So. The catamaran tale.
This would be one of the three mornings in Cuba that involved being awake before dawn. Still being awake at dawn I can deal with, but waking up before dawn is a whole other thing, and deuced unpleasant. Anyhoo.
As the sun rose, we grabbed breakfast and met our bus. Bus takes us to the boat. The catamaran had a basic bar service, with (I think) a few beers but mostly stuff you could put rum in. A popular place to sit was up front, either on the prongs themselves (catamarans have prongs out front, dontcha know) or on the netting in between. The first time you stepped out onto the rope net that separated you from the water was a little hair-raising, but you got used to it.
The first stop was off a reef out in the water. This would be our only chance to do some snorkeling, as it turned out. My whole family is big on snorkeling, so we were glad for the chance. I got photos of fish, but not with my diital camera, so I got nothing for you on that front.
Second stop was a little pen not far from a nearby island where we could swim with dolphins. Now, I say "swim," but what we actually did was flail around in the water while dolphins zipped around near us like smooth gray cruise missles. They're adorable creatures until they're coming right at you and you're not sure they're going to turn. Of course, then they do and they're adorable again, but still. At the end, we had the chance to have a picture taken with the dolphins, who would pop up and pose. Mine got a wee bit excited and whacked me in the face with its beak, so I may not look super-happy in my photo. Happy enough, though.
Third stop, a small island with a long beach and, more importantly, lunch. Either various seafoods or chicken. Then they made one of those slips that come with not quite getting capitalism: once we'd had our lunch, they came around saying that for a little extra you could have a half-lobster. After we'd had lunch. Dang it people, upsell the lobster first.
We lounged on the beach, swam in the ocean, and I, myself, watched the big black rain clouds sweep towards us. They didn't last long; a small shower lasting from when we marched onto the pier until we actually boarded the boat again. On the way back, the clouds having departed, the crew killed the motor and raised the sails, taking us back to port strictly through wind power. And then they gathered everyone for a dance party. All well and good if you like that sort of thing, but I wanted no dance party, I simply wanted to get home. But in principle it was a nice ending. The other passengers seemed to enjoy it.
And so went the great catamaran trip. We'd done it early in case we wanted to go twice, but decided once would be sufficient. Sorry, folks, no cave photos yet. I've had a busy week.
"You want to bring down the wrath of the whatever on the thing?"
-Toby Ziegler
This would be one of the three mornings in Cuba that involved being awake before dawn. Still being awake at dawn I can deal with, but waking up before dawn is a whole other thing, and deuced unpleasant. Anyhoo.
As the sun rose, we grabbed breakfast and met our bus. Bus takes us to the boat. The catamaran had a basic bar service, with (I think) a few beers but mostly stuff you could put rum in. A popular place to sit was up front, either on the prongs themselves (catamarans have prongs out front, dontcha know) or on the netting in between. The first time you stepped out onto the rope net that separated you from the water was a little hair-raising, but you got used to it.
The first stop was off a reef out in the water. This would be our only chance to do some snorkeling, as it turned out. My whole family is big on snorkeling, so we were glad for the chance. I got photos of fish, but not with my diital camera, so I got nothing for you on that front.
Second stop was a little pen not far from a nearby island where we could swim with dolphins. Now, I say "swim," but what we actually did was flail around in the water while dolphins zipped around near us like smooth gray cruise missles. They're adorable creatures until they're coming right at you and you're not sure they're going to turn. Of course, then they do and they're adorable again, but still. At the end, we had the chance to have a picture taken with the dolphins, who would pop up and pose. Mine got a wee bit excited and whacked me in the face with its beak, so I may not look super-happy in my photo. Happy enough, though.
Third stop, a small island with a long beach and, more importantly, lunch. Either various seafoods or chicken. Then they made one of those slips that come with not quite getting capitalism: once we'd had our lunch, they came around saying that for a little extra you could have a half-lobster. After we'd had lunch. Dang it people, upsell the lobster first.
We lounged on the beach, swam in the ocean, and I, myself, watched the big black rain clouds sweep towards us. They didn't last long; a small shower lasting from when we marched onto the pier until we actually boarded the boat again. On the way back, the clouds having departed, the crew killed the motor and raised the sails, taking us back to port strictly through wind power. And then they gathered everyone for a dance party. All well and good if you like that sort of thing, but I wanted no dance party, I simply wanted to get home. But in principle it was a nice ending. The other passengers seemed to enjoy it.
And so went the great catamaran trip. We'd done it early in case we wanted to go twice, but decided once would be sufficient. Sorry, folks, no cave photos yet. I've had a busy week.
"You want to bring down the wrath of the whatever on the thing?"
-Toby Ziegler
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approved.
I thought my old profile would just become my new one, but it took a few days. And you got as bunch of friendship requests so it all worked out in the end.