So, where did we leave off? I believe I made a lackluster post about how I'd be going snorkeling. Well, snorkeling did happen, somewhat. I'd booked the sunset/snorkeling catamaran cruise and was waiting around to be picked up when a couple that I'd met the day before showed up. I guess I should preface this by saying that most of the people at the hostel were young women or couples and none of them were particularly warm when I tried to engage them in conversation. Tuesday night I arrived back at the hostel with salad ingredients for dinner and found a couple making dinner in the kitchen. They're my age and were actually being friendly and joking with me, which was definitely a nice change. I thought of inviting them to do the snorkeling cruise with me but they'd already mentioned how they were doing some other tour early in the morning so I figured they wouldn't be back in time or would be too tired. But, as I said, I was waiting around on Wed to be picked up and the woman, Heidi, stumbles out of her room with that bleary look of the recently napped. I joke with her about it and ask how the tour went (great!) and then mention if they were still up for more adventure they could come on this cruise with me. To my surprise, they were game for it and finished making reservations maybe 10 minutes before the shuttle service came to pick us up.
I'm on a boat!
It was definitely a fun cruise. Drinks were free and flowed readily, the scenery was lovely, and the ship was very smooth on the water. We spotted some dolphins and spent a short while chasing after them, and then went to a reef to snorkel. I will say I was a little disappointed in the amount of snorkeling. We spent 30 minutes in an area that was pretty murky from the other 3 boats and their numerous passengers who were also swimming in the same area. There was a decent variety of fish at least but in all the cruise mostly seemed like an opportunity to drink and watch the sun set. We were also served fish kebabs, which were pretty tasty.So, a lot of booze, a few fish, tasty food, fun people (I also hung out with a couple of older Canadian women- Val and Rosemary) then came back to the hostel and kept drinking with Sean and Heidi and did some swimming and stargazing in the pool. Venus, Jupiter, and Mars were all in the sky and Orion was almost directly overhead.
It was a lovely night... until I fell asleep at about 9, woke up at 1 thinking it was morning, stayed up a bit then went back to bed and woke up with the beginnings of this delightful cold I have now. I still enjoyed a cup of coffee by the pool looking out on the jungle and ocean and mountains.
More trials came that day, though. I'd loaned my cell phone charger to a girl at the hostel the first day and it managed to walk off somehow. She had found her charger though, and so before I left to go back to San Jose that day I asked to borrow it from her and then decided I just wouldn't give it back. She wasn't super happy about that, but I wasn't super happy that my charger had disappeared while in her hands. My second trial came when I was paying for my bus ticket and realized I was a dollar short. I ran off to find an ATM and found two of them...with a line 20 people long. Luckily, I had plenty of time to wait, pay for my ticket, and eat lunch at a local mexican restaurant before my bus came, and while the bus ride back was hot and uncomfortable, I did have two seats to myself. So, equal mix of bad and good but it all turned out pretty well. Except for this damn cold.
My flight to LA is at 7am tomorrow morning. I will have a legitimate excuse to wear my surgeon mask on the plane this time.
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