Trinidad and Tobago October 18th

We started our day with another adventure to find breakfast. We walked to the Hotel on the corner hoping they were serving food and again found out that the kitchen was not open. We ended up purchasing some fresh fruit from a local produce stand. On our way back to the guest house we stopped at the store and picked up some eggs, bread, yogurt and granola to complete our breakfast. The local store is an adventure in itself. As you can see from the picture there is nothing telling you that it is a store and it is difficult to imagine the mix of items in this small location. The lady at the produce stand gave us a wonderful avocado that we used for our sandwiches for the next two days.

Instead of booking trips with the guys at Store Bay we decided to book a trip from Johnson's Sea Tours right outside our guest house in Buccoo Bay. On the day we were scheduled to go out on the boat we had a thunderstorm hit right as we were supposed to go out on the water. We were afraid the storm was going to disrupt our plans to see the reef and to snorkle. We talked to the ladies in the tour stand and they said we could go out at anytime. We took the opportunity to return to the house and take a nap and we were pleasantly surprised with good weather in the afternoon. Around 1:30pm we went back across the street and we met up with Captain Johnson to go out on the boat. Captain Shabah Johnson took us out to Buccoo Reef on the Glass Bottom boat Bretana. The boat normally holds 14 to 18 passengers but we were the only tourists in town so we were excited to have a private tour. We were able to see the coral bottom as we drove over the reef. Shabah took us to the far edge of the reef and let us jump in and snorkle for about an hour. The reef has more than 40 species of fish and many types of coral. It is easy to see where the reef is in the water by watching where the white caps hit. This was my first experience snorkeling in the ocean and I was impressed with the coral and many colored fish. Shabah then took us to an area called Nylon pool where the water is crystal clear. Nylon pool is only about 3 feet deep and the locals will tell you that a dip in the pool will make you feel years younger!
After our trip we decided to head to another beach about 2 miles down the road called Mt. Irvine beach. As we started to walk out of town one of the locals asked us where we were off to this fine afternoon and offered to give us a ride to the beach. We gladly accepted the ride. We spent the afternoon at the beach playing in the water and drinking rum and coke. I had the opportunitiy to take a sit on top kayak out with a guide and I really enjoyed the opportunity to paddle around the bay.