Day 17 Papettee

This morning we were awake at 7am for an early in-room breakfast before today’s excursion. We were due to meet at 7:50am portside for a snorkeling trip lasting a few hours. However, the weather was pretty rough — torrential rain, although still warm.
We both headed down to the meeting point, but when Lorna saw the small boat we were due to board, along with the choppy water in the port and the heavy rain, she decided to bail. I said I’d still go if she didn’t mind, which she didn’t, so I said goodbye and got onboard with around ten other guests as we headed out to our two snorkeling stops.
I kid you not — the water was really choppy and the rain was relentless. But we figured we were going to get wet anyway, so we pushed on. Not long after setting off, we spotted loads of small dolphins swimming nearby, which was incredible to see.
Our first stop was a deeper site where there was a sunken light aircraft, which was really cool to explore. After that, we motored on to the next location — a shallow sandbar with lots of coral and fish. I had my underwater camera with me and managed to get some great shots, although it’ll be a while before I can post them.
What made it even more memorable was the rain — it absolutely poured down, so much so that we could barely see the boat at times. It was hitting our heads so hard it actually hurt, and it felt much colder than the ocean!
We stuck it out though, and before long it was time to head back to the ship. As we pulled in, the skies opened up even more than before, so by the time I got back onboard I was completely soaked — not a dry item on me.
I made my way back to the room, passed loads of new guests along the way, and jumped straight in the shower.
Lorna came back to the room and we both had a early lunch and then got off the ship again to get a taxi to the nearest large shopping mall. We hailed a taxi and was dropped off outside the shopping centre and proceeded to buy essentials and a few things we missed omg it was very expensive we basically spent around $250 on toiletries, washing and cleaning products as well as a few supliments that was a surprise. What was also a surprise was there were no taxis at the mall. As we had no cell service we had to ask the supervisor in the supermarket to call us a taxi which thankfully did arrive a few minutes later we headed back to the ship as we have had enough of the heavy rain. We popped up for a quick few drinks in Waves and looked out to the grey skies. It’s such a shame about the weather especially as yesterday’s weather was so good.
For dinner tonight we just ate in The Terrace and had our first pizza omg it was good. So early to bed on the 8th floor.