The Marshes get their do-over

Well, the Marshes got their do-over after their long & somewhat disappointing Columbus Day Weekend. Last week my husband asked me if I wanted to know what my birthday present was. First I said no but then he said he needed to tell me so I could get my schoolwork done. He took me back to La Parguera for an early birthday weekend...just the 2 of us. We left on Friday after school and drove there. We checked in to the Parador Villa Parguera, walked around the town, ate dinner at Aquazul, (my meal was wonderful....Courtney's was too sweet) and then headed for the bay. The "show" was so much better this weekend! Then we walked around a bit more and then headed for bed. We got up Saturday morning and were going to find something to do. We found a company called "Johnny Boats" that would take us out on a motor boat to some mangroves and just around the little islands out in the ocean. We hopped on a boat with our guide Miguel and headed off. The ride alone was beautiful but it was the little islands and mangroves that were amazing. As you ride along you can see houses lined up at the edge of the water. People from San Juan and all over have houses that are for the weekends and vacations. We found one that you can rent for a weekend that looked awesome. I know it sounds like alot but you can take up to 14 people and it's $500 for a weekend. Anyone interested? Our next trip was through some mangroves. We want to go back & take another tour in January or February because when the water is cold you can see manatees swimming around the mangroves. How cool would that be?! Here's a picture of one of the mangroves that we drove our boat through (you can see the tip of the boat. And also a picture that our tour guide took of us at the end of the mangrove. While we were riding along Courtney took a phone call...imagine that, Courtney on the phone! He talks more than I do! Travis and John called to tell us they were at ESU's homecoming. After their call Courtney was a little sad. He realized it's the first homecoming he's missed in at least 7 years, maybe even longer. We were, however, very disappointed to hear that 3rd floor North Twin Towers is not the same. In fact, Courtney & Travis' rooms are gone! Anyway...while Courtney was talking to Travis we came up to a little island. We found out from Miguel that the University of Puerto Rico owns this island and on the island live iguannas. They have things attached to the iguannas to study how they move, eat, live, etc. We pulled up and tapped the dock and out came at least 20-25 iguannas! They come running to the boats waiting for food. It was crazy!! Some of them are huge! We found out that the large ones are the males and the small ones are the females. I got several pictures of them but every time I'd take a picture more would come up. I ended up picking on picture to attach here of a female. She just sat there looking at us the whole time. One of the biggest ones was trying to get on the boat. I asked if they ever come on the boats and he said they try to but would never say if they ever make it. We didn't take any chances and left before they could. While on our "Johnny Boat" tour they told us we could jump in the water at any time and go swimming. We could swim near a mangrove and put our bag in the magrove but we'd have to stay in the water the entire time. That didn't fit Courtney very well so we instead decided to stay on an island with a dock and facilities.

NO CATS WERE HARMED DURING THIS WEEKEND TRIP...

I had to put that because the name of the island we swam and waited at is Mata la Gata which means "kill the cat"! Don't ask how they come up with these names! We got to "Cat Island" as we began calling it and decided to take a walk through the mangroves. They were beautiful! They go all the way around the dock which is in an "L" shape up against the land...everyone with me so far? In the middle of the "L" and land they have it "fenced" in with a sandy bottom so people can swim and not get taken out too far. Are you ready for this? COURTNEY WENT SWIMMING! He was happy because he could see the bottom, he could touch the bottom, and he was fenced in. His fear is getting swept out in the middle of the ocean...which would be scary! I took a picture of dock and of Courtney swimming. I knew I needed proof! Miguel came back and said he'd come back for us in 15 minutes. Well, he is Puerto Rican and came back in 45. It was well worth the money and the extra time there! More stories of our weekend to be continued in the next post...betcha can't wait!