Yesterday we arranged for a tour of a whole mess of things for today. A drive through Dolphin Bay, a swing past Sloth Island, a cruise by Hollywood to see the stars (fish), snorkeling, a stop on a beautiful, uninhabited island which is also a national park, and lunch at Cayo Coral with all of the other tourists doing this same thing.
After getting a taste of hiring a private boat in Ecuador last year, when approached by a tour company hawking this group tour, Nathan promptly asked the fellow how much it would cost with a private boat. A reasonable amount was decided upon, and so there we are. Now we are those people. I’m fine either way, but it is nice to be able to set our own schedule and priorities, as well as free ourselves from other tourists.
We’ve met some nice people, but in stereotypical fashion, the Germans stick to themselves, the French always smoke, and don’t get me started on the… oh, I had you going for a minute, didn’t I? So Isaac and Umberto picked us up at our place at 9. We dropped Isaac off at Isla Colon, ran errands (filled gas), and off we went.
Our drive through Dolphin Bay produced no dolphins, but we were able to see several sloths on Sloth Island and even held a starfish under the water. It only takes a minute or so before you can start to feel them grab hold of you. Then we snorkeled for quite a while just off the boat. Saw all kinds of cool fish and even a little ray of some kind.
At 11:30 we were back on the boat to the restaurant in Cayo Coral. We put in our order, told them what time we’d be back, and set off for Zapatilla Island. Here we had an hour and a half to explore, swim and relax. The water was crystal clear and the beaches were gorgeous white sand. (Too bad we had to share them)
At 1:30 Umberto gathered us to get back on the boat. Ok, actually that part’s not really true. Nathan and I had been walking around the island when I decided I’d rather swim around it. By the time we made it back, it was pretty much time to go. Umberto was on dry land and the boat was anchored about 20 feet out. He was trying to motion to people out swimming to drag our boat in. Since I had just crawled out of the water, I offered to hop back in and pull it in. Then we all jumped back on board and set off for our lunch spot. Lunch was good (except for the drunk, young Americans hollering about being out of beer!) We hung out for a bit, hopped back in our boat, and Umberto dropped us off at our place.
Mañana, another adventure awaits.