Friday, November 24, 2006
Tuesday 11/21/06 Day 4
We had a big day planned. We were going snorkeling at a place called Manzanio beach. A boat would pick us up at 9:30 and the boat would take us to the beach.
Before we left, we had to eat breakfast. Breakfast consisted of the same thing as yesterday’s breakfast. In fact, yesterday’s breakfast consisted of the same thing as the day before’s breakfast. I now realize that we’ve been having the same thing for breakfast over and over again, eggs, pan dulces, orange juice, and fruit. I’ve also realized that we have the same type of conversation each day at breakfast; we have a boring, morning conversation. Perhaps breakfast time has fallen into a causality loop and is doomed to happen again and again, in the same way, for forever and a day.
After we finished our familiar breakfast, we got our snorkeling stuff together and waited. Around 9:35 we saw captain Hector’s boat headed towards us from across the bay. We left the porch and stood on the beach right in front of our house. Hector pulled up to the beach, turned around, and backed into ankle deep water, where he waited. We waded out to the boat and loaded our equipment. We had chairs, snorkeling bags, and Elio (who was coming with us) brought some spears for fishing.
Once we were all aboard the boat set off for the mouth of the bay. Once we were out of the bay we had a 30-45 minute boat ride down the coast (or up the coast; I could not tell which direction we were going.) We approached Manzanio beach, which was a small stretch of sand and rocks along the coast. On either side of the beach were large rocks, which marked off the boundaries. There was barely 15 feet of sand between the water and dense foliage. A lot of the beach was not sand, but rock, and most of the rock was not rock, but pieces of coral washed up on the shore.
Captain Hector reminded me most of a Mexican Santa Clause. He was chubby and had a very long, white beard, which gave him the appearance of Santa. He was smiling a lot and he whistled while the boat moved along.
Once we had set up our chairs in the shade, we got into the water to snorkel. It was a bit hard to snorkel because, at the time of our arrival, there were two other boats (one of them quite large) full of tourists wanting to snorkel also. While we were in the water we kept bumping into these people or mistaking them for members of our own party. After 30 minutes to an hour of snorkeling we got out of the water and went to our chairs on the beach.
The grown-ups felt content to sit in their chairs and just look at the beach, a practice I felt was very boring. I would have been happy to do the same though (because I was in a boring mood) but for some reason nobody thought to bring more than four chairs. Seeing as there were four grown-ups (Melissa’s mom did not come with us) each of them got one chair. My brother and I were forced to sit in the sand, or on our towels in the sand. I attempted to take a ciesta in the shade, but my brother was too restless. He continuously asked if he could bury my feet in sand, and when I said no, he proceeded to throw sand on my legs until I got up and made him stop. Because of these distractions, I was not able to get anything productive done in the hour or two that we spent sitting on the beach.
Another thing my brother did to occupy his time was torturing hermit crabs. There were dozens of them in the sand around our chairs, you just had to look hard enough to tell if what you were looking at was a crab, or just a shell. Hector showed Dylan a neat little trick, which involved placing the hermit crab close to your mouth and exhaling slowly on it. This coaxed the crab to stick its head and legs out of its shell. Once most of its body was our, Dylan would make it crawl around his hand until it fell off the side. Dylan would then pick it up again and repeat the process. After doing this for a while, he decided to dig a hole, pull two crabs out of their shells, and put a single shell in the hole with them. The idea was to have the crabs fight over the shell. Fortunately for the crabs, Dylan was not able to remove them from their shells (although it was unfortunate for one crab because Dylan accidentally ripped this crab’s leg off while trying to pull it out.)
Once everyone was done sitting and sleeping (and when Dylan had gotten bored of torturing crabs), Hector fed us lunch. He had prepared raw sailfish cut into tiny chunks with vegetables and a sauce, all mixed together. It was actually pretty good, contrary to my initial assumption. I was sitting down with my second bowl when I dropped it in the sand. What a sad moment! All that good food, wasted. Thankfully, my dad let me use his bowl to get some more. I think Hector was a little bit puzzled that I got some food, then sat down, then came back for more in less than a minute.
Once finished with lunch we all went snorkeling again. All of the other boats had left, so we had the entire place to ourselves. We could see a lot more now that we were alone and could go anywhere we wanted in the water. There was not much difference between this location and our previous snorkel spot. In fact, we saw many of the same types of fish, mainly the glowing butt fish and the yellow-black fish (upon closer observation, these yellow-black fish had a bit of red in them). Unlike last time, the yellow-black with a bit of red fish did not follow us everywhere we went.
The only real difference between this trip and our last one was that there was coral here. There was, actually, lots of coral. There must have been miles and miles of coral along the bottom of the ocean. The way the sun shone down through the water and the light danced across the coral was amazing. It had the appearance of waving lines of light across the rocks and coral.
When I was looking at the coral and the fish around it, I saw a section of coral that looked bleached white. The appearance of this dead coral saddened me, because in an unknown amount of years the entire reef might be dead and all the fish life that makes the reef their homes would either die or try to find a new place to live.
After we had all examined the coral and fish, we returned to the beach and packed all of our things. We waited for the boat to come close enough to board. Elio had been fishing on the boat and when he saw us ready to go, for some reason, he jumped off the boat and started swimming towards us. Hector’s assistant was on the boat, and he drove it to shore. Poor Elio! He must have been so embarrassed when the boat got to shore before him and we were half done loading our stuff when he arrived.
We departed from Manzanio beach and began our journey back to Playa la Ropa. Once we had left the area, we began seeing fish jumping. Hector dropped two fishing lines into the water and let them trail behind the boat, as his assistant tried to maneuver the boat as to drag the lines through the fish. We caught a total of 2 fish on the boat ride back. Both were called Bonita, and were grey-blue and plump. When we approached the bay, Elio and Hector reeled in the lines and we sped through the water. Hector took the boat right in front of our house, as he had done before. My dad paid him and we returned home.
It was about 4 in the afternoon, and we decided we had done enough for the day. We hung out at the house for a while, and then decided to get in the pool. However, my little brother Dylan was the only one who actually got all the way in the water. It was too cold for the rest of us and we only put our feet in. Soon after, we all got out, much to the disappointment of my little brother.
After that, our Internet connection died. We have wireless Internet for the house, however it is plugged into an outlet that only gives power when a certain lamp is turned on. You can imagine the confusion when someone turns a light off and all the laptops in the house say “CANNOT CONNECT TO INTERNET.” For some reason, the connection just died when someone accidentally cut power to the Internet box and it didn’t come back. That is why I have not posted this yet (but when you read it, that last sentence should say “That is why I did not post this on the day it is listed as.”)
Today’s Vocab
Guess what these words mean in a comment. No dictionaries.
El Red
bonito
playa
barco
pez
Before we left, we had to eat breakfast. Breakfast consisted of the same thing as yesterday’s breakfast. In fact, yesterday’s breakfast consisted of the same thing as the day before’s breakfast. I now realize that we’ve been having the same thing for breakfast over and over again, eggs, pan dulces, orange juice, and fruit. I’ve also realized that we have the same type of conversation each day at breakfast; we have a boring, morning conversation. Perhaps breakfast time has fallen into a causality loop and is doomed to happen again and again, in the same way, for forever and a day.
After we finished our familiar breakfast, we got our snorkeling stuff together and waited. Around 9:35 we saw captain Hector’s boat headed towards us from across the bay. We left the porch and stood on the beach right in front of our house. Hector pulled up to the beach, turned around, and backed into ankle deep water, where he waited. We waded out to the boat and loaded our equipment. We had chairs, snorkeling bags, and Elio (who was coming with us) brought some spears for fishing.
Once we were all aboard the boat set off for the mouth of the bay. Once we were out of the bay we had a 30-45 minute boat ride down the coast (or up the coast; I could not tell which direction we were going.) We approached Manzanio beach, which was a small stretch of sand and rocks along the coast. On either side of the beach were large rocks, which marked off the boundaries. There was barely 15 feet of sand between the water and dense foliage. A lot of the beach was not sand, but rock, and most of the rock was not rock, but pieces of coral washed up on the shore.
Captain Hector reminded me most of a Mexican Santa Clause. He was chubby and had a very long, white beard, which gave him the appearance of Santa. He was smiling a lot and he whistled while the boat moved along.
Once we had set up our chairs in the shade, we got into the water to snorkel. It was a bit hard to snorkel because, at the time of our arrival, there were two other boats (one of them quite large) full of tourists wanting to snorkel also. While we were in the water we kept bumping into these people or mistaking them for members of our own party. After 30 minutes to an hour of snorkeling we got out of the water and went to our chairs on the beach.
The grown-ups felt content to sit in their chairs and just look at the beach, a practice I felt was very boring. I would have been happy to do the same though (because I was in a boring mood) but for some reason nobody thought to bring more than four chairs. Seeing as there were four grown-ups (Melissa’s mom did not come with us) each of them got one chair. My brother and I were forced to sit in the sand, or on our towels in the sand. I attempted to take a ciesta in the shade, but my brother was too restless. He continuously asked if he could bury my feet in sand, and when I said no, he proceeded to throw sand on my legs until I got up and made him stop. Because of these distractions, I was not able to get anything productive done in the hour or two that we spent sitting on the beach.
Another thing my brother did to occupy his time was torturing hermit crabs. There were dozens of them in the sand around our chairs, you just had to look hard enough to tell if what you were looking at was a crab, or just a shell. Hector showed Dylan a neat little trick, which involved placing the hermit crab close to your mouth and exhaling slowly on it. This coaxed the crab to stick its head and legs out of its shell. Once most of its body was our, Dylan would make it crawl around his hand until it fell off the side. Dylan would then pick it up again and repeat the process. After doing this for a while, he decided to dig a hole, pull two crabs out of their shells, and put a single shell in the hole with them. The idea was to have the crabs fight over the shell. Fortunately for the crabs, Dylan was not able to remove them from their shells (although it was unfortunate for one crab because Dylan accidentally ripped this crab’s leg off while trying to pull it out.)
Once everyone was done sitting and sleeping (and when Dylan had gotten bored of torturing crabs), Hector fed us lunch. He had prepared raw sailfish cut into tiny chunks with vegetables and a sauce, all mixed together. It was actually pretty good, contrary to my initial assumption. I was sitting down with my second bowl when I dropped it in the sand. What a sad moment! All that good food, wasted. Thankfully, my dad let me use his bowl to get some more. I think Hector was a little bit puzzled that I got some food, then sat down, then came back for more in less than a minute.
Once finished with lunch we all went snorkeling again. All of the other boats had left, so we had the entire place to ourselves. We could see a lot more now that we were alone and could go anywhere we wanted in the water. There was not much difference between this location and our previous snorkel spot. In fact, we saw many of the same types of fish, mainly the glowing butt fish and the yellow-black fish (upon closer observation, these yellow-black fish had a bit of red in them). Unlike last time, the yellow-black with a bit of red fish did not follow us everywhere we went.
The only real difference between this trip and our last one was that there was coral here. There was, actually, lots of coral. There must have been miles and miles of coral along the bottom of the ocean. The way the sun shone down through the water and the light danced across the coral was amazing. It had the appearance of waving lines of light across the rocks and coral.
When I was looking at the coral and the fish around it, I saw a section of coral that looked bleached white. The appearance of this dead coral saddened me, because in an unknown amount of years the entire reef might be dead and all the fish life that makes the reef their homes would either die or try to find a new place to live.
After we had all examined the coral and fish, we returned to the beach and packed all of our things. We waited for the boat to come close enough to board. Elio had been fishing on the boat and when he saw us ready to go, for some reason, he jumped off the boat and started swimming towards us. Hector’s assistant was on the boat, and he drove it to shore. Poor Elio! He must have been so embarrassed when the boat got to shore before him and we were half done loading our stuff when he arrived.
We departed from Manzanio beach and began our journey back to Playa la Ropa. Once we had left the area, we began seeing fish jumping. Hector dropped two fishing lines into the water and let them trail behind the boat, as his assistant tried to maneuver the boat as to drag the lines through the fish. We caught a total of 2 fish on the boat ride back. Both were called Bonita, and were grey-blue and plump. When we approached the bay, Elio and Hector reeled in the lines and we sped through the water. Hector took the boat right in front of our house, as he had done before. My dad paid him and we returned home.
It was about 4 in the afternoon, and we decided we had done enough for the day. We hung out at the house for a while, and then decided to get in the pool. However, my little brother Dylan was the only one who actually got all the way in the water. It was too cold for the rest of us and we only put our feet in. Soon after, we all got out, much to the disappointment of my little brother.
After that, our Internet connection died. We have wireless Internet for the house, however it is plugged into an outlet that only gives power when a certain lamp is turned on. You can imagine the confusion when someone turns a light off and all the laptops in the house say “CANNOT CONNECT TO INTERNET.” For some reason, the connection just died when someone accidentally cut power to the Internet box and it didn’t come back. That is why I have not posted this yet (but when you read it, that last sentence should say “That is why I did not post this on the day it is listed as.”)
Today’s Vocab
Guess what these words mean in a comment. No dictionaries.
El Red
bonito
playa
barco
pez
# posted by Osiris Stein @ 10:25 AM 
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I though the most interesting part was Dylan torturing crabs. It reminds me of Ender's brother in the book Ender's Game, who tortures squirrels and subsequently goes on to take over the world. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
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# posted by 
: 8:11 AM
: 8:11 AM << Home
