Today was one of the best days of my life (HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO RAFAEL AND VANESSA!!!!), possibly marred only by the fact that the present location of my underwater camera is unknown to me. I had it when I was packing, but when I checked my camera bag (see Sunday's post), it wasn't there. So I don't know if it's in the mess at home, if it's in the luggage the airline (Don't ever fly Spirit Air, no matter how tempting the price, says Cassandra, who applied for a credit card just to get three free trips on it) the airline says is in San Jose, or if it may have been in the luggage and may have been removed while it was lost -- I just don't know.
About 3, this morning, loud southern voices woke me up. I waited a while, then went out and asked them to keep it down. They did.
This morning, we got up about 7 and went downstairs for the free breakfast. It was coffee (actually cappuccino), orange juice, and dulces, but the dulces hadn't yet arrived. I never thought about how much sugar we Americans eat. After the second cappuccino, the dulces arrived. They were muffins. We met some guys with Southern voices. They were Coast Guard guys stationed in South Caroline, but assured us they weren't the ones we'd heard last night.
So we sat at the cafe at our waterfront hotel. This place is called Las Olas, it's in Bocas Del Toro, Panama, and it's $45.00 per night for two people in a room (which has three beds). Some guy we met named Raul who was supposed to be a tour guide said he'd pick us up at 9:30. We paid him a $5.00 deposit on a tour which was supposed to have cost $20.00. We saw the tour advertised elsewhere for $20.00, but met a couple who said they paid only $15.00 each. Anyway, at 9:30 we started to get a little nervous, but at 9:35 Raul pulled up to our hotel, we got in the boat, and went to the office to pay for the rest of the tour.
Then we took off with a group of about 12 or 13 other people. Our first stop was dolphin watching. I'm not sure where we were, but we went and sat and watched for the dolphins. We saw at least a group of two and a group of three; maybe more groups. It was hard to tell. The guys who drove the boat would take the boat around in circles, because apparently the dolphins like to play in the wake. It was an awesome experience. I probably saw more dolphins at Dolphin Quest, but they were locked up. These were animals in the wild. It was awesome!
From there, we went somewhere else and went snorkeling. We pulled up to this place that was kind of over the water on stilts. It was a straight up tourist trap, because a dinner cost about $8.00 to $16.00 -- certainly not bad, but given that the whole day's trip was only $20.00... But I'm not complaining. Sophi and I split a dish that cost maybe $11.00. It was chicken with bacon and cheese, a couple of tostones (something like a small fritter made from tostones, or either the biggest tostones I'd ever seen. In Costa Rica they're called patacones), a salad, and rice. We split the chicken, had one patacon each, I had the salad and she had the rice, and we were both full.
We'd placed our orders beforehand, then gone snorkeling, then came back and ate. I used the john right before eating. The toilet didn't have a handle or any flushmatic or anything inside -- instead there was a big barrel of water beside the toilet with a big jug with a handle for ease of use. It was cool, though -- everything is like up on stilts over the water.
So after the snorkeling, we went to Red Frog Park. By this time, Sofi was a big hit with the guys who were driving the boat, and I, as the suegra, was accommodated also. We got to sit in the front of the boat, and on the truck ride up to the entrance of the park, we got to sit inside instead of being in the back (think hayride without the hay). And on the way out, the guys driving the boat were making eyes at her and flirting and racing the boats. It was pretty interesting. Pics are here.
We had to pay $3.00 to enter, and you could go walk through the park and look at all the nature stuff, but there was a beach, so we hit the water and the beach. Where you had to pay $5.00 to rent a chair, which was under beach umbrellas made from thatch, and provided the only shade around. We were happy to do so. They also had ziplines in the park, but we were only going to be there until 3:30, and the zipline tour started at 2 and lasted a couple of hours. I hope to do ziplines in Quepos. We met our friends from breakfast, along with more Coast Guard guys -- among them one very loud, very drunk one whose brother is launching some hiphop label in Atlanta. It was Sofi who put the pieces of the puzzle together and identified this one as the voice that woke us up earlier in the morning. Interestingly, there were also 3 apparently African American women, one wearing a Miami Heat shirt. I did try making eye contact with them, but they never acknowledged me, and they were certainly feeling their Coast Guard camaraderie, so that was that.
At 3:30, which turned into 3:50 because a coupla members of the group couldn't tell time, we got back into the boat. The guys said we were going snorkeling again, and I didn't see how we could do that. But the snorkeling place was only a 10 minute boatride away. We got to snorkel again. I wasn't going to do it, because they only gave us like 15 or 20 minutes and I was tired of getting wet, drying off, and having to put my socks and shoes back on (Danny loaned me his Tevas, but a) they're too big and b) the soles are separating, so it was sorta like walking in clown shoes. I was afraid I'd fall and hurt myself).
But I did it, and I'm so glad I did! There were the prettiest fish: blue, green, vibrant yellows, striped, little bitty fish that were green and translucent blue. There were big sponges or something that looked like hearts (maybe 2 feet across) and big things that looked like old oranges, which were 2-3 feet across. There was so much stuff -- both times I was snorkeling today, I was aware of the temperature changes in the water, and the changes in light. When I'd see the light rays filtering through, I imagined for a moment that heaven would be this beautiful. It was truly amazing being under the water today, and to have the opportunity to go snorkeling TWICE -- well, it makes a repeat trip almost mandatory. When I have my camera.
After that, we all got back in the boat. They dropped the group off at the water taxi stand, and they gave Sofi and me the royal treatment, dropping us back off at our oceanside hotel.
Today was a marvelous day!!!!
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