My plane was boarding so I picked up my purse, my travel guide and the bright orange laminated piece of paper that served as a boarding pass and got onto the little plane for the 2nd time this trip. I sat next to a girl who was there with her husband on their honeymoon from the UK. We chit-chatted a bit and our fear of flying came up. She was kinda freaked out to be on this tiny little plane. I should be too, shouldn’t I? But for some reason I was feeling abnormally comfortable. It sure did feel nice. I was able to sit back, relax, and enjoy the view of beautiful turquoise water as well as the small little islands with mysterious cute little small houses on them. I arrived in San Pedro and went a walking. It was easy to navigate, the beach was right in front of me. My goal: Destination snorkeling. I passed a lot of cute restaurants and cafes while looking for “Amigos Del Mar”, the snorkeling/diving company that Lorraine had suggested. On my way, a Rastafarian dude sitting in a chair in the shade called to me. “What are you up to here?” He asked. “Well, I’m on my way to go snorkeling.” He replies “that’s exactly why I wanted to talk to you. My friend and I will take you on our boat, we’ll charge a lot less – you can go snorkeling and we can even go fishing and cook the fish right on the boat!” Well, I know there are a lot of you out there that doubt my ability to make wise decisions while on my own, but aside from knowing it would be stupid to go, I remembered a conversation that Kent and I had had, only a night prior. Apparently there had been instances of tourists going on these boats with the locals and they take them allll the way out to sea, and then take all their money they have on them. They may even force them to an ATM when they get back, and there have even been instances of the tourists being thrown overboard, and left in the middle of the ocean. As a single girl, I was NOT about to get on a boat with a couple strange men. I told him thank you very much, but my friend is waiting for me and I would have to discuss with her, but I think she wants to go with a certain company. He begged and pleaded, and asked me to meet his friend that was walking towards us, but I smiled politely, said thank you, and walked away. Phew. Resisting “salesmen”, scam artists, and people in general who are out to rip you off or even rob you has got to be one of the hardest parts about traveling.
I approached Amigos Del Mar and got a reservation for the 2 o’clock tour. It ended at 4:30 they said, so I asked them, to make absolute sure, what time we would be done, because I had a flight at 5 pm. “it’s over and you’ll be back at 4:30” they assured me. Meanwhile, it was only 12:30, so I walked around looking for somewhere to get some food. I had remembered passing by a restaurant that I had seen mentioned in my travel book; Wild Mango’s. I retraced my steps (avoiding the Rastafarian scary dude) and found the restaurant. Sat down at the shaded bar for one amazing margarita and an absolutely awesome fish sandwhich. Finger-licking good. (Not that I don’t do that most of the time, anyways). I watched the bartender as he threw in whole pieces of fruit to make those margaritas, and stared at the kitchen as some pretty delectable dishes appeared at the server window. I would love to come back here sometime.
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