Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - St. Herman's Cave Hike and Swimming in the Blue Hole

We woke up early and had coffee by the pool before we woke the kids up.  We had an early breakfast and then met near the lobby for our adventure.  It really is awesome being at an adventure and dive center.  There were three vans going (up to 8 people per van, each with a guide), so we asked if we could go with Chris, Larry, Grace, and Grant, who we met first up at the pool on top of Antelope Falls, so the guides let us switch.  We got to go with Lorenzo and he was great!  He was a really safe but fast driver, and passed the other vans, so we arrived first. And were the first to do the 20 minute hike to Saint Herman's cave. 

This is looking back at the entrance to the cave once we'd entered.

Everywhere we looked the walls were sparkling from the water.  It was just magical.  The water seeps through the wall from rainfall on the surface, and is incredibly pure.  The Mayans used the water in all their religious ceremonies.

It is difficult to understand the size of this.  The cavern was enormous.

These are our friends, Grace, Larry, Grant, and Chris.  They really made our stay that much more enjoyable.  What a great family!

Being in the cave was awesome as we were crawling through tight spaces and using ropes to climb boulders.  There was clay on much of the floor, so sometimes it became very slippery… even the ropes were slippery because we had oily hands from putting on the anti-mosquito jungle juice. 

At one point we all turned our headlamps off for quite some time.  You couldn't see your hand in front of you face!  The cave was used by the Mayans for religious ceremonies.  There was quite a bit of pottery shards and a few large pieces of pottery from those ceremonies.  At one point I put my hand up for a hand hold, and grabbed a handful of shards by accident!  The great thing about this cave is that we were allowed to take our camera (unlike the Actun Tunichil Muknal), so we have some pictures!  We also saw a cave scorpion that moved really fast.  I am really glad I didn't accidentally grab one of those!

The rope in this section was a necessity as it was a really steep climb up.

We were surprised that you could just reach out and touch the Mayan pottery.

There was one section that was really low.  I started on my hands and knees, but found it easier to just sit down.  This is where we really started getting dirty, YEAH!

I really thought it was fun climbing through all of these interesting formations.

Isn't he just looking cheeky... gotta love a Brit!

And then the cave exit.  We were quite high up and then we hiked down to the mouth.

The Firths

The Didways

Our group of 8 was basically in the cave alone for the entire time with Lorenzo and he was a great guide.   Another group caught up to us just as we were exiting, so great timing!  As we exited the cave, we were swarmed by mosquitoes.  It was the most mosquitoes we had seen since we arrived.  We had to quickly stop and put on more jungle juice.

There were these beautiful orange mushrooms on the hike back.

When we reached the parking lot we were supposed to stop for lunch, but we were so hot that we asked Lorenzo if we could go to the Blue Hole first and swim before lunch.  He said sure, and gave us some freshly made ginger cookies to tide us over.  It was a great decision because we had the Blue Hole to ourselves the entire time.  Just when we were getting ready to leave for lunch the other two groups showed up.  It was also really refreshing to get cooled off after the hike. 

Our friends, the Didways...

And our family...

We walked back up the trail and on the way we saw this bike with machete attached.   So typical that David just had to take a picture.  Look for the orange handle and you can see the rest from there.

Lorenzo had lunch waiting.  I expected sandwiches for our picnic, but wow, what a nice lunch.  We had marinated chicken, rice and beans, and coleslaw.  We had pineapple squash to drink.

The ride back was really quiet as everyone was falling asleep.  The only wake up was when Lorenzo had to slam on the brakes because a car coming from the opposite direction was in our lane and he had to slam all on to avoid a head on collision!  Lorenzo handled it really well.  

When we got back to Hopkins, there were loads of people walking the streets, many of them dressed up.  They were going to the local 8th grade graduation.

And then, the typical group of kids riding their bikes...

When we got back to Hamanasi we went and sat at the pool and hung out with Jim and Kathy from D.C.  They have the 14 year old son, Chris.  We had rum punch drinks while Jason and Danika stayed in the room and read.

 Every night at dinner, the napkins were folded in a different way.  The kids loved these little polo shirts.

Dinner was not the best.  I only had 2 bites of my vegetable lasagna.  David loved his soup for an appetizer of sweet potatoes and spicy sausage with spinach.

The mango crème brulee for dessert was pretty good too. 

Jason had his brownie a la mode again.  I love the different designs on each plate!

It really is a happening place!

 It was Jim and Kathy’s last night, so we went and got our bottle of wine and shared it with them at the bar.  We had such a nice time chatting with them.  We didn’t get to bed until 11 p.m.  What a great day!

Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - Scuba Diving

I couldn’t sleep last night.  I woke up at four a.m. really hot, apparently the air conditioning was out.  Got up before 7 to get some coffee.  I woke the kids up at 7:30 for breakfast.  After breakfast I went to the front desk and let them know about the air conditioner.  They were right on it!  

At 8:30 a.m. we went to do our Discover Scuba training until 11:00.  First we watched a video, and had to answer questions such as "You should not interfere with coral and other endangered things in the ocean: True / False", and "You should always follow all instructions of your dive instructor: True / False".  Shockingly, we passed!!   

Then it was off to the small pool here at Hamanasi.  Danika and David struggled with clearing their masks, but Jason had no problems at all.  C-Dog, the dive instructor, said he was a natural.  What a great place to learn!!!

Danika wanted to quit, said she hated Scuba… not the lovely experience I had imagined for her.  Luckily C-Dog took over.  Also, Danika tends to do better with tough situations when she is with David and not me.  I must be a pushover, as she tends to wimp out with me.  David joined C-dog and Danika while I left and went with Jason. C-Dog had Danika redo the mask clearing several times and she did just fine, YAY.   Here we are taking lessons...

Unfortunately, Jason might have the start of a cold as he had trouble clearing one ear. We are not sure if he will be able to dive with us this afternoon, boo...  Jim, a seasoned diver we met at the pool, took those pictures of us while were were training in the pool.  He is a really nice guy.  He noticed that Jason was having trouble with his ear, and offered to help. Jim has trouble clearing his ears too, so he knew how to help.  He gave us some Sudafed to give to Jason and said it would make it easier to clear his ear.  What incredibly nice people we are meeting here!

We took a break for lunch... do I look tired already?  It must be the emotional stress of the morning worrying about Danika not wanting to scuba dive, and Jason not being able to go with us.

After lunch we headed to the dock at 1:30 p.m. The afternoon dive was done at a place on the South Barrier Reef called Jason’s Wall.  This area is not in the lee of the island, and it was quite choppy out, as a matter fact, we were bouncing up and down in six foot swells.  I was nervous so I can’t imagine how Danika and Jason felt as first time divers. They were nervous, and I was nervous for them!  However, I was excited about the possibility of swimming with a sea turtle.  I told C-dog that it would make my vacation if we saw one.  He said, "No problem, I am the sea turtle whisperer."  

C-Dog jumped in first and was thrown a line.  Then we jumped in and swam to the line to hold on until everyone was in.  Jumping in was really tricky.  You had to hook your left hand into the weigh belt, put the palm of your right hand on the regulator, and put your right hand fingers on your mask to stop it from falling off, all as you're jumping out of the very unsteady boat into those 6 foot waves.  It was just the four of us and we had two instructors.  Roy was the second instructor, and he was to stay at the back with Jason in case Jason couldn’t clear his ears, then Roy would take him up to the surface.  

Danika had a little trouble with her ears on the way down.  I was surprised that she remembered the hand signals perfectly.  C-Dog helped her and we were on our way down to the sandy bottom.  When we reached the bottom, C-Dog had Danika and I stayed together on our knees while he went back up to see what happened to David who was no longer with us.  There were these fish that were playing with our fins while we waited.  They were about 7-9 inches long, so cute!  

Meanwhile, back with David, apparently he had some water in his mask, and when he went to clear it, he floated to the surface without realizing it.  So then he swam back to the line and descended again.  C-dog caught up with him and at last we were all together.   We started off, and Jason must have been having trouble, because he lagged behind.  C-Dog had our camera (waterproof to 40 feet) and took a couple of pictures of us...

Wow, Danika's shorts are bright!

The visibility of the dive was really poor.  Most of the experienced divers with other dive masters said it was about 30 feet, and I agreed.  They wrote 50 on our forms when we got back, but I think it was only 50 feet for the first two minutes as the visibility steadily got worse as the mucous from the parrot fish got churned up into the water (parrot fish secrete mucus to protect themselves as they sleep overnight in the reef to mask their smell from predators).  

However, while the visibility was fairly good, we were able to see a line of 5 squid, and several rays.  I was worried about Jason as they were so far behind us that I lost sight of him, so I didn’t know if they had to surface or not.  I just wanted him to be with me.  I got a little more nervous as the visibility worsened and I had no idea where he was.

At one point I looked at my depth gauge and we were at 38 feet and C-Dog was deeper than me (with our "good-to-40-feet camera").  We went down to 40 feet which surprised me that we would go that deep with first time divers. 

Then C-Dog (the self-proclaimed "turtle whisperer") showed us a hawk-nosed sea turtle, and I forgot all of my worries.  He had our camera, so he took a few pictures for us.  I have to admit, I really didn't think we would see one, especially with the visibility issues.  So YAY!  Unfortunately it didn’t stay with us long, but Danika and David got to see it too.  I am very sad that Jason missed it. 

Just after we saw the sea turtle, we saw ran into a group of the experienced divers.  Jim was there and took these pics of Danika...

On our way back we met up with Jason and Roy. Jason was having a lot of trouble with his ear, so I was amazed that he went to 36 feet.  We took pictures of the four of us before surfacing.  

This is Jason with his instructor, Roy...

Once we were back on the surface, that was the most difficult part.  We were in six foot swells with our heads going in and out of the water.  I was thankful that Kathy (one of the friends we made sitting poolside at Hamanasi and also Jim's wife) had told us to keep our regulators in our mouths when we surface because the tendency is to take them out, and then you get a face full of water and start choking.  I was surprised at how difficult it was to get out of the water with it being so rough.  I was so thankful that Garrif (the dive boat captain) grabbed the back of my tank and helped me in the boat, because I think I was too exhausted to do it myself!

Once out, I got my tank off, and I was suddenly seasick.  It really took me by surprise, because I always thought you get seasick from being on a rocking boat too long.  I actually had to run to the side of the boat and throw up!  Even when we picked up the experienced divers, they looked a bit green.  Nobody wanted the cookies they offered us!  I ended up throwing up three times… Ugghhh!  Here I am, looking green...

Of course David looks great!

Needless to say, I didn’t feel much like food when we returned.  It seemed everyone was feeling a bit queasy, not just me.  So we all sat by the pool and had some 7-Up and surprisingly it really helped! Then we showered and went to dinner and by that time we had our appetites back.  Thank goodness, because the food is fabulous.

David took this panorama of us on the veranda...

Jason wanted to try a tall panorama photo with the camera...

David had the lamb...

I had the shrimp risotto, and it was fabulous!  David was thankful that I could only eat about a third of this because it was so rich.  We swapped plates so he could eat some too.

Danika had Caye (this is how they spelled it at Hamanasi) Lime Pie for dessert...

I had apple crumble a la mode... yummmmm!

It seemed like every evening was lovely!  You will notice at the beginning of meals I have my hair in a clip.  That is because it is actually quite breezy.  However, after the sun goes down, the breeze dies down as well.

After dinner we were all so exhausted from our exciting, yet nerve wracking adventure that we just went to bed early.  Another fabulous day at Hamanasi!