• Return Hell
• Part 8 - Return
• Part 7 - Snorkeling
• Part 6 - La Gran Piedra
• Part 5 - Day Trip
• Part 4 - On again, off again
• Part 3 - Injury
• Part 2 - A Day in Paradise
• More under Adventures in the Caribbean...

• Despot
• Pat on the Back
• Detroit
• The Stupidness pool
• Photography
• Interestingness rant...AGAIN!
• Pizza
• Remembering
• More under General...

• First Tournament
• First Round
• New Driver
• November
• In The Zone
• Broken Driver
• Closing Stag
• Slump
• More under Golf...

Part 7 - Snorkeling

Thursday brings another sunny warm day (what a shame! LOL) & we are scheduled for a 1/2-day snorkeling trip. We board the bus at the usual time and drive to the sailboat moored a few miles down the road. After getting on, we think it's pretty full, but them MORE people arrive. Yikes, we had over 30 people crammed on that boat. Anyway, I had taken a Graval that morning just to be sure. This poor girl on the boat didn't & was green by the time we got to the reef to snorkel. It started out by clouding over a bit, but by the time we got to the place where we could go swimming, the sun had come out. I jumped in and took my waterproof APS camera with me. Within minutes I had snapped off an entire roll. The water wasn't as clear as it could have been, the reef where I went last year in Varadero was better, but still it was interesting. I paddled around for a bit. Nancy went in but seems to have a problem with being able to breathe while your head is underwater. I understand, as I'm the same way with scuba diving. I can use up an hour?s worth of air in 5 minutes! There were some wrecks there & on top of the hill in the bay we were in was a Cuban guard tower, marking the edge of the American base at Guantanimo Bay. We had a nice swim & then back on the boat (open bar) for the trip back to the marina. I took my shirt off for about 20 minutes, 1/2 an hour, then put it back on. Big mistake. That's all it took for a major burn.

We were back at the hotel for lunch, the burn hadn't set in yet so we went to the beach after lunch. I put on my flippers, mask & snorkel & went snorkeling off the beach. It was amazing. I wish I had more film! I had shot my last roll of APS that morning & the hotel didn't have any. Bummer. The fish were amazing. Tons of them, They would swim right up to you. No real coral reefs, but way more fish than the morning swim. I forgot to wear a T-shirt while paddling around, so that added to my burn, which I still didn't know I had at that point.

Later on we're walking by the cigar desk at the hotel, our hotel, and not the other one, Carisol where I have the cigars being made, & Nancy has the idea of asking the cigar guy for some glue. So I do & low & behold he has some sugar or starch based stuff that he gives me a blob of & I use it to finally glue that damn gov't sticker on the box of black market cigars.

Back at the pool we met this couple from Waterloo. The woman is the owner of Molly Blooms in Waterloo. Her husband was a Scot & quite a hoot! I was starting to notice the burn at this point. After an afternoon of boozing beside the pool we took some photos of the sunset & went to dinner. Bought some rum in the hotel store to bring back, and checked out hats for Cal. Not much to choose from but I think I've seen a nicer one at the other hotel. The show that night was some pool synchronized swimming show, or was that the day before? It had all started to blur into one big long holiday by now, the days were becoming indistinct. That's what you go for though. That's when you know you're starting to relax I figure. A week just isn't long enough, but I've found 2 weeks to be too long. A smart tour operator would offer 10-day vacations but I have yet to see one. Anyway, Nancy traded gifts with one of the swimmers at the show. She gave a bunch of pens & some hair conditioner & got this wobbly head thing with a chip in the paint that says "Cuba". LOL

Filed under Adventures in the Caribbean, Sep 29, 2005
 

NEXT ENTRY: Part 8 - Return - Added on Oct 10/2005