Friday in the DR: Snorkeling

Friday was our last full day in the Dominican Republic. We got up early and left to go on our speed boat and snorkeling tour. Here we are at the beginning of our tour in our speedboat. Jeremy started out by driving.

This is what it looks like when you take off. I took this picture of Andrew in his boat. Once you get going fast the boat levels out and skims across the water.


Just passing by! This view is so pretty.


We rode for about 25 minutes on our speedboat until we got to the spot to snorkel. Then we loaded up onto another boat, got our snorkeling gear on, and jumped in. Some of these pictures aren't so great because they are taken from underneath us and the sun is above us. Our guide took them for us.

It's weird, because when you jump in you have to adjust your mask and everything before you put your face in the water. You have no idea that while you are sitting there adjusting everything there are all these fish right around you. Then you put your face into the water and WALLA!

The guides gave us fish food to bring the fish closer.

I didn't like the feel of the fish eating out of my hand, so I just sprinkled the food around me. Jeremy liked to feed the fish individually out of his hand. I didn't like the feeling of the fish bumping up on my hand. I also was scared they would bite me because last year a fish DID bite me in Cozumel when we were snorkeling.

This is a better picture of Jeremy.

Here is a sampling of fish we saw while we were there. The reef wasn't as colorful as in the pictures, of course, but it did harbor a LOT of fish to look at.


We look like flies! LOL!


After awhile of floating on top, we decided to try and dive down into the water. Jeremy was much better at this than I was. He went right to the bottom.

Consequently, he has much better pictures than I. :) I like this one.

Here I am attempting to dive down. I did get the hang of it after awhile, but it is hard to pressurize my ears. I managed to pressurize them once, but then I couldn't do it again. It's fun to dive down, though, and swim under the water with the fish.


Another sampling of the fish.

This was our snorkeling guide. We didn't get his real name. He said his name was Kenny Rogers. After snorkeling we rode our speedboats back to where we started. I drove back halfway, but then our boat died. We traded for a different boat and Jeremy drove the rest of the way.


When we got back to the resort, we ate lunch at the buffet and headed straight for the beach for some fun and relaxation. This is Graham and Elaine. They were with MityLite Australia. We really enjoyed their company on this trip.


Jeremy and I both played beach volleyball again with people from Jeremy's work and other vacationers.

I sat this game out to get a drink. This one is the Majestic - with no alcohol. These are the girls I hung out with on the trip. It's me, Amanda, and Kristy.


Here is Jeremy waiting for the serve.

Then he really gets in on the action!

When Jeremy was done playing beach volleyball he went out to snorkel for a little while with Morgan. While he was out there he found this floating in the water.
It's a baby sea turtle!

The sea turtle in action, until a wave came and pushed it into my feet. Jeremy finally went at put the little sea turtle out into the water to help it out.

Right after seeing the sea turtle, Carson's wife, Laina, called from up the beach that she had more wildlife. This little hermit crab was crawling by her lounge chair.

I couldn't resist taking this picture. That's Jeremy down there, retiring from snorkeling for the day.


After the beach we went to relax in the pool. We thought our dinner reservations were at 9:30, but then someone mentioned that they were, in fact, at 6:30. It was 5:55 at that time and we were all in the pool. We all jumped up and ran to our rooms to get showered and ready and to the restaurant as quickly as possible. It's funny, before we left too, we all agreed that it was OK to look horrible together - just get there on time so we don't lose our reservation!

It was worth the quick fixup. We went to the Japanese Tepanyaki restaurant. One of my favorites. This is our chef for the evening.



Morgan and Kristy enjoying their food.

This was my dinner and it was soooo good! I also had salmon, but he was still cooking it when I took this picture.

Here is our group of friends at the restaurant.


Jeremy was trying to catch some chicken in his mouth. He actually caught it! Nice bib, Jeremy.


This is my dessert. It was all really good except for that fruit at the bottom that looks like a white orange. That was bitter.



Here is Jeremy's dessert. Rice pudding. He liked it, but I'm not a fan of rice pudding. I'm glad I ordered the fruit.

After dinner we took some pictures in the lobby. This one turned out the best.


We also finally managed to catch this picture of one of the girls from the animation team who we made friends with. We didn't ever understand her name. She spoke only Spanish and we spoke only English. She was a lot of fun, though.

This is Brock, from our group. He came with Andrew, who works with Jeremy and is single.

On Friday night there was a really good rainstorm. I wanted to be out where I could see and hear the rain so Jeremy and I walked around the resort for awhile and then out to the beach. The little cabanas out at the beach actually protect from the rain really well. It was pouring rain while we were at the beach but we stayed perfectly dry taking shelter under the cabana. I love the rain, so it was a perfect ending to a perfect day once again.