Barbados Shenanigans

When we weren't trying all sorts of yummy food and meeting up with family, the gang and I found ways to entertain ourselves. One day we went tubing, which was nothing like the experience I had in Massachusetts, one evening was spent on a pirate party boat, and another day we went snorkeling and swimming with turtles.

I know what you're thinking. That's so cool! Why didn't you post about this earlier?  Well, the main reason is because Mike took some great video and pictures with his GoPro and I didn't bring the cable to hook it up to my tablet. Womp womp. And as cool as writing about it is, pictures really enhance the story. So I waited until we got home stuck in the Barbados airport for an eight hour delay, where we eventually ended up in the VIP lounge with a computer where I could hook up the camera and write about our adventures.  Thanks, American Airlines.  But not really.

Tubing
In June, Mike and I went up to his parents' to go tubing along the Quaboag River, where we slowly floated on down while shooting the breeze.  When Kim suggested we go tubing one afternoon, I thought it would be somewhat like that.  Oh boy, I was wrong.

These guys had huge inter tubes with the middle section covered up so that you could lie on them and had them tied to the end of their boat.  They then put the pedal to the metal and took sharp turns, trying to see how many people they could get to fall off.  It was so. much. fun.  Sadly, I don't have pictures, but Mike took some great videos that I'm going to edit and post on YouTube at a later date.  Keep a look out for it!

Jolly Rodger
If you ask my friends and family what sort of activities I'm not really into, I promise you that a party cruise would be a fairly popular answer.  When Kim suggested that we go on the Jolly Rodger, I was leaning towards skipping it.  But then Reggie and Linda decided to go as well, and it was hard to say no.  In the end, I am so happy that Mike and I did go.

Reggie, Mike, me, Linda, and James before getting on the boat.

Kim and Jerry.

The Jolly Rodger is a pirate ship that does lunch and dinner shows.  All of us went for the dinner show on Thursday and had a blast.  You arrive at the port in Bridgetown for pre-dinner drinks and a show.  They had a drag queen host and fire breathers, dancers, and more.

Kim with our drag queen Emcee. 

Crop Over dancers. 

After the show, you hop on the boat for dinner and, you guessed it, more drinks!  There is also dancing and another little show that they put on towards the end of the cruise.

The entire thing was admittedly a little corney, but we all had such a great time.  It was raining a little before and during our time on the ship, but towards the end it let up.  Nobody seemed to notice that the rain had stopped, which was fantastic because Mike and I went dancing on the top deck and no one else was there!  We were able to make total fools out of ourselves without onlookers.  Evenutally, we got Reggie and Linda to come up as well and they agreed that it was much nicer than dancing on the bottom deck like a bunch of packed-in sardines.

Even though this blurry, I feel like it perfectly captured our evening. 

Snorkeling and Turtles
You long time readers are already familiar with my past snorkeling adventures.  I have come to enjoy it so much that I am seriously entertaining the idea of becoming SCUBA certified.  Getting up close to these fish and other animals is absolutely amazing and I'd love to get closer.

I think it's a good look for us.

One morning, we got on a boat that took us out to a ship wreck where an artificial reef has been made.  We got to see all sorts of fish up close and personal.  I have never been so close to so many fish at once.  You could reach out and touch them (if you were fast enough).  It was nuts.

The reef on the ship wreck.

After we explored the ship wreck, we got back on the boat and headed over to see some turtles!  It was one of the coolest experiences of my life.  They even got close enough that you could reach out and touch their shells. 

So cool.

Now we can put turtles on our list of animals that we have swum with.  Hopefully we can add dolphins next!

These excursions were a lot of fun.  And being able to enjoy them with family that you don't get to see regularly made it even better.

Beach Bums

I love the beach and wanted to make sure we hit it up before we went home.  Our travel agent originally said that we should go to Mozambique, but I wanted to stay in South Africa.  So she found us a great place to stay in the KwaZulu Natal region.

We flew into Durban and spent a night at the Coco de Mer hotel in Ballito.  The wind was so strong when we arrived that when I stepped out of the airplane in Durban, I almost got knocked over.  When we got to our hotel, we decided to walk down to the beach to check it out.  Because of the wind, the waves were massive.  The picture below can't do the weather justice.  It has been a very long time since I've seen waves that big.

So why did we spend only one night in Ballito?  Our next stop, the Thonga Beach Lodge, was four hours north of Durban.  And then, we had to take a 4x4 for another hour to get to the lodge.  It was a long drive and South Africans who live outside of the cities avoid driving at night if they can.  This is mainly due to the fact that the roads don't have lights and cows roam wherever they want, including in the middle of the road.  One of our drivers told us that the cows really like to lie down in the road at night because it's warm.  Imagine turning a corner and having a black cow chilling on the road right there.  So there you go.  That's why we don't drive at night in rural South Africa.

The lodge is located in a World Heritage Site.  The beach there was so beautiful and untouched.  It  went for miles and miles with no one there except for the people who were staying at the lodge.  The Indian Ocean was crystal clear and gorgeous shades of blue.  It was truly beautiful.

Our suite was located all the way end of the property and we had a beautiful view, as well as our own pool.  Every day, we ate under this massive tree and listened to the waves crash against the shore.  And since the lodge can only accommodate roughly 30 people, we never felt crowded.

The lodge itself is located on property owned by a Zulu village located not too far away.  The owners of the lodge are leasing it from the tribe.  As with most other places where we stayed, the vast majority of the staff was from the village.  We learned that when a job slot opens up at the lodge, its owner goes to the village chief and lets him know.  In turn, the chief offers the job to a person in a family who really needs the money.

There was no shortage of things to do while we were there.  On our second day, we went on a snorkeling in the morning and on a sundowner on the largest freshwater lake in Southern Africa at night.  The snorkeling was out of this world.  We saw all sorts of fish and even octopus!  Mike had so much fun that he went back to do it a second time.

On our third day there, we attempted to kayak.  I say attempted because it was so windy that we couldn't go all that far.  There was one moment when Mike thought we were going to tip over, but luckily we didn't.  If you really want to know how to test a relationship, stick two people in a kayak on a windy day.  Luckily, we passed that test.

Mike and I thoroughly enjoyed our time at Thonga, even if we were the youngest people there by at least 15 years.  But once we got to talking with people, that didn't matter.  We made friends with a British couple who invited us to stay with them in London.  Expect some posts from London :)

The beach was the perfect way for us to end our trip.  Being able to do whatever pleased was truly relaxing.   Mike and I could not have asked for a better finale to our trip of a lifetime.

Snorkeling, Diving for Conch, and Hanging with Iguanas

Yesterday Mike and I were handed a brochure for various excursions you can take from our resort.  While we lounged on the beach, we flipped through it and saw one for snorkeling.  We had heard good things about it from multiple people, so we decided to sign up.  This morning at 9 AM, the boat came and got us for our adventure.

To quote Andy Samberg, "I'm on a boat!"

Mike and I, along with three other couples, set off on the incredibly choppy waters of the Atlantic to the reef that lies just beyond the island.  There were a couple moments when the current was getting so rough that I was getting nervous, but arriving at the reef made it all worth it.

Each person was given a pair of flippers and snorkeling goggles and was told to head out.  We set off from the side of the boat and began to explore.  The fish were all sorts of magnificent colors, ranging from white to purple to black and yellow.  I even saw one that was yellow and purple and thought it would be the perfect mascot for the Minnesota Vikings because its colors were exactly the same.  Since the water was so choppy, it pushed the fish in all sorts of directions that they didn't want to head into.  They were trying so hard to eat off of the coral but kept getting swept away.  Even I was getting swept away.  But it was a great time, especially since the last time I went snorkeling I kept getting water in my goggles, making it very hard to see anything.

After our group was done taking a peek at the ocean life, we left the Atlantic and headed towards the Caribbean Sea to go dive for conch.  While the water was much less choppy, the current was very strong.  I managed to find a conch within five minutes, but me being me, I went to pick it up and the seaweed freaked me out so I dropped it like a spaz.  A few minutes later, I found another one that was face up and got really excited, but manged to drop that one too.  After another fifteen minutes of searching, I found one, picked it up, and started to head back to our boat.  I was so proud of myself for finally finding one that I willed my tired legs to get me to the boat.  I arrived, beaming with pride, only to be told that the conch I found was too small and that I had to throw it back.  Needless to say, I was bummed.  And then to add insult to injury, Mike one- (or should I say three-) upped me by coming back to the boat with three conch.  Only one of them was big enough to keep, so we had to throw the rest back.  He was the only person that managed to find one big enough to hold on to, so that was pretty cool.

This is what the conch looked like in the water.

Our next stop was the uninhabited Iguana Island.  The first thing we did at Iguana Island was watch one of the crew members get the conch ready to eat.  First they hammered the shell, and then pulled the conch out of the shell and cut it up so that the meat could be prepared.  Fun fact: the conch spine is an aphrodisiac.  I tried it and I have to say that a.) it tasted like a salty spaghetti noodle and b.) it didn't really work.  Keep that in mind in case anyone ever tries to offer it to you.

A female iguana.

The iguanas on the island were only about a foot long.  One of our tour guides had a bag full of chopped up veggies that he would throw out so that the iguanas would come out.  They weren't really scared of us and they were really fun to watch scurry around.

On the other side of the island, there was a beautiful beach with amazing water where we went for a quick swim.  When we got back to the boat, conch salad was waiting for us.  It was a lot like ceviche, meaning it was absolutely delicious.  Now, the last time I went on a maritime excursion in the Caribbean, it did not end well for me.  So I really had to work on not eating a whole lot to prevent reliving the St. Martin's Boat Trip of '06 nightmare.  It was not easy, but I made it back to the resort without my lunch making a reappearance.  Overall, it was a success.

Conch salad.  Super yummy.

I'm really glad that we decided to go on this trip.  Usually I have reservations about excursions like this, but the guides were a lot of fun, as were the other couples, and I didn't feel like it was super kitschy.  It made for a great day.  Plus, we got to keep the conch shell that Mike found.  In my opinion, it is one of the coolest souvenirs that we have ever gotten.