Swimming with the Turtles

So we got to finally swim with the turtles!  Jessica and Megan's squeals were priceless and they loved every minute of it!

We had been debating for a while should we choose the "glass bottom" boat option or the more sleek and sexy "catamarang" option?  The cats cruise through the bays like a smooth modern sexy beast and we were really drawn to hopping on one, music blaring, drinks flowing and jumping in the water to experience one of Barbados' biggest attractions... sea turtles!  However as this was a family outing we decided on the more family friendly (in our opinion) options of the glass bottom boat! 

The day was overcast but this at least made it a bit cooler and we parked down at Holetown beach and waited to be picked up.  The boat arrived and pulled up onto the shore and we all clambered aboard.  There was a couple on the boat who had just been swimming with the turtles but as snorkeling over a reef was also part of the deal were coming with us to do that as their last part of the trip and our first part of the trip. 

We arrived at the spot and the girls were given life jackets and they donned on their masks and snorkels.  Once in the water the giggles and high pitched squeals filled the water as they were inundated with fish!  Floating over a scuttled barge (not very exciting) the fish are fed bits of bread to attract them to the snorkellers.  I am not one for feeding wild animals etc as I don't agree with them becoming dependent on humans but in this case it is far too late for that and seeing our girls excitement and big smiles I'll forget about it on this occasion!

The team from Sea Spray looked after the girls so well, especially our youngest who when she got tired sat with La Ron and rested.

After we had swum to our hearts content amongst the fish and had seen the finger corals and fire coral, scorpion fish and others we boarded our boat again and dropped the couple off back on the beach before heading out to one of the family of turtles!

This was really special for the kids as none of the big "cats" had arrived and so between ourselves and one other glass bottom boat (who were not swimming) we had the turtles to ourselves!  Soon we had 2 turtles swimming about and were happy to be touched and stared at.  The kids stayed on the surface snorkeling while hubby and I dived down happy to at one with these amazing animals. 

A great day was had by all and whilst the kids enjoyed some Sprite and Cola we enjoyed the famous Rum Punch!  So if you ever find yourself in Barbados this is definitely #1 on the list of things to do!



An exciting event!

Apologies!  hubby is off work on holiday and so we are taking the time to explore and relax with the kids! I will have lots of lovely things to blog about the island over the next few days or weeks (hubby only goes back to work on Friday)!

The most exciting thing happened a week ago on the island!  Telephones buzzed!  E-mails were sent and if you had a boat or a yacht or something that floated you were on it!  For my part it started with a telephone call from hubby at work:  "Guess what?"  me "uh no, what?"  him "there is a boat on fire" me "no way!? seriously!?  where?!" him "out on the water!  there is a thick plume of black smoke!"  You should come down and see"  me "well I am busy making pancakes but hey, we'll go take a look"!  Of course human nature being what it is, I downed pancake making tools, grabbed the kids and the camera and went straight to our neighbour to tell her of the excitment!  Of course she too downed tools, in her case make up tools as she was on her way out, and grabbed her camera!  We got down to the beach and lo and behold there on the horizon was the black smoke. 

Of course we couldn't help but speculate what it was.  Suggestions from people on the beach ranged from yachts to container ships!  Of course a container ship would have been far more exciting for me as I remembered the sinking of the MSC Napoli in 2007, the containers washed on shore and people's scavenger instincts kicked in.  They were grabbing what ever they could, including BMW Motorbikes and no that wasn't me!  By the time we went to investigate the police were everywhere and no one was allowed near the beach where the Napoli's containers had started to wash up on!

Later that afternoon we heard it was a "super yacht" or perhaps I heard million dollar boat and added to the speculation of it being a "super yacht" we have a few that moore here including the largest in the world.  THAT would be disastrous for someone but still not as exciting as a container ship in my opinion!

Of course being on an island a third of the size of Cape Town everyone knows everyone and it turns out someone or actually quite a few someones we knew were on a yacht when they heard the mayday.  They dashed off as fast as their yacht could take them as the owner of the yacht's son was the captain on the boat that was going down!  Turns out there was an explosion on the million dollar deep sea fishing boat and all 8 people were successfully rescued!

People are still talking a week later of this and it  has been great excitement for all those on the island!  Praise the Lord no one was seriously injured!