Day 11

The day started with rain and that could have been bad news. Most of us (at least the ones that did not not like boats / the ones that had never been on this trip before) had signed up for a catamaran tour on the ocean. However, if the weather stayed like that, the whole thing would have had to get cancelled. So we drove down to the harbor hoping the weather would clear up a bit.
The blissful mother of the group, would usually sit in front of the bus right behind Chavo, otherwise she would get nauseous. However since she did not join, and since I figured that Dirk would like to have a nagging high-pitched tone in his left ear for consistency, I took that seat. Even though Chavo did not speak English (or Dutch) well, he indicated that even he preferred this arrangement over the arrangement of the previous days. When we arrived at the harbor, Chavo left to check if we were good to go. He came back with good news and a supply of motion-sickness pills. Since Ghent had won the game the day before, Dirk had invited Chavo to join us on the catamaran as well.
As you may know, boat on sea even trumps boat on river! And the rains that morning resulted in beautiful cloud formations and a chance for me to get out on the deck. See, before going on this trip, I had receive a big lecture from my GP that my skin looked to old and damaged for someone my age and that I needed to protect myself from the sun better. So this trip I started every day with applying a layer of sun block and I tried to stay out of the sun (which I generally tend to do anyway when it is that warm). We enjoyed some juice and fruit, and some music (Bob Marley, what else) while looking for dolphins. We did get to see some in the far distance, but even without that it was great.
When we reached a place where we could do some snorkeling, I declined the goggles the deckhand offered me, because I would not be able to see anything anyway. When I was about to get into the water for a swim, the captain reminded me to bring goggles, but I told him I did not need them as I would not be able to see much anyway. Then he offered me his as he had prescription ones. I asked how strong the prescription was and he answered that it was to see better. Yes, I got that much, but is the prescription anywhere close to -6? He started to laugh hard (I think he suppressed a reflex to point and laugh, so he just laughed) and said that it was not that much, but I tried and it was at least better than having nothing. Also, the fish where very close, I think I might even have knocked some of them out when I first put my face with the goggles in the water, as they were right up there at the surface. After that, some of us had a go at the water slide at the back of the boat, before we got a delicious lunch, which I enjoyed with a Cuba Libre, that was very generous on the Libre (or the Cuba, I never really know which is which).
Back in the bus, I sat behind Chavo again, which he indicated to appreciate. To help the poor guy relax a bit after some of the agony he had had to endure before, I massaged his shoulders a bit, which he told Dirk, helped a lot. When I then told him that that evening I would teach the person that usually sat there how to do the massage, so that she could do it the remaining days, he got that big knife out again and started waiving it at me.

Chavo then took us to a national park (the jungle-type again), where we had a walk discovering more new plants and animals yet again. The American-proof trail (that even had a road right next to it, to allow wheel chair accessibility) led to two beautiful beaches. We designated two people to watch our belongings, as there were some very curious raccoons roaming around, while the others had another swim in paradise. When it was my time to watch the bags, mother and son emerged from the surrounding forest. They had taken public transportation to the park in the morning and had walked around there most of the day. They would join us in the bus back to the hotel and Dirk made a call to Chavo to let him know we had a surprise for him. When we made it back to the bus and Chavo saw his surprise, his reaction was priceless. As promised, I gave instructions regarding the massage, and despite the fact that they were not taken at heart anyway, Chavo threw some dirty looks back at me through his mirror on the way back to the hotel.