Well yesterday was about as good as it gets..
Up in the morning to catch the 8:30 dive and down to a great breakfast of omelette and toast. Then in a trike to the dive shop.
Once I’m there I’m greeted by David the dive master / manager who is a Dutch ex-pat. He’s been living here for he past seven years after coming down to the islands to get his dive master cert.. And just didn’t leave… He’s giving me ideas LOL????
But it turns out that they didn’t have anyone going out at 8:30 because there were some communications gaps in my contacting them. But no problems as they can take me out at 1 and 3 and this gives me time to explore this beautiful beach.
Mom you will be glad to know that Longboat Key still holds the title of best beach on my book. And this is mainly due to the wild development of the beach front here… And this is post closure to tourists for six months to clean things up.
But the beach is gorgeous for sure. White powder sand stretching miles and miles lined by overhanging palm trees. And people everywhere lol. But I go for a long walk. Haggle for a new hat and dry bag that I need for my upcoming boat trip, and go for a nice long swim.
Then I parked under my lone palm’s shade and read and snoozed and wrote blog entries. Finally another walk for a restaurant to sit at in the shade and watch the world go by.
My Lone Palm 
Miles and miles of grasp on a shelf shops 
New yellow hat 
Gorgeous white sand beach
Eventually it’s dive time and off we go to Friday’s Rock. A lovely coral encrusted rock where I saw scorpion fish, huge grouper and tons of teeming life. Then back to the dive shop to pick up another diver, Martin from Germany, and back out to Balihai dive site, a nice little long reef where we did a drift dive and saw more of the same as before plus a coupe of moray eels.
Really interesting sail system 
On watch 
My room on the top of the hill
Finally back in I head down to Joanies which was recommended by David and park it for sunset. It was magnificent and the first real sunset I’ve been able to see so far
Two for one happy hour 
Bliss 
Yummy mojitos 
Wish I was on a boat
Then to my surprise David and his girlfriend (dang if I can’t remember her name now) showed up for some eats and cocktails. We had a nice long conversation and then shared a trike back to my room where I went back to visit with Bdaoi and buy a round of drinks as promised.
By this point I have to admit I was feeling happy and went for another soak in the tub and then crashed.
Wow. Simply wow.
You really get a true feel for a place when you have time to sit and chat with locals! I think you need to do a Global Volunteer trip next!!
Anytime you can sit on a beach and see the sunset is a good time. I KNOW just how much you love the sea and the sunset, so I know you are “in
your glory now.”
The beach looks absolutely beautiful – I love the fine white sand. It sounds like you are enjoying yourself with the locals and the full cultural experience. How fun and what a blessing!
WOW Bill it sounds heavenly. You are so lucky that you are able to experience these beautiful sites and adventures. God bless you and be safe.