The Kayak Tour

This was an amazing tour. There were six Canadians and five French.  Most of us had someone to share our kayak with, except for one of the French ladies.  She seemed to have a lot of kayak experience so she got one to herself.  We had a debriefing before we headed out and had some time to practice a little bit before we hit the open water.  Neither Hannes nor I had ever even been in a kayak before so we were a little nervous.  But not for long.  You get the hang of paddling pretty quick, in our case you had to since we paddled a great deal! 

The day was beautiful as I may have mentioned before.  Because of the intense rays of the sun, they suggest that you cover up as much as you can to avoid severe burning.  They also suggested that it was better to go barefoot than to wear shoes...I had gone to the trouble to borrow water shoes from my new friend John from Prince George, B.C.  Not to worry though, I wore the shoes afterwards...more to follow later.  Alfredo, our guide and his wife Jeannine, led the way and away we went.  They took photos and movies of us while we were kayaking.  We thought it would be best to purchase the CD they would put together rather than risking something happening to the camera.  A few of my brave swimming friends took the chance and brought their cameras along. 

What we saw was amazing...it was "reproduction" season for many of the birds and they were sitting high in the trees by the hundreds.  The males were very colourful so they could attract the female...they seem to go to a lot of trouble to catch the attention of the female...hmmmm, interesting!  We went in and out of little coves, seeing birds, flying fish, starfish, jellyfish, snails.  This salt water lagoon is home to 92 species of fish alone! 

Part of the tour package included a box lunch.  The "restaurant" was in a shaded area of mangrove trees and we each had the perfect seat in our kayaks.  Mangrove trees are very interesting...their roots grow upwards and supply oxygen to the surrounding area.

My friend Erin took this pic of me while we were on a break.  We paddled for about 2.5 to 3 hours.  When we got back, Alfredo had a special treat for us...a nice cold beer!  It never tasted so good!

The beach was on the path that is right behind me in this photo.  This is where the aqua shoes come in...the "sand" is almost all shells and you have to protect your feet.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The surf just keeps rolling in, the sun shining...beautiful!

We were in a very dry part of the island.  There are many cactus plants such as this one below.

All in all, this was a great tour and lots of fun.  The CD that we got from Alfredo was absolutely awesome.  There were over 200 photos from our tour, a few "movies", info about all kinds of birds, fish, etc. with all the proper names, as well as a large selection of photos from other tours.  I think I remember that I downloaded over 700 pics, just from this trip.  My own photos were just over 400 so I have a lot of great memories.