Cruise Day 4

We had an early wake up call today. We had to get up at 6:00 to go to Black turtle Cove so we could see sea turtles, pelicans, rays, frigate birds and sharks. There wa even a blue heron. we went out in the pangas and toured the cove. Saw many turtles mating and rays swimming along. even a bunch of sharks. Jose, one of the panga drivers, knowing my fear told me to look in the water. I eaned over and he pushed me. i didn´t go in but it wasn´t funny. Especially since that morning I had seen a bunch of sharks circling our big boat.

we went back to the boat and had breakfast and said our goodbyes to our new friends, Charlotta, Carlos, jean Carlos (from Guayaquil) their friends Tealy and henny (from Holland) and Oscar and his dad Gert (from Germany). It was sad to see everyone go. We also said goodby to Fabrizio. (Apparently was an unprofessional and unethical guide who got demoted to another boat.) If you want to hear more of the detals and "Chisme" or "gossip" let me know.

We then had lunch and had time to lay around the boat. I fell asleep in the sun and got a little burnt. I got ready to go snorkeling in the afternoon but decided not to. i had sen my fair share of sharks today. So i hung out in the panga with Pablo, the other driver. The water was merky and I was told that i didn´t miss much. it was funny because Pablo pushed Sarah in. That was amuzing at least. Especially because once we got back to the boat and were coming down stairs, her pants fell down and she mooned me. partly because we hadn´t done laundry in forever and everything was hanging off of us, but none the less having Pablo push her in was a sweet revenge.

When we got back to the boat I fell asleep in the sun again. i woke up to meet our new guide Antonia who was absolutely FANTASTIC! I could tell that he truely loves his job and cares anout what he does. I learned so much from the 4 days with him. After Antonio came on board, he walked into Monica and Juan Carlos singing tango and opera to us, the new people came. one group was a family from Switzerland, the father, mother Heidi, Son Silvan, son Stephan, stephan´s fiance, and daughter Martina. Then a couple of friends Marylin who is English but from Canafda and her friend Hiya from Israel(?). We never saw the fiance because she had been sick and was still getting sick all night.

In the afternoon we went to Plazas Island where there were a ton of frigate birds and iguanas. Then there were hundreds of sea lions. The surrounding land was a beautiful red color. I was so close to all of the animals it was really hard not to touch them. But I didn´t. Antonio taught us so much about the land and the animals it was unreal. I am so thankful to have Antonio as our guide.

After dinner the 8 original guests discussed the gossip that is going on with our old guide and all got on the same page. I had a headache before dinner and it continued. I figured it was from too much sun and not enough water. I also think it got worst smelling the smoke from the cigarettes that people were smoking. The boat startred moving and it didn´t help the situation. All of the new guests were sick in their rooms and we decided to go and help Jose drive the boat. we were up there for a while chatting away and then I really had to go to bed because I didn´t feel well.

Well I went and laid down and Sarah was brushing her teeth. All of a sudden i burst into the bathroom and threw up about 4 times. It was a bad combination of thing in the day. but then I fell asleep really easily and felt fine.

01/28/08