Pre-Packing Adventures

Sorry in advance, but I haven't downloaded any photos for this post. We're all packing and laughing together on our last night in San Andres. Today's adventures were wonderful though, and I'll post photos later, probably after we get home.
Our friend Noel, who has been with us from the first day of clinics, spent one last day with us, showing us a few more things around the island. We left our hotel about 10am: first stop - "the Blowhole". There is a cave in part of the island rock, and at one point, just a few yards in from the ocean, there is a hole (about a foot across) that goes straight down into the cave. Every time a wave rolls into the cave, water pressure sends a foamy spout out through the hole and straight into the air. Collette and I stood right next to the hole and got soaked, but the joke was on everyone else, because it started to rain shortly after that. At the blowhole, we made friends with a girl named Isabella, who was visiting the island from Colombia. She was very excited to learn about World Vets, and seemed more impressed that there were assistants with the doctors, than that the doctors were there at all. Score one for the assistants!
After the blowhole, Noel took us to "the Lagoon" - a mangrove swamp where a group of caimans live. The caimans are not native to the island. The story is that a man was travelling with a pair of them, and managed to get them to the island, but they were confiscated and he wasn't allowed to take them on the airplane to leave. After the man left, officials weren't sure what to do with the caimans, and didn't want the responsibility of taking care of them, so they left them in the swamp, not realizing that they would reproduce fairly rapidly. Since the whole island of San Andres is a wildlife protected zone, it is now illegal to hunt or harass the caimans. Some visitors feed them bread, and we meant to, but we forgot the bread. I threw a leaf to one of them, but he didn't want it. Another caiman saw that and snapped up a different leaf instead. The biggest ones were 3-4 feet long, and they came up to within a few feet of where we were - kind of like ducks at a lake looking for a handout. We saw some parrots at the lagoon too, and made friends with a group of local dogs. Then we headed off to West View - what the locals call a natural swimming pool. Noel's extended family owns what turns out to be a sort of water park. They've installed ladders and a waterslide onto the side of a rock face that goes down to the sea. At this point, the water is about 20 feet deep where it meets the rock face, and because of the park's location, between two points of the island, the waves are less forceful, so it's fairly safe to dive, swim, and snorkel in the area. Several of us did all three! The snorkeling was great - there were lots of fish, swimming at several different depths, and Sandy and I saw a coral "castle" that looked like it came out of a Little Mermaid cartoon. Sandy swam even farther, and re-visited the Poseidon statue she'd seen during SCUBA. I didn't plan well when going down the waterslide though - the slide ends about a dozen feet above the water, and people go sailing off the end of the slide and splash into the waves. I still had my snorkel mask on, and it came off when I plunged into the water. The lifeguard on duty dove down and found it for me at the bottom of the water, before I had a chance to ask. He also found a man's wedding ring that had come off while swimming. I felt pretty safe swimming there after that, I mean, if he's observant enough to find a ring on a coral reef 20 feet below the surface, he's probably not going to let anyone get hurt!
Across the street from the swimming pool is a restaurant, also owned by Noel's family. They fed us some lovely breadfruit, and most of the crew had either conch or shrimp. The sauces for both tasted fantastic, as did the Coca Fresa (coconut punch) that we tried too. By the time we finished eating, we were all exhausted and headed back to the hotel. On the way, Noel stopped to pick up a little red crab he saw on the side of the road. We worried that he would get pinched, and then we worried that our toes would get pinched, when he put the crab in the back of the truck, where we were riding! The crab got so angry that he blew bubbles at us, so Noel put him back on the ground, where he scuttled into a crab hole. After that it was farewell to Noel, and hello to packing and getting organized, and taking a break to share a lime pie that we had picked up along the way.
That brings us to now, where my bags are packed, except for the wet swimwear and sandals that will (hopefully) be dry enough to pack by morning. Wish me luck!