Only one day left in paradise and we had saved the best for last: snorkeling! We set out with 15 of our new friends, one boat captain and two guides to go explore the second largest barrier reef in the world (our guide added that it is the largest living reef since the Great Barrier Reef has been deteriorating but I can neither confirm or deny that statement.) It was a half an hour boat ride across some choppy water as the sun slowly broke out from behind the clouds.
First stop: Bird island. We got up close and personal with dozens of frigate birds, cormorants, and yellow footed boobies. Then off to the reef. Our first snorkeling spot was quite a challenge. One guide started leading a group to a specific part of the reef but the rest of us were stuck. The current was so strong we couldn’t get around it to join them. I have never worked so hard to stay in one place in my life! I consider myself a pretty strong swimmer but I was exhausted trying to figure out how to catch up with the 5 or 6 folks who managed to follow the guide. Finally, I gave up and joined a large number of others who also assumed their swimming was somehow substandard. The second guide explained that we had just found ourselves on the wrong side of a really strong current and so the boat captain drove to a different spot where the current wasn’t as strong.
That’s more like it! There are the sergeant majors and rainbow parrotfish! The brain and fan coral. The sand divers and a few rays. The sun had come out and the water was calmer. After a little while, the others found their way to where we were and the boat was loaded and headed out to another spot famous for sighting sea turtles.
We all jumped in and the guide insisted that if we wanted to see the turtles, we needed to stick close to him. Well 17 people can’t stick close without collisions and flippers in the face. I got fed up with feeling claustrophobic and headed in a different direction. I was much happier to be alone in open water even if I didn’t get to see any turtles. Apparently the turtles didn’t like crowds either because as soon as I broke off from the group, one swam right in front of me. I swam slowly behind him trying to get some good pictures before I had to turn back so as not to lose sight of the boat. It seems I was the only one who spotted a turtle that day. Go me!
Back to shore and our last afternoon on the beach. By the time we had lunch and got some beach reading in, it had become apparent that our sunscreen had failed us pretty miserably. Even though we had applied liberal doses of Banana Boat Ultrasunblock 60 that we had purchased in the village, we were both pretty crispy with bright red backs and other very burned bits. No more sun for us so we bellied up to the bar for our last hurrah. One of our new friends from South Dakota had set himself the challenge of going through the entire drink menu during his stay. He had paced himself to be able to finish comfortably before realizing there was an entire 3rd page he hadn’t accounted for. That meant that he had 8 drinks to cover in one evening. The entire resort was interested in seeing how he could accomplish that feat. He made it through quite a few in the afternoon before we wandered into town to buy some earrings before dinner.
We showered, lathered on the aftersun lotion and tried to find clothes that didn’t sting too much. Dinner for our last night was grilled lobster and like all the other meals here was fantastic. There was even gluten free carrot cake made with cassava flour! It would be a fine send off. But we had to finish cheering on the drink quest so after dinner we found ourselves back a the bar helping him get through the last couple of drinks: the shot menu. That’s where we had our run in with several YellowTails, a couple of Bee’s Knees, and of course the infamous Red Headed Mermaid. He had made his quest and we had helped cross the finish line. It was a spectacular way to wrap up the week.
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