There’s an app for that!

Howdy! 

So if you want to speed up your enjoyment of the blog and you like apps, there is a wordpress app that you can get and use to follow Traveling with Emily. I got it and I am getting it sort of figured out. I’m able to bring it up and go right to the blog.

Today we started off early, we had snorkeling scheduled at 8:30 which was not that early since I woke about 6:15 but by the time you get moving around and have breakfast it doesn’t seem like there was enough time to do everything before we left, sunscreen takes a little time to get on using the sticks, I do like them though and it’s not a liquid according to TSA. It’s cheaper to bring than buy here or anywhere tropical. I recommend the Neutrogena. I’m also good with the equate version as well. I’m trying out some of the equate kids 50 spf this trip, so far it’s good and it does show white on the skin so that is good if you worry about coverage. It does blend in by rubbing it with your hands. 

Kevin’s Tours, his snorkeling trip is a bit sketchy. I’m not sure we didn’t just get set up with a couple of fishermen who took us out. Sketchy Kevin does have some other tours available but we’re going to see who else is offering the same things. The nice thing about Sketchy Kevin’s Tours was the fishermen didn’t make us wear the recycled from airplanes life vests and we only had us and them. They took spear guns in for a while but I didn’t see them get anything. 

Today the water was very cloudy, it’s windy and stirs things up and a little on the cool side. I may regret leaving my shorty wet suit in Emily’s SUV. 

We had a good time, we got to break in our new equipment, I brought my own flippers and Emily got a goggle and snorkel set like mine in green. My flippers are some Cressi Palau SAF flippers. They worked well, they like a frog kick the best. They are stiffer than what I am used to but they are short enough to fit in my travel bag, which was why I picked them. 
Emily said she is happy with her snorkeling set. I’ve not had any problems with mine so I’m not surprised that she is enjoying hers. They are Cressi as well and the goggles are a frameless style for travel. I highly recommend having your own if you are going to be snorkeling and these are an excellent choice. 
I purchased a new GoPro Hero 7 Black with the Super Suit Dive housing for deep diving as it is waterproof to a little ways down without a case. They have newer models but the costs go up and this one has the features that I wanted. I have had some issues making sure it is turned off. I didn’t check the battery in it yesterday before we went out and it was dead. I had specifically charged it before I packed it. The on off button also is the button used for changing the settings while it’s on along with the touchscreen. There’s also a feature that it will turn back on and start recording if the shutter button is pushed. That’s not a bad feature but I’m not sure that isn’t what’s burning up the battery. I think the internal computer deal is running just waiting for you to push it. 
It’s heavy, it will sink like a rock on its own. I have a floating handle that does work and it has a handy waterproof storage area that I have been keeping money in. My old $20 one floated, there was not stabilizing software and no metal housing. This camera also connects to my phone like the last one with an app. It seems to work well as far as clarity goes. I’m going to have to see if there is a way to zoom the camera a little and keep it there. It has zoom but currently I only know how to do that when I can access the touchscreen. I didn’t bring all the parts to use it without the Super Suit. You have to take the lens off for that. 
The water was cloudy as mentioned before, it still did well though. I captured a few stills out of some of the videos and there are some pictures that I took in Sketchy Kevin’s fishing / snorkeling boat and the restaurant here at the hotel. 
The star fish was brought to me by one of the fishermen, I was swimming along minding my own business and he thrust a starfish at me. I took it to Emily. She said she also seen a bigger one. We did see some puffer fish, the first one Emily showed me. 

Random thoughts. 
The coffee here is like it was in Jamaica, thick and black. I’m thin mine down with the hot water they have out for tea, about 50/50 and it’s still strong. They also use small cups here with tiny little handles I can barely get a finger in. 

The people here are friendly here and I am getting to hear a lot of Spanish and occasionally I will even use some that I have learned. I understand more than I can speak. Emily is usually able to tell me what’s said of I don’t. The Covid mask thing doesn’t help though, muffles some of what is said. 

The majority of the art work her looks like some people had a good time at Art and Wine. A lot if canvases all the same size and with heavy paint. 

Yesterday we included a picture of the map from the information notebook in our room but didn’t mention anything about it. It doesn’t seem to be to any scale. Also there is a bit more stuff here than what is shown on the map. This definitely isn’t a sprawling metropolitan area though. The area is sort of what I expected short of jungle with monkeys out back. It’s more mountainy in a Smokey Mountain way while you are in them rather than Rocky Mountains, with different trees and at this time no haze. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some haze during the rainy season. 

After lunch we went back down to the beach and got smashed by waves with the boogie boards again. It’s a lot of fun but it beats you up a bit. The water isn’t all that deep, most places I can stand up. While you are in the water you can float on the board, my feet dangle long enough to occasionally touch bottom still, you can float on the waves if you are somewhere they are not breaking. A breaking wave is where it starts showing white. All that white is air that if you are pointed towards shore it will go right up your trunks and depending upon the trunks you will end up with an air bubble that gives you a wedgie. If you are in the right spot in front of the wave facing shore when a good one starts to swell you are supposed to be able to time when the wave is going to break and then ride it. You have to not only time when the break will start but have to start matching the speed of the wave (these are fast) as it’s coming at you, you almost are swimming downhill just in front of it because all the water in the wave has to come from somewhere. Bigger waves the more the water drops and steeper slope. If you’re lucky you ride it if not it crashes one you and drenches you. It’s very fun either way. If you are floating between the breakers the water is more of a rolling wave that can be relaxing. It also can rise and fall quite a bit sometimes. 

For dinner tonight we went down by the beach to a Sketchy looking place which is right down by where we met Sketchy Kevin. The food was good. The restaurant is on one side of a dirt road and the main dining area is on the beach. We sat looking out at the end of daylight, the sun had already dropped below the horizon by the time we got there. There was a nice outline of the mountainous area out by where we snorkeled this morning. 

Some of the Sketchiness and Rustic could possibly come from the harsh conditions being this close to the ocean. So I do say that tongue in cheek. Hopefully big money never comes in and ruins the current vibe. It feels small towny with a few souvenir shops and lots of options for adventure! 

Tomorrow is the first scuba day! I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully I will get some good pictures and the water is clearer!!