Scuba!

On Thursday, the 12th, we got up and went diving again. I have a ton more dive pictures, but they are all still on the GoPro and I don't know how to take them off, so this is all you get. On this dive we saw turtles, tons of fish, a bunch of baracuda, and a huge huge grouper. These pictures aren't all from the same dive.

Charles and Christie

I think those yellow fins are Matts.

That's me! I have the coolest pink fins.

There's a big turtle in the center of this picture.

Charles, Christie, Matt, Jenna

That afternoon we rented some snorkel gear for the kids from the dive shop so they could practice. They all loved it except for Jake. He struggled a little. After an afternoon of swimming and snorkeling we cleaned up, fed the kids, and took turns going to the nice Chinese restaurant at the resort. We watched Harvey and Taylor while Matt, Jenna, Joe and Jordi went, and then Charles and I went later with Doug and Wyona. Best food of the entire trip!

The Island Tour

On Wednesday, the 11th, we got up, had breakfast, then caught a taxi for an island tour. We stopped by a cute little town with a church and some little ruins first.

Our next stop was a beach on the opposite side of the island from our resort. It was not very sandy. Ok, not sandy at all. It was covered in super sharp rock, almost like lava rock. Who knows, maybe it was. There were some cool blow holes, and big waves. It was neat to see. We took a few pictures on the rocks.

Matt and Taylor

 As we were walking off the rocks, after taking our pictures, Charles stepped backwards and a rock caught the bottom of his heel just right, and carved a huge chunk of skin about the size and depth of a quarter out of his foot. If you know Charles well, you know he does not handle blood and injury well. He immediately got queasy and was queasy the rest of the day. Yuck.

 That didn't slow us down though. We stopped by another beach with a little tide pool that the kids could swim in. They were very grateful to be able to cool off. I was so hot. Seriously so hot. Our taxi had a huge sign on the side of it that said air conditioned, but it did not work very well. It was hot.

Our next stop was to see some ancient ruins. They were really super cool, and our tour guide was great. It was a little hard to focus because of the heat and the mosquitos, but I'm glad we went. It was neat to see.

In this picture there are 2 iguanas, one on each corner.

Matt found a cluster of caterpillars on this tree. Gross!

After the ruins we stopped in town for some souvenir shopping! We had this guy spray paint a surf board for us. It was fun to watch him work.

Once back from our tour, we grabbed lunch and headed to the pool to cool off. It felt so good!! We swam the afternoon away. After dinner Charles and I joined Matt, Jenna and Joe for a night dive. This was my first ever night dive and it was a little freaky. I am usually super good with my air and end with plenty to spare, in fact I can usually beat Charles air wise. But I must have been super nervous diving in the dark, black ocean because I sucked my air down pretty fast, which only made me more nervous. Plus I didn't want to get lost, and my depth perception was off, so I kept bumping into people, and floating up. It was weird. I'm prepared to try it again though. Someday. We did see some pretty cool things down there, lots of lobster, some octopus and crab, super cool. I was pretty glad to get back in the boat. There is something to be said about being able to see what's around you in the ocean.

The Allegro

When we arrived Matt was in the lobby to welcome us. We got all checked in and headed to our room. This little guy was on the sidewalk ready to greet us. Little did I know, we would be seeing a lot of these, and some much bigger than this one.

 

We found an elephant in our room when we got there.

Once we dropped off our luggage we walked around to check out the resort, we got a little something to eat, then headed for the pool. By then it was dinner time, and we were all more than ready for bed! I'm pretty sure we slept like rocks that first night. Running on 2 hours of sleep is tough! But oh so worth it!

 

On Monday, the 9th, we were up bright and early to tour the Occidental Resort next door. They fed us an amazing breakfast, and we checked out the resort. Really we were doing it to get a good deal on a snorkel trip for the kids. Probably a mistake in the end, but whatever. It was kind of a waste of time. The resort was pretty nice though.

 

 

 Once back at the Allegro we headed straight to the pool. After lunch, Charles and I went diving with Matt, Jenna, and Joe. We left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa. I took these pictures from the dive shop at our resort. Amazing. Seriously.

We had a great dive. We saw a ton of beautiful fish and some rays. Super cool.

 

The 4 boys. This little bar by the ocean was our favorite place to get our virgin pina coladas. The drinks may have been my kids favorite part of this trip. They tried everything, the rabbit, all kinds of daiquiris, the Mickey Mouse. They loved it. Caleb absolutely loved that he could have his "own bucket of Coke" whenever the heck he wanted. So funny. I have to say though, watching them grab a dirty cup, dump it in a sink full of yucky water, rinse it out and put your drink in it took some getting used to. Gross! I wouldn't have worried so much if we had had alcohol in there to kill the germs but we didn't! We're all still alive though.

 

 

 On Tuesday, the 10th, Charles, Matt and Joe got up and went diving while the rest of us stayed back to swim. We swam and swam and swam. There were 3 pools and the ocean and we just moved from one to another the entire day. Stopping every once in a while to get drinks, eat, and apply sunscreen.

This is the view from my lounge chair at the kiddie pool. The room with the white chair in front of it was ours.

There was a little bit of a mosquito problem. They were pretty bad at the resort, but not nearly as bad as when we went to tour the rest of the island! This is just one spot on my arm.

 The Beach!!

 We took a break from swimming to have lunch, and on our way there Brooke hurled in a bush. Gross. She felt super yucky. Charles took her back to the room and she slept the rest of the day away. Poor girl. That afternoon we watched Taylor so that Doug, Wyona, Matt and Jenna could go diving. She's pretty dang cute.

That night after dinner we walked down to the beach to watch the fire dancers. They were pretty impressive.