Today was Mike’s last day, of a too short vacation. It’s a real shame he had trouble getting here. He kind of got gypped with the weather too, with a couple bad snorkeling days. Ah well… Mangel Halto made up for a lot of deficiencies in the holiday! It was so calm today, that we could easily have done it again!

Mike’s flight was at 6 PM, but we had to switch to our new resort, La Cabana, by 11 AM, so the day was pretty much a write-off. We looked for a t-shirt for Mike – he wanted one with a Balashi logo, but no one had his size. Unreal! It wasn’t a total waste though, as I managed to find an Hawaiian shirt that is not in my collection!

Pam and I dropped Mike at the airport, and headed straight to the ocean. It was super super calm, and the visibility was awesome. We stayed in the water til sunset. It was fun to be in the water when it’s that calm, since you don’t need to use your flippers much, and the fish seemed a lot more relaxed as a result. Some fish who are super shy didn’t mind us hovering over them, and Pam took some really great shots.

This grouper just lazed about the sand, hardly moving. Usually they take off the minute they see us, but today was special. Pam took a really nice video of him just hanging about the bottom, not running to hide.

And here is a movie of a Queen Angelfish bumping the same grouper around a bit…  quite funny. The queen angelfish is a very active fish, flitting from one rock to another. I love the super colorful body on this fish – it easily catches the eye when you’re snorkeling!

Just a couple words about our new resort – we’ve never stayed here before, but it’s very near the Paradise Beach resort where we stayed last year. It’s right on Palm Beach, a long white sand beach, that is perfect for swimming and relaxing. The room is ok, a little small, but we have a nice view over the ocean from our fourth floor balcony. The bed is only a queen, but comfortable. WIFI is $35 for the week, using Setar, the same guys the Paradise Beach used. It’s a super fast system, and far superior to what we had at Caribbean Palm Village. Well worth the money. It also has a very nice lobby, really posh, with a huge stained glass window. There is a casino just off the lobby, so I know where I’ll find Pam. 🙂