3/18/24

 Today we had an early start. We were going on a 6 hour exploration cruise of the different Cays in the area. The water was brilliant, the sun was intense and there was an abundance of spf 70 sunscreen.

The group of people we had on our tour was perfect. We all meshed well. There were 11 of us. 

We got to meet Jojo. Jojo is a national treasure of Turks and Caicos. He is a 35 year old bottle nose dolphin that freely interacts with humans. He is wild but seems to like people. Jojo likes to follow boats. He seems to enjoy the bubbles from the propellers.

We saw Jojo and everyone jumped in the water and swam over to him. He loved the attention and just swam around the group for several minutes. He swam over to Heather and she got to touch him.

I did not jump in. I have swam with dolphins before. I was being a chicken. I am very uneasy in deep water. I can swim fine, but we are just so small and the ocean is so vast.

As the group swam back, Heather somehow got caught in a current the was impossible for her to swim in. They had to throw out the dingy for her to grab. Of course we were all joking about the word “dingy”.

We did snorkling in 10-12 feet deep water. I did jump in and participate, but I didn’t love it. I even grabbed a life preserver. I swam over and grabbed Heathers leg. She flipped me off. We both laughed. 

I swam away, later, Heather swam over to me. She got quite close so I flipped her off. I held both my middle fingers up to her mask. We both rose to the surface and I was laughing….until I realized it was not Heather. Ummm….opps. I muttered something to her apologizing telling her I thought she was my friend.

We stopped at a spot that was about 8 feet deep. We learned how to find and recognize conch. Our group found several. We had to dive down for them. 

We went to iguana island. It is appropriately named. We saw iguanas all over. None wanted to accept my love. 

Our guides showed us how to remove the creature from the shell. They showed us the anatomy of conch and what parts to eat. They removed the conch’s penis and ate it in front of the group. Then other people in the group decided they wanted to eat conch penis. Heather and I passed on this activity. We did crack some immature  jokes, between the two of us.

We explored the island, took some cool pictures and then it was time to load up on the boat.

We started pulling away, but the boat had to go back to shore because Heather left her phone on the beach. Thank god she remembered! 

Our tour guides had prepared conch ceviche for us. We ate it with some tortilla chips. It was tomato’s, peppers and small chunks of conch in a lime juice, cilantro “dressing”. I don’t like sea food, but I tried it to say I tried it. It was a mild fishy flavor. It was raw so I couldn’t help to think what kind of parasite I was going to get from it.

We ate lunch in a private cove. We then used the water slide on the boat and were taking turns getting in the water. We paddled around and looked for shells. The sand was so fine and soft. We also tried out the slide on the boat. It was fun!!!!

After, we then went to a sand bar where we snorkeled around for about a half hour. We were looking for sand dollars. This was much more fun for me because I didn’t feel so vulnerable in the wide open sea. I didn’t find any, but our group did.

When the boat tour ended, we had to shower off the layers of salt we had collected. We were icky.

We then walked to dinner. We sat outside and watched the sun set on the beach. It was warm and comfortable.

We walked to our place after dinner and chatted the evening away on the porch. Our kitty friend came pack. It was a nice way to end a great day!