am I dreaming?

I made it to the boat as you can see and have been busy taking this whole experience in.  The boat is amazing. See for yourself.

my bed in the bunkhouse

Sylvia's Room

The plane ride here was interesting.  Nine people crammed into a little plane, the ninth seat being in the cockpit.  My seat mate and I vied for the crack between the seats in front of us to stuff our knees into. For the age and the shape of the plane, we had an incredibly smooth ride.

from the back of the plane

Staniel Cay Airport Terminal

I LOVE my new sea family.  Everyone is so nice.  Throughout the day people filtered in.  Finally at about 4:00, the star of the show pulled up.  Since we had the “good” day boat for our snorkeling trip, which has a cover, the last of the visitors, Kip, Eleanor and Sylvia showed up in the zodiac, in the rain. I immediately felt guilty for some reason but it was clear everyone in the boat was used to getting wet so no need to worry.  We don’t have any princesses on this cruise.

I have so much to tell you but so much great conversation going on all the time that it is hard to update everyone.  I was up until 1am last night and back up again at 6:30am.  Just don’t want to miss a minute which means a crash is imminent.  Dinner was amazing. I managed to sit across from Sylvia and Eleanor (from the Bahamian Nature Conservatory).  Unbelievable conversation.  I’ve watched so many videos of Sylvia that her voice is immediately recognizable to me.  To be sitting across the table from her feels like an out of body experience.  Everyone once in a while I just have to give my head a shake.

We did get to see the wild pigs of Staniel Cay, which have become quite an attraction.  We went in search of the infamous wild pigs in the early evening, assured that as we pulled up with a bucket of vegetable scraps, they would come running.  After a 20 minute wait we were shut out so we cruised the shoreline for signs.  We found goats and chickens, the finally three large sows came running through the scrub following us to the beach.  The boat stopped just off shore to encourage the pigs to swim out. And swim they did.  Kip was brave enough to get in the water for some fabulous shots.  Eventually Sylvia and I joined him. 

Kip and Sylvia

Once all of the pictures were captured, Sean our ship captain, handed me the bucket with instructions to dump the rest on shore.  Dutifully I took the bucket without a thought of what would happen next.  Anyone want to take a stab at what happened next?  Yep, 300 lbs of hog came swimming at me because I now had their food in my hands.  There is some fabulous video footage of the next terrifying 30 seconds as I was chased down the beach with yells of “dump the bucket” from the boat.  I am now fully prepared for the sharks.