Dolphins, a shipwreck and a toadfish

We were up at 6:30am, set up our dive gear and left at 7:15am. A short boat trip later and we were at our first dive site: Ted's Point. Our DM, Jordi, was a very chatty hyperactive guy from Barcelona. There was one other girl called Sara in our group. There were about 8 other people on the boat, which wasn't very big - by far the most cramped dive boat I've ever been on. Anna came on the boat and snorkelled, turning her back a lovely shade of lobster.

We got into our gear and Hannah's BCD wasn't inflating due to a dodgy reg. While this was being sorted some dolphins appeared and Jordi yelled at us to get in quick. We hurried and descended immediately but the only sign of them were the high pitched whistles we could hear. We carried on down to a small boat wreck on it's side and then ascended slowly via the reefs. The visibility was fantastic, the corals were beautiful, lots of blues and purples, however not too many fish. We saw teeny nudibranchs, a huge blueish crab, a ray and held a tiny spindly arrow crab. We switched over our tanks and the boat captain hunted for dolphins for us, but to no avail. It was a pretty short break before our second dive, which was at Big Rock. We started off on a shallow, sandy area looking for black seahorses but didn't find them. We then went a little deeper and stayed on the reef. Our sights included a toadfish, moray eel, cowfish, pufferfish and others. Again, not tons of fish but the reef looked amazing and it was a nice dive.

We degeared and started to head back. Hannah came up and sprayed me with a mouthful of crackers as she yelped 'dolphins!'. We all lined up with fins and snorkels on the back of the boat as they started bowriding. On the captain's shout we were supposed to slide gracefully off the back but in reality we all jumped and splashed, obscuring all visibility. Once the bubbles had cleared most of us saw the pod of ~8 swim quite far below us. Hannah missed them. They didn't hang around so we got back on the boat and found them again and jumped back in. This time Hannah saw them, whilst I didn't. Anna was lucky enough to see them both times. Again they didn't stay around, which apparently they often do so we headed back. We each had to tip the captain 200L for the dolphins - it's 300L for whale sharks if we get that lucky, a fee I will gladly pay! We got back just after midday.

When we returned we were given the exciting news that an en-suite room was available so we moved our stuff over. We went for brunch at a nearby cafe - Hotspot. I had a great smoothie and coconut bread with peanut butter (70L), Anna had the traditional breakfast incl coffee (100L) and Hannah had a quesadilla and smoothie (100L).

I went back to our room and promptly fell asleep. The others soon joined me and we all had a much-needed nap. We chilled for the rest of the afternoon. Hannah went to sunbathe but I didn't want to risk the sand flies.

We wandered along the main street searching for a place to eat. They were all offering similar menus but at American rates so we ended up back at last night's place. I bought a huge mozzy zapper (250L), which looks like a tennis racquet and emits a blue light to lure the little buggers before zapping them. The other end is a torch. I have not really suffered with the mozzies on this trip so far (Anna has), but the ones here are vicious and we are all covered in bites that itch like crazy :( Hannah almost froze us to death with her Arctic aircon preferences - we need to get her adapted quick!Read more