Downtown San Pedro. The streets are so narrow that the majority of the people on the island travel in golf carts. We rented two, a 4 passenger and a 6 passenger. Great fun getting around.
We stopped here for grilled lobster burgers.. it was recommend on TripAdvisor, we would recommend it too!
Mike's T-shirt.. he was wearing it when we stopped at the beer distributor.
The Belikin Beer distributor. If you buy it here it's only $1 per beer. Notice the cases of beer going into our golf cart :)
Grilled chicken or pork sold on the street
The wonderful smell was their best advertising!
We stopped for a bite and it was fantastic!
A local family stops by for chicken too.. the kids are so cute!
We thought it was funny to find a "Cayemart" in town.. it really is a K-Mart
This picture was taken standing on our pier. We were swimming in the water when we saw something jumping out of the water. A boat approached and told us it was a 12 foot Hammerhead Shark and to get out of the water.. yikes! I guess it's a rare site so close to the island. It was about 50 feet from shore.
We took a snorkelling tour with Lil Alphonse tours. It was by far the very best snorkelling tour we have ever experienced! Being so close to the world's second largest Barrier Reef makes for amazing snorkelling. We had two stops, the first was Hol Chan Marine Reserve which was a protected area so there were many, many fish. The second was Shark-Stingray Alley where the guides could feed and play with the fish. Made for two awesome places to experience unique snorkelling.
Alphonse made sure that everyone's equipment was in tip top shape before he let us jump in.
Some of the coral
This Stingray was about 4 feet wide
Alphonse swimming down to the Stingray. The water is about 30 feet deep in this area of the Reef.
A Nurse Shark. They were between 3 to 6 feet long... and they are harmless.
Monique holding a Sea Urchin
Alphonse our guide playing with a Stingray. This one was safe to play with because he lost his long spine and couldn't sting.
Brian having fun
Monique holding a Nurse Shark
Mike holding one too
Tony, Shirley, Monique and Brian
Mike the underwater photographer.. notice the turtle in the bottom right of the photo
Alphonse showed us how they can put the shark to sleep for a few minutes by flipping them upside down. We were able to rub it's belly when he did this.
I can't remember the name of this fish but Alphonse said the local fishermen really liked to find these. I could probably identify it better on my plate :)
Shirley holding a Conch
Tony diving to the bottom
Many, many fish to see
A Nurse Shark and a Barracuda
The grey coral is sleeping (looks dead) and the green coral is awake and feeding. We learned that coral is an animal, not a plant.. interesting!
Monday morning we went fishing. While waiting for our guide to pick us up at our pier we noticed a young lady doing yoga at the end of the pier. Cheryl and Monique followed along for a few minutes.. a great way to start the day :)
Our fishing adventure
Along the way we saw some small shacks on the water. Our guide told us they belonged to lobster fishermen and the staked out areas around the shack is their private property. These areas are handed down from generation to generation.
First stop was to catch our bait... sardines. We were hoping that that wouldn't be the only fish we'd catch!
Lots of bait :)
A sudden rainfall just as we were starting... but it quickly cleared up!
Denise catches the first fish!
Then Mike...
Ron's catch
A tough way to spend a day...
Shirley's "Barbie" fish.. it was diet size.. we kept it anyway
Cheryl is the only one to catch a 12 inch Spanish Marlin.. in all the excitement we didn't get a good photo of it.. sorry
Finally, Monique catches one..
Our guide jumped into water to spear this Lionfish. Apparently they are a predator that eats lobster and crab eggs and are becoming a real nuisance.
He said they are very toxic and would "make your hand explode" if you touched it. He can keep that one!
Our catch.. 20 fish (of all sizes) in all
Cleaning and filleting was included :)
The feast... delicious!
The chefs taking the fish out to the grill...
Dear Monique.... Lynn and I just finished going through the whole blog.... you have captured the beauty, charm and fun that San Pedro has to offer in such a refreshing way. You have the gift of "blogging" ...thank you that you took the time every morning to share your experience which became many of our experiences. What a privilege it was for us to connect with you and your awesome friends at the Houston airport...then back in San Pedro.... when you have a moment i would love it if you would call me ..at 204-832-8131... I trust you are now home safe and sound....
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