This is the only chapter Armando fully wrote for his book. His words first, then a little more about the animals he loved most:

Good spots for seeing stingrays in the BVI are at Angelfish Reef at Norman Island, at Wreck Alley between Cooper and Salt Island, and at the Chikuzen between Tortola and Anegada. On Angelfish, there is a street of sand that follows the reef, and many stingrays are sighted there. Even if you don’t see the ray itself, you may see the outline of where they rested on the bottom. At Wreck Alley, four ships were sunk to create an artificial reef, and the sandy areas around the ships are home to many large rays.

He wrote the rest in captions. Southern stingrays at Great Harbour, Peter Island, swimming through clouds of silversides on a bright afternoon. Southern rays burying themselves in the sand, then lifting off in a cloud he compared to the smoke from a race car spinning tires. Spotted eagle rays at the Chikuzen, the only time he ever saw two together. A long-tailed eagle ray at Painted Walls, photographed wide to catch the whole animal.

“That was a Christmas I will never forget.”

And twice in forty years, a manta. The first disappeared before he could lift the camera — his friend Randy Keil was with him, and Sue Thompson from Paradise Watersports screamed so loud she lost her voice for three days. The second came in Christmas 2009, a five-foot baby in Spratt Bay Harbour, doing backflips for the camera, her gills open “like a Lambourgini.” She stayed twelve days.