Today was a day we have been waiting for this whole vacation. The kids were so excited they were all up by 6am (doesn't hurt that we all slept great for the first time in a couple days). Dustin and I went out to the local bakery right around the corner and grabbed sweet rolls and pastries for the kids. the baker moved to the island 4 years ago from Ireland...he was ready for a change. Ate breakfast and the got ready- We went snorkeling with Lil Alfonse- we had even been practicing in our local swimming pool. He picked us up at 9am right at the dock of our hotel. Sadly we had 3 other couples on our boat, but we were the only ones with kids. On the way to Hol Chan, Alfonse gave instructions on how to snorkel...basic stuff but still great to hear.
Our first stop at Hol Chan was great- it took a long time to get our family outfitted in gear but when we were finally ready we all got in the water. Dustin took Rowe (who can swim like a fish) at first while waiting for me to get in, until we realized that one also needed to watch Miles too. So I hopped in and found that I could snorkel with Rowe laying on my left shoulder with my arm wrapped around him guiding him. (phew...) that only lasted for about 20 minutes until I finally told Rowe he was a great swimmer but he needed a jacket around his waist to help him float so I could just drag the jacket and not his 50lb body weight. Then we started to enjoy it. We saw: two sea turtles, an eel, corral, snook, barracuda, one nurse shark and two stingrays along with other multiple fish.
Then we hopped into the boat and went to Shark Ray Alley- I don't know what I had in mind but it far exceeded expectations. He told us as we were getting close to get ready because they would come like dogs when you call them. We (being the wonderful parents we are) had already told our kids that we would help them get ready as we got close but we weren't going to wait for them to get in...we wanted to see this and weren't going to convince them. As we pulled up we got in- and it was absurd. Alfonse revs the engine of the boat around in a circle and then throws in this pvc pipe with holes in it filled with fish parts. And then he starts throwing fish parts overboard- he probably had 15-20 nurse sharks at the boat trying to eat...and each of these sharks range from 4 feet long to about 9 feet long, they were HUGE! They were swimming all around us - the only thing he told us was not to stick fingers out...they would try eating them. We swam around them for about 10 minutes and then Alfonse jumped in and things got crazy. He would catch a shark and then have us pet the shark... like you pet a dog. He even had Miles hold the shark- and luckily we got all of this on video. Alfonse also grabbed Sting Rays- he would grab them by putting them on his head to bring them up and then hold them for you to pet them. Rowe was great petting the sharks but was petrified of the Rays- Alfonse approached him holding a giant one and Dustin and I on either side pushed him forward (what great parents we are)- but he ended up petting it! IT was a great adventure.
We came back after snorkeling and ate lunch. Dustin and I grabbed the resort bikes and ran to the butcher to get some ham- we went by the fruit stand but she didn't get anything fresh in so we just grabbed a pineapple and a papaya. We made sandwichs for lunch and let the kids watch a show to cool off after being in the sun all morning. After lunch we went swimming in the resort pool for a couple hours..kids have so much energy.
Grabbing the resort golf cart we loaded up for dinner and went to a restaurant called Waraguma- they specialized in different seafood burritos and papusas. Kids ordered Quesadillas and Dustin and I shared a lobster burrito...food was pretty good- we also had Watermelon drink, and that was amazing.
After dinner we went searching for the icecream parlor on the island, we couldn't find it! But then a local jumped on our golf cart with us and showed us where it was. We got him an icecream cone as a thankyou. It was a great day.
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