This day goes out to Mikey:

Sadly there was no sleeping in today. In our favor we knew what our day had in store. Waking up at 7AM (6AM EST/5AM CST), all of us flopped out of bed and barely got out of the door on time. From our resort, we piled into taxis which took us out of Costambar and to the “highway” to catch the tour bus that was waiting for us. From there, the bus took us west along the coast. During the ride, which lasted more than an hour, a guide on the bus gave us some history and perspective on the country. It turned out that he was a somewhat famous soccer player at one point in his youth and several British passengers recognized him once he told us his name.

We eventually got to the entrance of a national park where we were giving a chance to use the bathrooms. A few minutes later we were led down to a pier to board boats that were going to take us even further down the coast to a small island. Rather than using the pier, the boats just beached themselves and we boarded over the side of the boat in the surf.

The boat ride was almost as exhilarating as the night time taxi ride from Santiago. It was very fast and though he made efforts traverse the waves it was a bumpy, wet ride. It took around 25 minutes on fairly calm seas to get there.

The island turned out to be a large, exposed sand bar with some huts on it which was protected by the winds and the surrounding reefs. On the island, our group claimed several huts and set up food and drink in one, equipment in another. Fresh fruit and Cube Libres kept the group energized while on the island. A snorkel guide took us for a long trip around some of the reefs, the highlight of the day for me. Sadly, I’m nearly blind without my glasses, but the reefs were beautiful and the fish were amazing. For me it was like an impressionist painting in motion. I’m used to swimming without being able to see clearly so it wasn’t too bad. Ironically, I’m the only one who’s mask didn’t fog up or flood badly.

After the snorkel, we hung out on the island for quite some time eating, drinking and soaking up the beautiful day. I kept slathering on the sunblock because the sun was so intense that you kept feeling like you were burning to a crisp. Even with all of the sunblock on, I still got a little pink. The side effect of the sunblock was that I kept sweating it into my eyes which made them very sensitive to the bright light. I ended up sitting on the beach with my shirt on my head like a hat for a while just to get a little respite.

Beth was quite the hit with the local boys who were our guides. (Yes, that is her skirt, cover up thing that he is wearing.) Speaking Spanish is an asset among other things.

All of the girls were having much fun.

We were all sad to leave the island when our time came. From there we traveled closer to the coast and went into a small inlet to look at the mangrove forests along the coast. We didn’t spend as much time as we would have liked and the guide on our boat didn’t speak a lot of English.

Moving on, we traveled the coast back to the east and disembarked at a small sea side village to have lunch and see the locals. The food they had prepared for us was tasty, if not a little Americanized. But the red beans and rice were very tasty and the fried chicken as good as I’ve ever had. Strangely the spaghetti seemed out of place. At the restaurant, we split the price between the five of us for a CD of pictures that one of the guides was selling that he had taken with his Nikon of us along with some somewhat canned pictures of the island from the air and underwater.

Of course, being a planned part of the tour, there were plenty of local out selling trinkets. Mostly jewelry, some of which Bethany bought and some coconut and shell trinkets. Prices were definitely lower than at the tourist shops in the city but they still seemed like they were making a healthy profit. Along with the people selling wares to the tourists there were the ever present beggar children. While they followed us the whole time we were in the town they were much less aggressive in their pleas then their city counterparts. Bethany and Beth got some nice pictures of the children.

From the town, we got back on the bus and traveled southeast towards Santiago. From this point on were were plied with more Cuba Libres and stories about the island by our guide. In the outskirts of Santiago we stopped at another tourist shop that specialized in cigars and rum. In the back of the store, there were two men making cigars which was cool to see and we got to try some “Dominican Viagra” Mama Wana(sp?) which is an interesting rum drink. They refill bottles with bark and herbs and then add honey, red wine and rum to the dry goods. After it has sat for a few weeks, it is meant to be an energizing and virility enhancing drink. I actually tried it for the first time in Milwaukee at Club Havana with Christian before it closed. Apparently its Viagra like effect are best felt if you have several glasses of it. Luckily, you can keep topping off the bottle with more liquid mixture and retain the medicinal qualities for up to ten years.

They were so interested in selling you things that they would give you credit that could be paid back at the resort. None of us had brought a lot of money so they did partake, though I notice that the prices were much higher. A bottle of Extra Viejo rum was around $280RD in Costambar, an area geared towards tourists, where as the same bottle was $400RD at the shop. It was the nicest cigar shop we’ve been to so far and strangely the shops in Costambar don’t seem to carry many, if any.

On the bus ride from there back to Costambar, we had even more Cuba Libres and were offered a DVD of the day, which contained footage shot by one of the guides including some of the snorkel tour. Again, we all chipped in to get one and we’ll make duplicates back in the U.S.

Arriving back at the resort, some of us took a dip in the pool to eliminate some of the salt, sweat and sunblock that we had accumulated. We stayed in for a while, but the water was not as warm the ocean earlier in the day.

A short time later, we had dinner at the resort. The guys had meat from the grill, lots of meat and of all kinds, while the girls all ordered the fish. In the end, I had nearly a whole fish from what the girls couldn’t eat on top of the rest. Very tasty. After dinner we had a chance to talk to some of the other guests at the resort. The British mother and daughter we having a blast.

(yet another picture goes here…)

We finished the day by killing another bottle of rum and some el Presidentes while watching Cape Fear on TV which once again made for a strange viewing experience.