The morning was cool and beautiful, with the ocean waves lapping gently on the sand. I tried to catch a sunrise, but was apparently looking in the wrong direction! The sun comes up over the mountains, and sets over the ocean. We packed up the gear and loaded the Banca boats, ready to head out to Big Capones Island. The ride out was definitely unique, 5 of us crammed into an oversized canoe, with bamboo ‘pontoons’ on each side, the boats propelled by lawnmower engines. Laurel laughed and waved to the other boat the whole time, mom and dad and Maryanne and Mike waving back to us. We had Angie in our boat, and Angie is very afraid of the water, as she had never been in a boat and did not know how to swim. We made it there pretty uneventfully, gliding up onto the shore of soft white sand. The boat drivers knew of a ‘cave’ formation made out of some well placed rocks, where we could set up camp and catch some shade for the little ones. Boober, Mike and I put our fins and masks on right away and went off to explore some of the close shallow reefs.
We were so excited when Boober started shouting about finding a lobster! I carried the net, and Boober tried grabbing for the tentacles. Eventually we got one out by sticking a stick in the lobster hideout… Um, did I mention that objects in water look larger than they actually are. And what we thought were lobsters… were in fact, CRAYFISH. Nonetheless, we took our 2 little crayfish and stuck them on the grill… and it was delicious. All 2 bites of them! We had our filling lunch and went back out to go exploring the reefs and looking for shells and coral. We went about 100 ft. coasting along with the tide, exploring the trenches and reefs. I saw several moray eels, or sea snakes, different colored coral, and some of the neatest color combinations of fish. We picked up several specimens of coral to take home, and headed back to shore when our legs started to protest against the fins.
Mom and Dad and Laurel were wandering around the beach, looking for interesting shells to take home as well, so Boober and I decided to join them, scouring rocks and little pools of water for bright and colorful shiny shells. We finally decided to head back to the main island, and called for the Banca drivers to come pick us up. Our gear loaded, and the kids piled in, we set off to go back to the room for a refreshing shower and some dinner. Except apparently one of the boats had other plans. The boat that had Angie, Mike, Laurel, Maryanne, Milo and I in it didn’t want to start! The other boat came back, but then decided to head to shore and come back for us. Dad wasn’t having any of that, and told them to swap out the kids and leave a few adults instead. But just as we were about to do the switch, the other boat started up… so we made a quick getaway back to Megan’s.
We all took turns, enjoying taking a hot shower for the first time in a few weeks, and cleaned up to go down to dinner. Dad and Mike and Boober had already found themselves crooning away at the videoke bar, and downing some whiskey while they were at it. I busted out a bottle of Tanduay, because I knew Dad was gonna put the pressure on for me to sing, so I needed some liquid courage. We sang some songs, and again I went to bed when it was time for the baby to go to sleep (about 1am). Also, my leg had started to throb, because earlier in the day, I had fallen while climbing up a rock, and put a nice little gash into my leg, although if you were to ask my dad… I’m sure he’d say I’m whining about a scratch. Meh. It was fun, and I got hurt like I always do… but let me repeat, it was fun! We spent one more night crammed into 2 beds, and then went back to Auntie Luding’s house.
