Day #7

Today was our day off, and we went snorkeling.  Richard wasn't feeling well, so he stayed behind and slept most of the day.  He's feeling much better now.  We took about a half hour bus ride, and then an hour long boat ride out to a small set of islands where we snorkeled.  It was called the Cayos Cochinos, which means Big Keys.  There were two larger islands made of volcanic rock, and then seven smaller islands made of built up reef and coral.  We watched a short video (which had way more sea life than we actually saw) and then the told us what we could and could not do, and then we went out in the boat and jumped off.  For the most part we stayed horizontal above the water because there is fire coral that if you touch is poisonous and they warned us to stay away.  I took an underwater camera with me, but I'll have to wait and see how the pictures turn out.

This is view of the mainland as we were leaving.

Here's the boat we rode over in.  There was also a group from Spain there on vacation that rode with us.  It was a pretty choppy ride.

Here is our tour guide giving us a lecture on the local islands and what we can expect to see while snorkeling.

We ordered our lunch before going snorkeling, and then they went out and caught what we ordered to have ready for us in a couple hours.  The restaurant is a tiny grass hut building without walls.

Most of us got the fried fish.

This is Jennifer, and she is a new intern with the Pettengills.  She'll be here for 11 months, and she arrived just a few hours before we did and was thrown right in to a role of responsibility as head of the dorms and translator.  She's been doing a great job.

Daniel went big with the lobster.

The shrimp were good as well.

Here's a view leaving the island we ate lunch at.  It's small, and has maybe 70-80 huts on it.  You can stay there for $5 a night.  Not too bad.

After our snorkeling trip, we went out to a souvenir shop where they had some local trinkets and stuff.  Now we have one last dinner with the team, and then pack up for our trip home tomorrow.