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Hi everyone! Went to Oistins Fish Market last week... it was wicked! There were about 30 or more huts all selling all the fresh fish you can imagine. In the middle of it all was a massive dance area with a rig banging out the best reggae we'd ever heard. We are going back tonight and Rhys is playing a set so should be good! Fish, rum and reggae - can it get any better?
We met some cool travelers in our guest house we were staying at and they told us that our local beach was a turtle beach, and a few weeks ago they saw some baby turtles hatching on it! They also said that you could see the turtles in the sea any time of day if you just went to the right part of the beach. Sure enough we went there the next day and saw loads of them while we were swimming. Given, we didn't see much of them as they only popped up for air so we just saw their heads momentarily, but at some points they were only a few metres away! Apparently we missed the hatching season which just finished before we arrived in Barbados, but before then, the hatchings were a common occasion.
On Sunday, Matt and I went to Bridgetown to try and find ourselves a lift to Trinidad or Tobago without flying. First we went to the Yacht Club, where Matt's work has a membership. He spoke to a very helpful lady who said she would forward an email to all the members telling them what we were doing, and if anyone was planning to go there they would let us know. Then we went to the fishing harbour, which was a very tiring walk in the midday sun through town, to see if we could catch a lift with any fisherman. Unfortunately as it was Sunday, there weren't many people there, but the one fisherman we did manage to talk to said that they did get close to Trinidad and Tobego, but they didn't dock for customs reasons... so no luck there. Currently we are still hoping for a response from the Yacht club, but so far no word! The only other option is going to the other fishing dock, but I fear we would get the same response. If anyone has any more suggestions, they would be welcome.
Monday we had to move out of our lovely guest house and into another, not so comfortable, but cheaper place down the road. It's a much smaller room, and run by a very crazy neurotic German lady, who makes it feel more like we're staying at a boarding school than a guest house... but I'm probably being a bit harsh... She's not that bad, but she has a lot of rules! Anyway we are moving again next week to a lovely apartment near Surfer's Point. A chance meeting at a local rum bar with some Canadian ladies who happened to own some properties close by. They gave us a cheap deal on a whole apartment overlooking the beach so we'll be there all of next week... hooray!
Finally I've got to the highlight of our week... getting our PADI! Matt and I spent another 2 days this week studying and diving with a brilliant teacher John, who moved out here 15 years ago to teach diving and hasn't looked back. We went to 2 new diving sites that were AMAZING! One was a reef quite far out where we dived to 80 feet and dived with turtles! It was the most memorable thing I've done so far. We swam above this one turtle for about ten minutes as it glided along the bottom of the reef. It was so graceful it looked like it was flying in slow motion. On the way to the next dive we saw a manta ray swimming close to the surface. Apparently it was quite a small one with a wingspan of about 2 metres... they can get to about 8 meteres! There's another dive site we haven't been to yet that apparently has mantas that we can dive with and more turtles, so we'll probably do that next week.
Unfortunately for me and Matt, we missed another late baby turtle hatching on the beach while we were studying one night for our PADI. Rhys went down to the beach for a swim and saw a crowd of people gathered. At first he thought it was someone who was injured, but after seeing camera flashes, he realised it was something more exciting and went to investigate. He said they were only a few inches long and were desperately trying to make their way to the water and getting waved back onto shore. Unfortunaltely he didn't have any a camera so didn't get any pictures. Wish we could of seen that! We have been going down to the beach at sunset every night since in the hope of seeing another hatching, but that chances are pretty slim now.... Lucky Piecey!!
Rhys and Matt have just left to write down Rhys's name on the set list for Oistins tonight. Will let you know how how it goes. Bye for now xxx
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carol Holden Hey Guys....it's sounding so good....must come out and join you all!!!!
Uncle Derek Love this post - such a lot of good stuff going on!