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WOW - swimming with the Manatees at Chankanaab!
Our day started with Snuba at Chankanaab Park, a couple of miles down the road from our hotel. We had made reservations for Snuba and swimming with the Manatees.
Snuba was fun, a cross between Scuba and Snorkelling - we had a brief orientation on how to - basic scuba rules to let the dive master know we were OK or if we had an issue. Got all hooked up, mask on, fins on and jump into the ocean. Alex went right under, he's a diver so he knew what to do, both Kira and I had a tough time getting down, I asked for more weights but just couldn't get under deep enough. Kira had a hard time clearing her ears so the two of us basically snorkelled but it was fun! We saw some big stingrays, a sea spider, lots of big and little fish. It was fun but it doesn't change my mind about trying to scuba, I'll leave that to Alex. The highlight so far on this trip has got to be our time spent with the Manatees. We had another brief orientation on Manatees, how to interact with them, etc. They are the most gentle creatures I've ever had the experience of spending time with. We've done a couple of dolphin adventures but these creatures were amazing. It was just the three of us because we were told most people off the cruise ships only want to do the Dolphin adventure so it was just we three and the 3 manatees. They're huge - the three that were there had all been born in captivity *boo* so they didn't know any different (but we know they do). I can only remember the names of two of the three - Angel and Don Quixote, not sure about the other one, Josephine or something like that. Anyway, we learned how to cup our hands to give them kisses, how to lift up their flippers and how to feed them. They are so gentile, and amazing to touch. We all got to give them kisses, give the hugs and feed them. It was worth it!
So, there's a professional photographer there taking zillions of pictures because of course you can't take your own pictures while you're in the water with them..... we go check out the pictures and they're great except..... they want $139 for all the photos on a CD. Sorry not doing that. OK so we decide on a couple of individual photos - they want $30 EACH.... we told them they were loco - we picked 3 pictures for a whopping $90 - what a rip off. Good pictures but not worth $90 that's for sure.
After the Manatees we wandered around the park and toured a Mayan Village and they also have an archeological area with reproductions of Mayan stone work - they did a great job of that and I took mucho pictures.
It was a great day, one that we won't forget for a long time. Save the Manatees !
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