Day 9

Today was Whale Watching day! And boy was it a doosey!

So we made plans with Natalie to go on the tour at 10AM. She works for a tour group owned by some witnesses called Tour Samana with Terry. We weren't really sure what time we were supposed to leave the house, so we were ready a bit early.

Suddenly Natalie showed up at the door and said we had to leave right away, the boat was two hours early! So we grabbed to motos at the bottom of our street, Natalie and I on one, Jo and Emily on another and rode down to the main street. Wished we'd gotten a picture but I think we were all just hanging on, three on a motorbike is pretty tight!

We got in a van with some others and drove to the boat dock.

The ginormous cruise ship looms ominously on the horizon

But it brings in a lot of money for the locals!

 We climbed aboard, and man were we unprepared for what awaited us! It was actually a pretty rainy day today, most of the time the rain just lasts a couple minutes and only once, maybe twice a day since we've been here. But today it rained a lot, and it made the waves pretty big!

It was like riding some crazy Disney ride at first, we would cut through a wave and be tossed in the air then drop down on the other side through empty air, sea spraying in our faces as we smacked the surface. Other times we would ride the waves straight up then back down the other side, like a small drop on a rollercoaster. The sun was out so we weren't too cold but pretty soon we were soaked! At times it was like having a bucket of water thrown in our face! I was glad to have sunglasses on but that didn't stop the salt water from dripping down, burning in my eyes.

We had some rubber jackets they provided but we didn't know we were going to get that wet so by the time we realized it was too late. Finally we arrived at the whale location and we anxiously searched the waves.

About 15 minutes later we spotted a spray of water and maybe 50 yards in front of us we saw a whale raise up out of the water and then return. Everyone was yelling excitedly as we jetted towards the site. We continued whale chasing, many times seeing the jets of water rise up. We spotted it's back and tiny dorsal fin a few more times as well.

As we continued to strain for a view of the whale, suddenly some of the tourists started shouting angrly at the driver. Were they angry about the way he was driving? Or following the whale? Did they want to go a different way? We weren't really sure because they were shouting in a foreign language, but as they continued we all looked inquisitively at one another.

As we watched the whale continue to spray water the boat started to turn away and drive back to where we had come from! Where we returning so soon? Or just getting a different angle? Finally the woman sitting in front of us explained that the angry tourists had been demanding that the boat be turned around because they felt sick. So instead of watching the whales for hours like planned, we were there maybe 15-20 minutes!

The ride back was a bit miserable, the sun was completely gone, we were soaked and since we were no longer riding against the waves, it wasn't nearly as much like a roller coaster as it was on the way out. However our misery was soon washed away! When we arrived back the other guide told us that since we were with Natalie that they would let us come back on Wednesday and go again! What a treat! Unfortunately for the other tourists, they all had to get back on their cruise ship.

Lunch was included with the tour so we tried to dry off and warm up sitting under the palm fronds roof of the small restaurant there (without the sun out it was really cold! It started raining as soon as we got back to the dock). We hung out at the beach and relaxed.

My fish I got for lunch. Pretty different than I thought it would look! But I was really hungry so it was eaten.

Emily's food, something stuffed with seafood

Jo's fried chicken

Buying stuff from a local

The restaurant

Natalie reenacting the puke scene from the boat

A whale ate my friend's arm

After we ate the fruit, this is what it looked like

After getting back in town we went to a few stores and walked around the outside market that locals setup to sell items to tourists from the cruise ship. A few sisters have tents too so we checked them out and found shelter from the driving rain that started up again.

Happy to be home and dry but definitely looking forward to Wednesday when we will definitely be prepared for getting soaked and possibly cold if there's no sun again. Natalie told us it always seems to rain when a cruise ship is in the harbor!