Day 56 04.09.15
The rain had stopped, the power was back on and we got up early for our day trip.
I quickly handed off my laundry to the hotel own laundrette (which was only 3 dollars) and then we were off for a quick breakfast. We had had Froot Loops as “breakfast” but they were so sweet that we could only have a couple of bites.
We caught up on real breakfast and instead I had a croissant with cheese and ham and a juice, close to where we were meeting up at the snorkelling tour company.
After the 2nd breakfast we headed off to the shop and tried on our snorkelling gear. After a satisfactory fit, we walked to the nearby beach, where a boat was already awaiting us.
It was a long long boatride to Coiba island, however I was able to cut it a little shorter by talking to the two Germans who were on the same boat with us. It was strange talking German again for such a long time. It was great meeting the two though.
On the way to the island we saw the fins of wild dolphins pop out of the ocean as they were coming up for air. We only had a quick glimpse, but were excited of what was to come next.
Our first snorkelling trip started off from a beautiful little island with a clear sand beach, only covered in some palm trees, a little rock formation and tons of hermit crabs.
We headed off into the water saw so many fish. We saw a puffer fish that one of our guides dove down to take this picture of. We saw the same puffer fish all puffed up, not thoroughly agreeing to have photos taken of him.
There were big swarms of fish roaming around on top of the corals. We saw a turtle glide through the water (this is a screenshot from a video I took).
I saw a shark covered in yellow fish on its back, moving from the corals to a sandy strip, where I lost him.
There were plenty of boxfish in the water and there was just such a variety in colour among the fish. Thankfully, there weren’t as many sea lice here as I had expected. We saw another shark and even another (bigger) turtle. It was quite funny actually; coming up for air, or fixing your snorkel, hearing a squeal from beside you, diving back under water and seeing the next exciting bit of wildlife.
We swam back to the beach and relaxed a little in the water before heading back onto the boat to drive to the main “office” of the national park. We were surprisingly spent after this first snorkel, which must have gone on for at least an hour.
Therefore we were very happy about the fact that lunch was being prepared. It wasn’t as good as the lunch I had had at the water rafting, (especially as the pasta salad contained canned tuna), but after dumping olive oil onto it, you could hardly taste it.
We paid the fee for the national park, signed their visitors book, and after lunch I decided to rest in one of the hammocks on the edge of the beach, while the others went up to take pictures from a view point. I wasn’t really interested, and apparently it wasn’t worth it either. I had a little nap meanwhile, listening to the waves crashing into the shore.
After everyone had returned we got back onto the boat and drove to another spot for another round of snorkelling. This spot was situated around a rock formation where the corals were a lot deeper, and so we were more prone to see stingrays. We were lucky and found one sitting hidden in the sand. As one of the guides dove down to him he got up and was surprisingly fast in swimming away. Stingrays are very mystical creatures I find.
We even got to see another shark, unfortunately this time not as clear, as it swam a lot further away from us.
A downer for this snorkel was definitely the heaps of little jellyfish that were finding their way onto any bit of available skin I had to offer. It was also hard to avoid them while swimming, as they were so small and translucent, that you would only see them when they were half a metre away from you, leaving nearly no time to swim passed them. Their sting was not like the sea lice sting. It was similar, but the actual pain was a lot more intense than with the sea lice and their sting lasted longer than that of the sea lice. Obviously not like the jellyfish we have around Spain, so no peeing on the burn was required, but it made snorkelling quite uncomfortable. We got back onto the boat and drove to a remote island very close to us.
At the island the others enjoyed a chilled beer, while I drank water. Here in the shade we marvelled at our burns, reapplied sunscreen and went on to explore the island. The island was very pretty. It had white sand, palm trees, behind the palm trees the “jungle / forest” began and coconuts were lying about everywhere, and hermit crabs were crawling around too.
Behind the palm trees there was a swamp, where one of the guides even found an enormous alligator just slightly submerged in the water. He was obviously not going to come and get us, for that the shrubs around the swamp were to dense, but I think he would have wanted to just stay away from us as far as possible.
The hermit crabs were indeed very interesting to watch. Some of them were crawling about with shells that were way too small for them, others were obviously fighting to for others shells and could be found mingling in large groups. We started to pick some of them up and waited for them to come out of their shell. It tickles when their little legs start walking and picking at your hand.
As the island had such an amazing setting we didn’t loose the opportunity for a great photo session among the palm trees and on the beach.
Eventually we got back on the boat and headed “home”. It was a (seemingly) longer boat ride home, which was profoundly improved by the animals we saw next; whales! We spotted the whales a total of three times! It was a family and we even got to see a baby whale come up for air. At one point it looked like it was waving at us. We took as many photos as possible and even tried to video it.
The way back wasn’t as smooth as the way to the island, but we eventually got back to the “port” which now no longer was one, but just a sandy beach due to the tide.
We got back to the hotel and I enjoyed a shower, even though there was still no hot water. I didn’t mind, as long as I could get all the sand off me, I was happy.
We got ready, packing and handing over our wet clothes to the laundrette in the hopes that they would be dry by the next morning.
We all grouped together and sat and drank a couple of pre-dinner drinks, the choice being tequila shots (with lime from Paul from the hotel) or the easier version, a couple of rum and cokes. As we were sitting around, enjoying our drinks the weather chose to darken up again. Soon after it started pouring and we were kicking ourselves that we hadn’t left earlier and avoided the rain. On the other hand we were starving and that got us to go out and head off into the dark for some pizza. We were lucky to have been recommended this place called Jammin pizzas by the people at the hotel, as the pizza here was just amazing! I had the pizza called “The combinación”, a pizza with mushrooms, ham, onions, cheese, salchicha, and olives. It had a great crust and just amazing flavour!
While we were eating, randomly a horse walked past the restaurant, just by itself. It reminded us of Pippi Longstocking. It just walked down the street, with no owner in sight.
It was a lovely evening and it was a great way to enjoy the last moments of Santa Catalina. In order to celebrate this, there was another power cut. It didn’t matter though as the evening and the walk home turned ever so funny due to it. While walking back with our head torches on, we all tested out the various settings on our torches and when we all got to the flashing light setting, it turned into a strange silent disco; this time however just with light but no music. As it wasn’t really helpful in finding our way back we went back to the conventional way and headed back. On our way we met the Pippi Longstocking horse again, just grazing on the side of the road.
After the sun intensive day we layered up on after sun and aloe vera and went to bed. As there was still no power, the heat was quite intense, as the fan didn’t work. Power came on at about 2 and with a relief I fell asleep.
