Islas del Rosarios

I spent the entire day yesterday at one of the Rosario Islands which is about a 90 minute speedboat ride into the Carribean. Unfortunately, it was overcast the entire ride there and it was a little boring. The waters were calm and the ride was smooth.

Once we arrived at the island, everyone got their snorkeling or diving gear together. Brian and I were the only ones that went snorkeling out of the entire group. Most everyone else were rather experienced divers. Brian and I contemplated switching over to diving, but besides it being about 110,000 pesos more ($50 USD), and me wanting to just have, I guess, a romantic time with just Brian, we decided to just snorkel on or own.

I had a rough time getting myself going once in the water. I was explained what to do, but the instructions were in Spanish, and that led to the more specific instructions being hard to understand fully especially since they were speaking fast.

The hardest part was getting used to breathing only through you mouth through the snorkel tube. Then, once I realized I wasn't going to sink, in salt water, I was fine. You simply float belly down on the surface of the water. What you begin to see is a very diverse ecosystem that is a world of it's own! I'm so glad I have a waterproof camera. Here are some pictures, though, as I said, it was cloudy, and the sun didn't shine these up very well. Nevertheless, the pictures, of course, do no justice when you witness how peaceful this life underwater appears to be. It makes you wonder why and how humans can make things so complicated on the surface. Anyway:












The last two are Brian and I, respectively. This was right around the time Brian and I were tired because we were fighting the current going out, plus a storm was approaching so we turned around. The whole way back we just floated with the current to the shore.

The divers came back, too. We all went into the boat and went far out to the warmer waters around. It was raining pretty hard, but it was okay to dive because, well, you get wet anyway, lol. Here are some pictures of that:





This last one was after we returned from our second snorkeling trek. The pictures I took there didn't come out good at all. There was absolutely no sun. It was still beautiful to see for myself. Just take my word for it. =)

Later, we picked up all the divers and returned tot he island for lunch. It was fresh fish with all the fixings. It was amazing! I'm not a huge fan of fish, but man, this was awesome. I wish I had taken a picture of the dish.

Then, after nearly wanting to take a nap, we played sand volleyball with Ben and Felípe, who were a couple of guys we got to know. Ben is German and Felípe is Colombian. We played for awhile and went back to relax before having to leave the island back to Cartagena.

The boat ride back was fun!! The water was all choppy from the storm so the boat was bouncing a lot. I'm glad I don't get sea sickness. =)

It was a realy fun day for a rather reasonable price of 90,000 pesos - which comes to roughly $50 USD. That included everything. I don't think we could get something that afforable and exciting back in the States, and it makes you wonder whose currency really is worse.

The only thing negative about the day is that I didn't think to put sunscreen on my back! My whole back is burnt like, Woah! It was from my back being shown to the sun, and no matter what anyone thinks, this is PROOF that you can still get a sunburn when it's overcast. The UVA and UVB rays still penetrate through the clouds. It's not that I had thought I wouldn't get burnt, I simply forgot to put lotion on my back despite applying it everywhere else. I'll live, though.

I have five more full days left in Cartagena. We'll find many things to do, I'm sure, before leaving to Buenos Aires on Monday.