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Published: October 26th 2014
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Total Distance Travelled Today: 15km (by boat... and taxi)
Elapsed Travel Time: 5 hours, 41 min (including mike's diving)
Lodging for the Night: Amaan Bungalows (hotel)
This morning we slept in until 8am and had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, which overlooks the ocean. At 10, Mike left to go diving and Elysia hung out at the beach and the hotel, enjoying some R&R.
Mike did two dives with three other people from our trip. There were also a couple of other divers on the boat. The dive boat was a traditional wooden boat with storage for the tanks along the centreline. It made it tricky to move around the boat but it was a neat way to go diving. The first dive was at Hunga reef, about 20-30 minutes from the beach. The second dive was at Shane's reef. Both dives were shallower than 17 metres and lasted for about 47 minutes. The sea life was interesting, but not that different than we would see in the Caribbean. There were lots of lion fish and there was a chance of seeing a seahorse, but Mike didn't see any sea horses. Between dives, the boat captain brought out fantastically
fresh and sweet mangos for everyone to eat. A great way to get the seawater taste out of your mouth!
While Mike was diving, Elysia went for a walk along the beach with Anna, Matt and Sarah. The tide was out, so there was some wet sand that they could walk along. They walked past some very fancy resorts and lots of little shops selling souvenirs and drinks. There was a little bit of touting going on from some locals that wanted to sell their souvenirs. It was harmless though, and they generally were very friendly.
Elysia later also went for a massage at the hotel, by the pool. The wind kept blowing the curtains open so that everyone could potentially see in, which was really weird. She also thought that the massage lady was getting too close to where she shouldn't be. Very odd.
In the evening about 7 of us (Anna, Matt, Sarah, Markus, Masivu and us) went for a sunset cruise on an African boat called a dhow. The boat sailed along the coastline and we sat above the deck and watched as the sun dipped behind the horizon over the ocean. The cruise
cost $40 each (it wasn't really a cruise- it was just some guy's boat and he brought 3 crew with him so there was 10 of us in total), and it included an open bar. Only it wasn't really an open bar, they just had brought a few bottles of wine, beer and a local spirit called Konyagi, and they just kept pouring it for us. We also didn't drink very much because we realized that it's a bad idea to be on a roof of a boat and be drinking too much. Nevertheless we had fun joking around all together.
After sunset, they dropped us off at an area on the beach with a variety of restaurants. The 7 of us had dinner there (the rest of the group was back at the hotel and they missed out on all our fun!). We ran into another Canadian at the restaurant; she was sitting alone at the table next to us, and we dared our guide, Masivu to approach the girl and pick her up (he thought she was pretty). He went to talk to her and invited her over, but she said she would finish her dinner. We
thought that she had blown him off, but she did come and sit down at our table next to Mike, but then Masivu had barely anything to say to her! On the way to meet a taxi to take us back to our hotel we came across an empty hammock. We all decided a group picture was in order - the hammock was surprisingly strong as it didn't break with all of us in it! We then took the taxi back to the hotel and called it a night. It was after 9pm after all!
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