I'm Gest the Babysitter: Ahhhhmazing!

We will be here until Sunday, so today was our first full day. The company chartered a 65 foot Catamaran for a snorkeling trip. Unfortunately, DH doesn't do well on the open water, so he stayed behind. We learned the hard way on our honeymoon in Jamaica (maaaaany years ago) that he gets sea sick. I, on the other hand do just fine, so I was going to go. I would've felt bad knowing that my company had paid for us to all enjoy this special trip if I had not gone. It really was a lot of fun. We all met in the lobby of the hotel at 8am, where they had a charter bus waiting to take us to the boat. It was so much bigger than I thought. It really was amazing. This is the boat we were on.

There was a 30% chance of rain today and it was sprinkling when we left the hotel. By the time we arrived to the dock where the boat was docked, it was still lightly sprinkling and the crew was drying the covered areas and sweeping away the water. Our tour guide assured us that she had spoken to the Big Guy upstairs and it would be a great day. Once the boat was untied and started to pull out of the bay, the rain cleared, but it stayed a bit overcast while we traveled along the coast to our destination. Even though it was overcast, it was still fairly warm and comfortable on the boat. It had a bar, a grill on the back and 3 bathrooms below deck and ran on a crew of 6 I believe. I just had bottled water to drink, as I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible and knew I would be snorkeling when we arrived at our destination. I just wish I had realized how big the boat was going to be and that there would be a covered area. I did bring my "good camera" (DSLR) on the trip, but didn't want to risk the rain continuing or not having a safe place to keep it, so I left it at the hotel with DH.

A little overcast on the ride out to the reef.

Once we got to our destination, most of the clouds had dissipated and the weather was beautiful. They dropped anchor and we all grabbed our gear for our snorkel excursion. We swam over to a reef about 100 yards away and I saw some beautiful fish. I could've hung out there for hours. It's so peaceful once you stick your head under the water. All the fish swimming around and the quiet under the water. It was amazing. The snorkeling really didn't seem to last that long, but it was still a great adventure. We all swam back to the boat and turned our gear in. Some people decided to rest, while a few of us had some other fun in mind.

Napping on the netting. This was the best place to rest, because the sun was so warm, but the netting provided a nice breeze to keep us cool.

While they finished grilling our lunch, several of us just swam in the ocean (without our life jackets, as we were required to wear them for snorkeling). Oh my gosh, the water was perfect. It was cool when you got in, but it felt great after we were in for just a few minutes with the sun shining. We even had some fun jumping off the back of the catamaran. It was like jumping off a high dive and I even did a front flip. SO much fun.

Lunch!! We had a choice before we got on the boat of chicken, beef or shrimp. I'm in Mexico...of course I picked shrimp. It was fabulous! They had a macaroni salad, a traditional salad with corn, guacamole and chips too. Mmmmmm.

After lunch, we headed back to the dock and back to the resort. We were able to take a group picture in front of the boat before we left. It was quite comedic actually, as one of my colleagues had slipped on the boat and hurt her back a bit, so she was sitting on a golf cart. Luckily she was able to make it into the picture too.

When we arrived back, I found DH and took a shower and changed clothes for our Eco-boat tour and then dinner. We learned a lot on the tour too. The weather was beautiful and the tour was about 45 minutes and took us all around the property. There are actually 3 properties connected to each other that are all owned by same group. They explained that way the Cenotes work and how they had to create the canals because all of the rivers are underground. It took them 18 years to build/create these 3 resorts because they had to ensure that they were keeping the environment protected. They had to drill away all the limestone above the Cenotes and then the water came up through them to create the canals. It was amazing how clear the water became as we got closer to the source of the fresh water and the closer we got to the ocean, the cloudier it was due to the mixing of the two waters. They have over 400 species of animals on the properties and they are a refuge, so they are not allowed to destroy or capture any of the animals. There are crocodiles, all kinds of birds, ducks and fish. It really was a great tour. We wanted to take another one before we left, but we just didn't have the time.

Me and DH on the Eco-boat tour.

DH had made reservations at one of the restaurants at the resort, El Puerto and we headed that way. Luckily, where the boat docked, we just had to walk up the stairs to the restaurant. We had a wonderful, romantic dinner. The food was FABULOUS and it was really nice to spend this time together, especially before beginning this next journey!