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Saturday, 2/12/22:
After a sporadic night of sleep, woke up early to the parrot alarm and, after opening up the windows, a delightful morning breeze. We resolve to sleep with the windows open tonight. Had a bountiful breakfast of eggs, coffee, bacon and toast. Got our stuff together and headed off to Clearwater Diving. Arrived to a crowded house of eager Canadians.
I was assigned to a waiting boat of divers while Clay did a refresher and the girls did their snorkeling. It was a short boat ride out to our first dive, Coco Lobo. Beautiful morning, calm seas. Talking to the other divers, it had rained the previous day, and had kept the divers onshore. Everybody was rarin’ to go. I dove with a group of four other divers and our dive master Alex.
*A note on diving videos. I shot video on all seven of my dives and edited it all together in one. There are separate descriptions of each dive, but just one video. Here it is:
Dive 1 / Coco Lobo: Visibility good, maybe 100’. Saw a Drum Fish, lobster, two turtles, one big one with three remoras on its back. Abundant hard and soft corals and some beautiful barrel sponges. Lots of parrotfish, grouper, butterfly fish, indigo hamlets, a barracuda and a million other small fish.
Afterwards, we headed back to shore for a brief interval. Clay was re-certified and ready to go and the girls had had a fun snorkel tour including seeing an Eagle Ray and dolphin sighting. This time we would all be on the same boat.
Dive 2 / Bikini Bottoms: Our destination this time was Bikini Bottoms. It is a beautiful, well-lit, shallower site. Our dive master was Sofie, a Spaniard from Barcelona. Lots of beautiful corals and Sofie was great at finding all kinds of critters, my main reason for diving. Saw an Eagle Ray stirring up the bottom in search of food, Brittle Star in the Tube Sponges, a Lionfish, Banded Coral Shrimp, and a Scrawled Filefish.
After the dive, we returned to our house. The girls cleaned up while Clay and I decided to check out the pool. Then we and made some sandwiches and had some chips, queso and very good cookies. By the time we had finished, it was about time for Katie and Matt to be landing. Nicci and Susan headed for the airport and grocery store while Clay, Jean and I went down the hill towards West End and the fruit stand, chocolate store and gift shop. You can’t come out of the chocolate store without an armload of chocolate that they make on premises. They make several different kinds and are generous with samples. I bought a couple of bars and the Harmons loaded a small box. This will be the first of many trips. Bought a bunch of great looking fruit for just $5. Toured the gift shop but decided to wait until right before our departure before loading up. I have to mention that the young woman who was tending the store was probably the most laconic human being that I have ever encountered. Not judging, just saying.
Went back to the house and awaited the arrival of Katie and Matt. They arrived relieved and happy, albeit exhausted. We all caravanned to West End and went to the Argentinian Grill for dinner. Their specialty, unsurprisingly, was grilled beef. It is a cool, casual open-air restaurant with a pretty expansive menu actually attached to the front of the place that Nicci, Katie and Matt are staying. We started with a round of exotic cocktails including the indigenous favorite the Monkey Lala for Matt and Katie and Nicci had a refreshing martini. I had my second consecutive dinner of fresh grilled fish with ratouille and curried potatoes. We also had fresh baked, warm bread and a delightful round of cocktails. It was all perfect. Things move slowly on island time so we were there for a couple of relaxing hours, enjoying the spectacular sunset just across the road over Half Moon Bay. It would be hard to find a more classic setting. I couldn’t do it, but there were a couple of amazing desserts ordered including a lovely Key Lime Pie with a merengue crust. Whoa.
