Delayed Pt 2

Linda and I are not big explorer types.  When we booked this trip, we really had no intentions of doing anything other than relaxing by the pool. On our first day here, the travel agent Rep talked us into doing an excursion out to a place called Saona island.  It was billed as the best beach in the Dominican and we would travel out there via a catamaran party boat. Some drinks were included as well as a meal, so we agreed. We were to meet at the entrance to the resort and take a bus to the harbour.  I have to tell you, I was not too impressed right from the start.  I always do my best to converse in the local language, and my Spanish is very limited, but I find a few "por favours" and "gracias" goes a long way in bridging the gap, and the locals, especially resort staff do their best with English as well.  When we got to the front of the resort, there was a guy standing there with a shirt that said "Saona Isl" so I approached him and showed my ticket. He basically handed me his list and had me pick out my name on it. Any questions I had were responded to by him saying one word I didn't understand and pointing to the time on his sheet. We were quite early so I wasn't too worried. As we waited around, things got more and more busy until there were people everywhere waiting for many different excursions. A while after our scheduled departure time, we finally boarded a bus that we were pretty sure was going to the right place, but again, communication with our guys was very difficult.  One of the things they didn't advertise about the excursion was that it's a 1.5 hour bus ride just to get to the harbour, and the bus stops at other resorts along the way to drag it out further. Oh well, when we ended up at the harbour, we were at least confident that we had chosen the right bus. Another disappointment was the lack of organization or information once we got there. We were led around by a short, quite portly local, and he kept our group together simply by calling us "my little family" . It seemed to be one English line that he knew. Besides our bus load of people, there were hundreds if not a thousand or more people waiting to board boats like us. Because of the poor organization, we were once again, not comfortable or confident we were going in the right direction. After being pestered by numerous hucksters, we followed our guide down to the water and when he pointed out which boat to board, I couldn't believe it. Catamaran my ass! It was basically a water bus with rows of fibreglass seats and about 30 of us were crammed in like sardines!  We idled out through the other boats, including some really impressive catamarans, but at this point, we didn't care much, we were headed in the right direction. At least when we left the harbour, the captain opened up the throttle and showed us what the little boat was capable of, with thirty people on board. Holy crap!  I'm sure there were times that only the propellers were left in the water as we jumped and bounced from one wave crest to the next. It was the perfect balance between exciting and dangerous, and the boat was large enough, we were never scared, but quite exhilarated.  We travelled down the coast, staying about 500 metres from shore. At times I'm sure we were actually flying and we knew it was approx 45 minute ride to our island.  Well more disappointment, when after half an hour or so, we slowed to an idle and there were a number of other boats around us, obviously unloading their passengers, 500 metres from shore!  I thought, wtf?  These people were standing in water up to their waste as they got off their boats. I was thinking, how are we gonna keep our towels and camera etc dry?  Our captain expertly parked us a little beyond the last boat and killed the engine. It was only then that our fun really began. He said, this is the "natural pool" and you are welcome to go for a swim if you like. It took a few seconds for this change in thought to kick in, but I think I was only second or third person in the water and I didn't bother waiting in line to use the ladder but just jumped overboard! Overboard into the most perfect, pristine, warm, turquoise blue water I have ever had the pleasure to swim in. The water was about chest deep and the bottom was perfectly fine, hard packed sand with no rocks or imperfections at all.  These conditions stretched all along the coast in this area,for about 1km from shore. I was only in the water for a minute or so when I heard them start the boat motors again. I honestly thought, "go ahead, leave me here!" At that moment I was in Paradise. It turned out they were just adjusting the position of the boat to slightly more shallow water to allow those less comfortable an opportunity to enjoy themselves. They shouted out to us in the water, "just follow us". There were no waves to speak of and my beautiful wife eventually joined me in the water, as did many others. One of the crew also joined us but he wasn't swimming. Instead, he waded around with a bottle of coke in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other and he served us drinks while we frolicked. As if this place wasn't spectacular enough on its own!  We spent about 20 minutes there and it was all too soon that they called us to get back in the boat. Oh ya, we are still going to the perfect island beach we were promised.  Once we were all back onboard, it only took us another few minutes to get to our final destination and there they pointed out the bar and the latrine and gave us times for the buffet and our departure.  One humorous anecdote from our lunch. It was buffet style and then we had to find our own seats somewhere on the patio style furniture. Linda and I had to ask a couple fellow tourists to pickup their bags so we could sit, but then we were able to get comfortable with a group which included our portly guide. He was not eating, but sleeping and snoring so loud I'm surprised you didn't hear him. One of his buddies tried waking him, but we all said to let him be and we joked that was our dinner music. 
We spent a few hours on this truly beautiful beach, getting too much sun, food and booze, and soon it was time to leave.  We dutifully took our seats back on the water bus, but it was a bit different as they never passed out the life jackets as they did the first time. As we were pulling away from shore, Linda said to me, "get some pictures of that boat over there" and pointed to a real catamaran anchored just offshore. It was what I had imagined when we were sold this excursion in the first place. A real party boat, capable of holding approx 100 passengers plus crew, with a bar and plenty of room to mingle around.  It wasn't long before we realized that this was OUR catamaran and we soon transferred to the much larger vessel for our return trip to the mainland.  Party on dudes!  We got more sun, more booze and danced and partied our asses off, especially for the couple of old farts we are. We were careful to properly sunblock and hydrate and the ride back was nothing like the ride out, but even better! One of the bartenders led us all through a couple of merengue's and obviously enjoyed her work.  Back at the harbour, we said goodbye to all our new friends and boarded the bus for the resort. By this time. We were beat, and looking forward to getting back to our room.
What a day! What started out with a few minor disappointments quickly turned into the best day of our trip so far. Which brings me back to the title of today's post.  You may be thinking, there really weren't any delays  in my story, but here's the hook. I told you we generally don't go for these excursions because they are tiring, expensive and often don't live up to their hype. The only reason we allowed ourselves to be "sold" this particular venture was that we were given vouchers by the travel agency to appease us for the delay in Kitchener last week.  These were only valid for a year and they were almost enough to pay for the whole excursion which we never would have taken if we didn't have them.
 I'm going to reread this story myself any chance I get, just to relive the memory of this truly wonderful day.

"Sometimes life drops blessings in your lap without your lifting a finger. Serendipity, they call it." 
Charlton Heston

Love Holij