Breakin' Routine

Oh, Avid Reader, if you only knew how much I've altered my routine today! The fact that I'm updating you just now (1AM) on Day Four alone is enough to reveal my lapse. But just wait until you read what follows!

Everything seemed normal -- even just after my last post -- until I got a call from Saskia who invited me to the "second" beach... one requiring our golf carts to zip over the hill to another part of the resort. What-what?! Given that I thought I should probably explore more of my surrounds than just my 20-yard trek to the beach, I chose to go with. And it was only the beginning of a brand new day...

Upon arrival, we set up for another day in the sun, only to talk to Desmond and to be whisked away on a HobieCraft out to the open sea to enjoy "non-motorized" water sprots and to swim over the reef. Sadly, we had no snorkle gear, but did see a reef shark and a HUGE sting ray as we sailed around. We stopped to swim at one point and challenged one another to swim down to touch the bottom -- not easy to do in salt water. Eyes closed, effort aplenty, friend Sarah emerged with a handful of white sand... and a sand dollar! Hilarious story altogeter as she showed her haul, not realizing what was in it, only to have the rest of us ooh & ahh in amazement. She thought she had something on her face!

After our HobieCraft adventure, we sought out snorkle gear and took to the waters to practice for our adventure tomorrow. Not much to report other than me learning how to "dive" such that I can try to swim with turtles tomorrow -- my big goal!

Friends Michelle & Joe also arrived today -- a day late due to crazy airline adventures -- and they immediately settled into the beach lifestyle and let me escort them around the island with glee. We enjoyed dinner tonight, then started a dance party outside the restaurant at the pool with Deridee, one of the most amazing chanteuses I've had the joy to hear. She pulled out all the stops and had me wet-backed and bringing out some of the employees to join us. It was quite the treat for everyone.

So, new beach, sailing, snorkeling, dancing... all a complete 180 from the past couple of days. Brilliantly, I was able to do everything in the sun and continue to work on what will be the best tan of all time. That said, Avid Reader, you will be pleased to know that I have been religious about sun-screening each day. Granted, it's SPF15 and I can't always get the center of the back; however, it's religiously applied... and followed up post-shower with a likely too-heavy application of aloe. I'm being a good boy. Tanned and good!

More to come tomorrow, including an addition break from routine as we head out on a chartered catamaran to Tobago Cays -- one of the world's most famous snorkeling locales!