Snorkelling Trip

Wow. Today we went on a snorkelling trip around San Cristobal. The trip lasted 7 hours, I paid $50 and would have happily paid twice the amount. The first stop was to 'las islas lobos'- translated roughly as the 'sea lion islands'. I've seen plenty of sea lions already but as we snorkelled around the small island, baby sea lions swam right up to us to play. It was slightly unnerving at first as they would swim right up until you were almost nose to nose and so I couldn't tell whether they were about to bite half my face off, but very quickly we realised they meant no harm. They followed us around for about an hour before we went on to our next stop. I said yesterday that I had already been told we MIGHT see sharks and so I wasn't quite prepared to be literally swimming amongst a school of them. It was not a good couple of minutes for me when I got stung on the neck by a jellyfish, only then to look down and see a 6 foot long shark swimming about a foot underneath me. However like the sea lions, the sharks were harmless and I even managed to see a couple of hammerheads as well. We also saw sea turtles (Finding Nemo) and a collection of different rays. Alas I didn't manage to exact my revenge on any sting rays, but I still have 5 weeks left here.

It was one of the most incredible experiences I reckon I will ever have and it was only made sweeter by the news that tottenham drew with Wigan. Now I am sitting in a bar by the port sipping back on a pineapple juice. The only downside today the day is I classically forgot to put sun cream on my back while snorkelling and so now, according to the tour guide today, I look like a lobster. Charming fella.

My experience with Ecuadorian cuisine so far has been very good. A pattern that I have seen emerging in the last few days is that I will most likely be having rice for every single lunch and dinner, which at the moment isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'm not sure how appetising it will look after 4 weeks. We shall have to wait and see. I'm having dinner in about 2 hours time, and I'm willing to place a bet that it will be rice, fried plantain and chicken. Guaranteed.

Tomorrow I fear shan't be as exciting as today. The only two events I have planned are watching the arsenal match at 9 am, followed by creating a test for the children for monday. I'm very tempted to make it fiendishly difficult and make a pass mark of 95% just to assert my dominance like Mr Doyle when he first started teaching me physics in year 11. The man was a machine. Anyway I digress, Until tomorrow.