Usually on the last night before leaving a tropical vacation, I like to stay up as late as possible. I mean, what am I saving my energy for? I’ve done this where I haven’t slept at all upon getting onto my flight. This time though I didn’t see the sun rise. I saw hints that it was about to; lightening sky, glow on the horizon, etc. But everyone else was gone, and I needed to get a solid two and a half hours of sleep before breakfast.
But I’ve been lax in updating. Near the end of the vacation, you feel pressured to fit more and more into your few remaining days. So I could do amazing things I can’t do at home, or I could update a blog. I picked the former.
Two days ago, Thursday, we did a group excursion off the resort. It wasn’t that good, but it was different. We traveled by bus/jeep to a beach. The resort we are staying at has a man-made beach that quickly turns into sharp, pointy rock bottom. This other beach took an hour and a half car ride. But after half an hour (or an hour?) in the water, we were pretty much done. But we had scheduled three hours. We just hung out and relaxed and ate the packed lunch. The highlight was a bunch of horses that were herded along the beach.
After we were picked up we renegotiated the excursion and went into a local town. There I bought some souvenirs, including a machete (I wonder if I’ll get that into Canada?) some cigars and the local alcohol speciality. (I nearly purchased a painting, but I’m not really that kind of guy. Besides, a frame in Canada would cost more than the art.) The others seemed to conglomerate at a beach bar where they ate and drank. The guide was great, because he protected us by letting us know good prices and whether we had gotten ripped off or not.
When it was time to go it was a trial for the guide though. People kept wandering off. When he finally got the last two missing people back to the bus, others had gone off to buy some ice cream.
Long day.
In the evening there was some dancing in the disco, but the salsa lessons didn’t seem to take. More just random gyrating. Then late into the night by the pool.
Yesterday was the last day. There had been talk to go to the Blue Lagoon for some waterfall diving so I got up early for that, but no one had the energy so I went right back to bed to catch up on sleep.
In the afternoon we did some shuffleboard and then we got a few people to go snorkelling. There really isn’t support for water activities, so there is no scuba diving. But the snorkelling was easy enough. A lot of black sea urchins though. We did discover that there were two beaches, and the second one that is more remote was much better for swimming from. We rounded a big rock sticking out of the water and saw a brain coral the size of a coffee table.
For dinner the resort brought out cake to say goodbye to our group. We’ve been very popular here, having more fun than the average tourist. And they have made us feel very special. Then we went to the bar and pool and hung out there far too late into the night.
This morning we left. Although I did manage to sneak in a skinny dip into the pool half an hour before the bus. (Don’t make me bored or I will entertain myself.)
I am pretty sure the airport is trying to make me go insane. My watch is still broken, so I’ve been depending on my cell phone. And it seems that some cell tower here is off, because my cell phone is telling me a time five hours off. There are no clocks readily apparent, not even on the departure time video monitors.