past the horrible pain until your legs and torso succumb to numbness. Now everything is wonderful! You can’t feel how cold the water is, you can’t feel at all! 

You plop your goggles on and take a look down: big, mossy rocks, schools of tiny fish, and what’s that? An anemone? How cool!

Why not dive deeper? This is what you see...

The deep teal overwhelms you, it’s all you can see:

Oh yeah, and that anemone:

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Lars Wagoner is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program. You can follow along on his family's travels at WagonersAbroad.

All photos courtesy and copyright Lars Wagoner