Apparently there was an option to do a snorkel or dive at 7am. Edd's foiks agreed with us that we'd give it a skip. We went up on deck at around 8.20am and had breakfast with them - the divers didn't get back until 9am and they joined us for breakfast.

We went out for a morning snorkel on one of the nearby beaches, our boat wasn't moving again until the family arrived, so we were staying in one place until about 2pm. (Again Edd and his folks were not pleased with the news, moving to the other side of the bay would have been a better idea, just a different view from what we'd been looking at since the night before).

The current was hellishly strong and swimming against it only resulted in staying in one place. I was not happy about the situation, so swam back to shore and got out. His mum had had a little swim, but mostly sat on the beach in the sun; Edd had swum quite far out (apparently to where the current wasn't as strong) and his dad had stayed to fight with it, coming back to shore about 15 minutes after me.

We hadn't seen anything interesting and got back into the speed boat a little despondent - it had not been a successful snorkel session. We got back to the main ship/boat and were greeted with cool face clothes and juice again, quite delicious.

I then sat and blogged for a bit while everyone else sat around reading, tanning and chatting. We were all getting pretty hungry and appeared to be waiting for the family to arrive. Edd had (another) word and we were served lunch before they did; it was a bit ridiculous to expect everyone to sit and starve until 2 people arrived.

We were given prawn tempura as a starter (the best Edd and I have ever had); the family, which actually consisted of a father and his 12 year old daughter, arrived as we were eating our main course. They introduced themselves and then joined us for lunch.

We moped around for most of the afternoon and then went for another snorkel at 4pm. We were taken to relatively the same spot, but we went around the small island instead; Edd's mum was dropped off on the beach where she waited for us while we went exploring.

The current was really strong again, but going in the right direction, so we just floated along with it. We spotted our first sea turtle in a gauge between 2 islands and called Edd over; he was on his own mission near where we'd been dropped off and he also had the camera - I wanted pictures.
He swam over and we watched the turtle go about it's business about 20 meters beneath us. Our guide then swam off and we followed him; I told Edd to follow him as well, but he misunderstood and thought I meant that he should follow the turtle. Apparently he looked up and we were gone; we in turn figured he was on his own mission again.

We saw an array of massive fish including barracuda and red snapper, the kind you normally only sea on your plate. I was a bit concerned with the current and asked Edd's dad if we were being collected - we'd floated off with the current, between 2 islands to the other side and there was no way on earth I was going to be able to swim back. He assured me the speed boat would be fetching us, and it did.

We then went and collected Edd's mum on the shore and went back to the main boat - we were going to be doing a trek up one of the islands to watch the sunset, so had to get back quickly to change and hike up.

We got the usual juice and cold, minty face clothes as we got back onboard and then raced to have a (hot) shower and get dressed for the trek. We shared 1 G & T between us (Edd didn't realise we were on a tight schedule, so ordered one, but then had to share it); we each got 2 slurps and then got back on the fast boat, which headed back to the beach we'd fetched Edd's mum from, just further down to the right.

Our guide had our water bottles with him (no beer, unfortunately) and I had a warm top, in case it was extra windy up there. The hike up was trechurous and we all slipped down the gravelling bits, helping each other up parts that were dodgy (more like Edd and his dad helping me and his mum). We finally got to the top and were exhausted and dirty, so much for showering. We took a few pictures and then sat and watched the sun set behind a volcano - we originally thought the clouds made it look like it was smoking, but after the sun had set we realised that it was, in fact, smoking all on its own. Oh fabulous. Now we're all going to die.

The hike back down was a massive hazard and I did much of it on my bottom; shorts were going to go in the wash when we got back. I slipped and slid down many parts and Edd and his dad again helped the useless women get down the side of the mountain. I could have thought of much more fun things to do and Edd's mum considered the wisdom in the exercise. Or lack there of, rather.

We got back to the main boat again, went for another quick shower to wash half the mountain off me and tossed our clothes in the laundry basket. We then took up positions on the sofa beds; I read my book sitting next to Edd's mum, her drinking a G&T and me drinking a mojito. Edd and his dad had gotten chatting to the father that had arrived that day; they got on really well so the conversation was quite animated and flowed nicely.

By 7.30pm, our internal organs were about to get digested by our stomach. I went to ask about when dinner would be ready and was told we were wainting for someone to come back from a night dive. We had no idea anyone had even left and managed to work out it was the guy on honeymoon - his wife was sitting with us reading though; she obviously hadn't fancied it. 9 people had to go on a starvation diet for 1 person to come back.

By the time we had dinner, which was 8pm, I wasn't hungry anymore and neither was Edd's mum. We found out that the people that had come back from their afternoon dive had been given spring rolls, which was apparently our appetiser and why we were just getting a main meal for dinner - we'd missed it.

I picked at my dinner and then left the rest; the dessert was melon, which I didn't like anyway, so skipped that as well. The America mother and daughter then told us about an island they'd visited in Indonesia that spent their whole lives preparing for their funeral. Apparently the entire economy was based on it! Depending on the status of the family, the minimum amount of water buffalo you had to sacrifice at a funeral was 7, but that was for a poor family. They'd display the horns on the outside of their houses once the animals had been sacrificed, to show how wealthy the family was. Their babies were buried on trees, within 24 hours of dying. Their family members, however, were embalmed and then treated as though they were alive for days, months, years and even decades until the family could afford the water buffalo sacrifice. These dead relatives were seated at the dinner table, given dinner, put to bed and spoken to like they were still alive. They'd tried to go into a house that had an embalmed person, waiting for burial, in it, but the family had been out.

They believed people couldn't be buried in the ground as their souls couldn't reach heaven that way, so holes were carved out of boulders and entire families were buried in them - the door wasn't put on until everyone had died. It was an interesting conversation and they showed even more interesting pictures, but by 9pm is was a dead woman walking and needed to sleep. We said goodnight, without listening to the briefing for the next day; I wasn't interested anyway. There were too many chiefs on the boat, but none when it counted.