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Published: March 6th 2018
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Today we had booked a boat to take us out to Cayo Blanco, and island off the coast which is supposed to be good for snorkelling and look for iguanas. We walked to the designated meeting point, the infotur office, and waited for our taxi. One pulled up, it was the same 63 Chevy from the day before. The driver got out and asked us something in Spanish which we didn’t understand. One can never be certain here. As we walk down the street we will get half a dozen offers for a taxi, so maybe he was another one. A second driver pulled up, who could speak a little English and he had some paperwork with my name on it. So yes these guys were to take us to the Marina.
When we got to the marina our boat was there, but in true Cuban style, we were delayed. There were a couple of tour groups so we were a little unsure of where we were supposed to be. Eventually a guy with a clipboard showed up and separated the sheep from the goats. After a while they told us that there was a problem with our boats engine
and they were fixing it. “Maybe half an hour.” It must have been a big problem because they ended up bringing in a replacement boat.
Sadly the snorkelling was a no go, it was too windy, which made the waves to choppy for seeing the coral. They let us off at the beach and told us we could swim out to a reef, but it was a bit of a swim and we decided on just having a paddle near the beach instead. The beach looked great coming in from the ocean but in reality, it had lots of rocks under the water line. So we did a lot of floating
The tour included lunch and an open bar. Lunch was paella and salads, which was very nice. The open bar consisted of rum and soft drink, which was dangerous. While we were waiting for lunch an Iguana made its way onto the porch. We of course started taking photos, then one of the tour operators strolled up and started patting it. We were stunned. The tour guide said, “its OK, he’s my amigo.” I asked what the iguana’s name was. “Carlos.” There are Carlos’s all over this
place. The tour operator picked him up and petted him then put him down. We got a little brave and patted the Carlos. As lunch was served another two iguanas appeared. One which was smaller than Carlos, we named Chubb Chubb. And then a baby one we called George. After lunch another appeared who looked bigger an meaner than Carlos so we called him Bruce. By the time all the dishes were cleared there were about 10 iguanas milling around. We did see the tour operators feeding Carlos at lunch. My guess is they have figured out humans = food.
Some notes on safety here…it’s all on you. Unlike Australia, there were no headcounts, no instructions on environment, don’t touch the coral, don’t pet the wildlife, nothing. People were just left to do as they pleased, but be back at 2.30 for the boat.
After lunch we had a couple of hours of free time. So we made our way back down to the beach and rested on the lounges under the palm trees. It was a tough afternoon. Around three we boarded the boat and headed back to Trinidad. We asked our driver to drop us off
at a Banco, as our cash supplies are running a little low. He dropped us off at a Western union. I went in but they asked for my passport which is back at the casa so I couldn’t withdraw any cash. We decided to try and find an ATM, we had seen them yesterday and knew they were here. Do you think we could find the bloody thing? Nope. We kept getting directions but just seemed to end up walking the same streets over and over. A few terse words may have been exchanged. Eventually we found the new town square and just down the from there we knew there was an ATM. Cash in hand we purchased some cigarettes and cervezas and cooled off.
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