day 4: island dreaming.

Our shuttle to the dock for our Powerboat Adventure to the Exuma Cays was supposed to arrive at 8am on Monday.  We were downstairs at the (twice confirmed) entrance for pickup at 7:45.  By 8:10, I started to get nervous.  I asked the bellman and he assured me the shuttle only picked up at our entrance and not to worry.

He was wrong.

At 8:20, he sheepishly approached us after getting off the phone with someone.  "The shuttle came 8 minutes ago to the upstairs entrance."

Instant tears.  I had been looking forward to this excursion for a long time, and I had a bad feeling that morning that something was wrong.  I hate it when I'm right in those situations!

Anyway, I called the travel company and they apologized and said they'd figure out what was going on.  About 15 minutes later, our bus arrived.  Apparently, the driver had forgotten two other couples further down the beach from us, too!

We ended up getting to the dock about 45 minutes late, but at least we made it!  We boarded the powerboat for an hour trip to the Exuma Cays-- specifically Allan's Cay and Ship Channel Cay.  I managed to curtail my seasickness by keeping my eyes closed and drinking lots of water when the seas were rough!

Allan's Cay was first up, where we were greeted with LOTS of hungry iguanas. Jason, one of our guides, gave us fistfuls of grapes and told us to have at it.  We stuck our grapes on the ends of some sticks to feed the iguanas-- they have sharp little teeth that you definitely don't want to nip your fingers!

Allan's Cay was also home to the most gorgeous water I saw while in the islands.  Perfect for a couples shot!

A short 10 minute ride away was our home for the day, Ship Channel Cay.  Our day long experience included all you could drink and eat, a pretty amazing package for poor folks like us!  Our first activity was watching Jason clean some grouper, which would later become lunch for us AND for the sharks and stingrays.  After that was done, it was animal adventure time.  

Stingrays were first, and I was terrified.  I'm not the most adventuresome person, and I have pretty bad luck.  I was convinced I was going to meet my end Steve Irwin style, so I was pretty skittish around these guys.  I did pet one a few times and managed to feed one before I hopped out of the water for awhile!  Jeremy, though, has no fear and loved the whole thing!  

After the rays came the sharks, which we weren't allowed to feed for safety reasons.  Although these were "small" sharks (lemon, nurse and reef), they were anywhere from 4-7 feet in length.  Plenty big for me!

After the shark excitement, we headed out for a short snorkeling adventure (yes, make the sharks angry and hungry and THEN go snorkeling).  Jeremy had never been before and I'd never tried it outside of a pool, so it was cool to experience!

All of our morning activity was rewarded with a huge lunch of steak, grouper, pasta, salad, veggies and fruit... with the best view ever!

After lunch, we lounged on the beach, swam and napped in the sun.  Our boat ride back got us to shore around 5pm and our bus dropped us at 6pm.  We were both fairly exhausted but decided to head out for one last meal to Arawak Cay, a popular local restaurant row.  Sadly, this was the most disappointing part of our trip-- the food was mediocre, the service was terrible, the staff rude and the prices were outrageous.  To add insult to injury the cashier argued with us about what we ordered and ended up charging us an extra $8.  It was a poor ending to a great day!  We actually were in bed by 830pm on Tuesday-- all the excitement of our trip and the anticipation of traveling home the next day was definitely weighing on us!