may 11.  2016

we met mario out at the beach at 9:30, and his friend with the boat.  we were ready for our boat ride to soano island-our lunch packed-and we were so excited!  we were able to get a deal through mario’s friend who also works at the resort and owns a boat.  he charged us $250 for the day, instead of the regular tourist rate of $86/per person x 6 in our family.  so we saved over half:)  i love doing things for a good deal!

our first stop was the ocean that is like a swimming pool for almost as far as you can see-it’s absolutely amazing.  and the water is so clear, and green.  there were starfish scattered about, we found 5-it was like our own private pool.  the tourist party boats all gather in the same places, so once it got a bit crowded, we headed to the next place.  it was a gorgeous beach area with absolutely amazing beaches.  we spent most of the day there, and about 3:00, we headed back to leave the crowds, stopped by the swimming pool ocean area again, and then headed home.  supposedly some of pirates of the caribbean was filmed on this island:)

we ended up getting pretty burnt, even after applying sunscreen a couple times. we all were feeling it quite a bit.  but we were so grateful to have not paid for the tourist price and be on those huge group boat tours…they are so annoying!  it was so great having our own boat to leave and do what we wanted-we were very grateful.

jarom drove mario to bayahibe and dropped him off at the bus stop, headed back, and at 4:30, he and alex headed back to bayahibe to get our favorite empanadas.  they are just amazing!  and the lady is actually a little nicer to us each time we go.  the first time she wouldn’t even look up at us, and after a few minutes, i walked away.  i wasn’t going to be ignored if i’m paying for something.  the next day she looked up and we placed our order-for a total of 11…she was probably glad she was nice to us i hope.

we watched movies and put on lots of aloe with lidocaine.  it was a great and memorable day.