Up early again this morning. 7:15 AM pick up for a snorkel tour we booked yesterday. When we booked the tour through front desk we needed to show them our Visas, first time we have had to dig them out since we have been here. Another different thing is they show you the breakfast menu the night before to select what you want the next day. So breakfast at 7AM to make our pickup. Of course the pick up doesn't show up until 7:30AM, but we are ready to go. Another different thing is we don't have beach towels, so I asked the hotel if we needed beach towels for the tour, they said just take the bathroom towels and we will replace them tomorrow? What, any other country we have been to you are nearly arrested for taking your towels out of the room.
We weren't expecting much on this tour, had read some terrible reviews, so I was going open minded and hoping for a nice boat ride. There are 6 of us in the van for drop off at the boat, and I think 4 other people on the boat already. It is a pretty big boat, maybe would hold 40 people comfortably, lots of room to move around. Off we go, about 40 minutes we stop for our 1st of 2 snorkel stops. The boat has a combination of divers and snorkelers. We are 2 of the 4 snorkelers, the other 2 are a Mom and 5 year old, the dad is diving. They told us we didn't need to wear our life jackets snorkeling. We had our own snorkels and masks, but needed to use their fins. Snorkeling was better than I thought, a few small fish and some very nice coral we had never seen before. After reading reviews it was better than expected. We were fortunate to have good visibility and saw very little trash in the water.
More boats started to arrive, it became a little dangerous with so many boats coming in. There didn't seem to be much order. We were at the end of our snorkel and heading back to our boat when we started to see bread floating in the water. Urgh, one of the boats was throwing bread off the side to attract the fish. This is so disappointing to see boats doing this, when we got back on the boat I mentioned it to our guide and he said they need to do it because tourists want to see fish. Hopefully one day this will stop.
Also when we got back on the boat there were new people there? Then I saw our stuff and realized it was our boat. Shuttle boats were bringing people out to snorkel, very strange. We were ready to move on to our second spot but told we had to wait another 30 minutes for everyone else. Finally anchor up and on to the 2nd spot, 200 feet maximum away from our first spot! We couldn't believe it. Our guide told us it was because we need protection from the wind by the island we were beside. So, off we go again into the water, basically the exact same as our first stop. We had a nice swim around, then back on the boat. All of the extra people have now gone somewhere and have left the boat and we are served lunch. It was a very good lunch, we had a chef on board that prepared it for us. We spent a lot of time with the young family, they were living in Scotland, have been travelling for 4 months, another 2 to go and then relocating to Malaga Spain area. His Mother is actually originally from Jonquiere, Québec, his Mother always spoke French to him so he is fluently bilingual, and speaks English with a Scottish accent. Sounds like he has had a bit of a nomad life, and they are raising their daughter the same, lucky kid.
Back to the hotel, right to the beach for a beer, then to the room for a nap.
A couple of errands, pick up laundry, follow up with where we are being picked up in 2 days for our next stop, and check out a dive shop for the clip Andre broke on his snorkel to attach to his mask today. All successful. Drop off laundry back at hotel and time for a walk along the beach boardwalk and find somewhere for a drink. Walked to where our guide today recommended beer, a pass on that too expensive, a little further along the bar passes our cheapish test. What is it with bean bags on the beach here? At about 3PM the beach bars seem to all bring out bean bags and little tables. We decided to partake in bean bag, again brining the average age up. One beer a day was my limit of beer so moved on to mojitos. A group of 4 beautiful young Vietnamese girls sit at 2 tables/bean bags away from us. They had very pretty drinks with them and were dresses beautifully, lots of selfies being taken. They were there for 30 minutes before we left, not one sip of drinks taken? Who knew drinks were bought just for selfies? Now that is a waste.
Time to find some supper. Andre had read about a good Indian restaurant, it did not disappoint. It was a nice switch for noodles and rice for a change. Again one block off the main street and many many inexpensive restaurants to choose from. We had read that this city is know for its seafood, well so far we have not found an affordable seafood spot. We are spoiled at home with seafood, so our seafood fix may just have to wait until we get home.
An early night again. Fun things planned for tomorrow. Will the bike man find us again tomorrow? Yes we made a mistake and spoke to a man on the street about taking us to 2 places we want to visit tomorrow, trying to walk away was hard, harder was he kept popping up in front of us on his bike. He had a good sales pitch to start, he asked where we were from and if we could read French. Off he runs to get a little booklet for us to translate for him, some guy praising his guiding abilities written in French. He also had many recommendations in English in his book, what a good idea. Yes, we are still learning, 2 weeks in and we are still getting caught.
Todays pictures:
At the marina where we took the boat to go snorkeling. Lots of speed boats docked as not many tourist here, Can't imagine what it was before covid
you guys are eating more cheaply than us. Expensive in some places here.
ReplyDeleteRollande