Day 115: Snorkeling, Picnicking, Dune-Frolicking and Fishing in the Indian Ocean
It was a little overcast and even drizzly in the morning but we decided to ditch morning school and continue with our plan for a full day boat excursion. Definitely the right call.
We departed from the beach around 9:30 am on Aphrodite — a 36 foot catamaran style power boat with two outboard engines. The boat’s name is written in a fancy font along the outside and is a little hard to read. At one point later in the day Willa asked if the name of the boat was Apartheid (!!).
We were joined by Pauline, the captain, and Inacio, another Santorini staff member who we met on the beach yesterday.
We zoomed off, successfully avoiding the fishing nets but not the glares of the locals. Some of the kids wave but many look at us with blank stares. Margaret discussed our self-conscious feelings in yesterday’s post — they were heightened during our departure this morning.
The weather started to clear after we pulled away and it turned out to be gorgeous and sunny with scattered clouds the rest of the day.
Our destination: the beaches and sand dunes of Bazaruto Island.
But first, some some snorkeling. Two Mile Reef is a well known snorkeling destination but was different from the few previous experiences I’ve had in that we were pretty far away from shore so the water was very choppy and the currents very strong.
James got in and spent about 3 min before heading back to the boat. We were proud that he got in at all.
Willa was a gamer for the first 10 min or so. She loved spotting all the beautiful fish and even a large starfish. But then we saw a lionfish and she freaked the eff out. She had been told yesterday that they are poisonous which we think is sorta right? This one was half hiding under a rock and was at least 15 feet from us. No chance of it coming near us. Note: this is the same girl who was totally fine with charging elephants and hungry lions walking right by our vehicle only two weeks ago. She demanded to be back on the boat which was also fine with us.
We felt more comfortable with both kids on the boat. We swam and checked out the fish with Inacio for another 30 minutes or so.
We got back on the boat, cracked a cold beer and headed on to Bazaruto Island. Our experience there was out of a magazine or some commercial for what “vacation” is supposed to look like.
The crew dug the anchor into the sand and the boat sat in shallow, clear water about 50 feet off the beach.
The island has these huge sand dunes — great for kid playing, adult exercise and striking photos.
The guys set up a picnic under an awning and we spent the afternoon exploring, kicking the soccer ball, swimming and lounging.
On the way home we stopped to fish for an hour or so. We didn’t catch anything but it was still fun. Margaret and I each had a beer and the kids had Sprite.
The ride home was gorgeous. Both kids fell asleep under their towels. For me, it was one of the many “we gotta remember this” and “holy shit we are so lucky” moments we’ve had this year.
We arrived home and walked up the hill to our villa where the hotel staff was with a welcome drink, confirming that this day is about as far from reality as we’ve ever been.
The grownups showered while the kids took a bath with the sun setting out our sea-facing bathroom windows.
We scheduled a separate kids dinner at 6pm — and no surprise, they were more well behaved than if we were at the table with them. We then put them down and we had palella for our adults-only dinner at 8pm.
April 30, 2019. This was a really special and memorable day.
I gave the GoPro some run for the first time and hacked some footage together with some great pics from Margaret to make a little video on Google Photos.
