Thursday (17th)

An early start for the Monkey river tour. We were picked up by boat and taken, through the in-land waters through the mangroves to a village called 'Monkey river', Manatee spotting on the way. We picked up our guide and headed down the monkey river. The guide was a local villager giving us bits of info on the wildlife and stuff and we sailed down. We got off the boat for a trek in the jungle to hunt down the 'Howling Monkeys'. It was pretty dense jungle and the guide was determined to find the Monkeys, bashing the trees with his machete howling up at the tree tops!! Finally we came across them and the noise they made was spine curdling! when the howl it was haunting and went straight through you - they're more like weir-wolfs than monkeys. Back in the boat we went back to the village for lunch and a tour. A boat trip back to Placencia. Had dinner at a local restaurant called Wendy's - delicious Creol food. Finished off relaxing on the porch watching the ocean drinking rum. (Clare was now able to join in!)

Friday (18th)

Breakfast on the veranda. Our first dive was a local dive on 'Silk keys', 'long keys' and 'white hole key' The dives were lovely and relaxing- nice and easy. bimbled along. Saw a 2meter long Loggerhead turtle. The coral was nice big gardens. The surface interval was on a small sandy island (100 yards long) we had a BBQ lunch and basked in the sun for a couple of hours. Back at the cabana we did some well needed laundry. Had Pizza and lots of rum at the 'Pickled Parrot' back to the cabana for more rum and siesta....

Sat (19th)

Had left over Pizza for breakfast- classy! Got picked up by boat for the 'Jaguar reserve tour'. Had a jungle nature tour in the rain! smelt, tasted all kinds of plants and stuff! Doyal our guide was informative but very amusingly camp, turning on his heels with excitement after every fleeting statement! We were at the back giggling like naughty kids on a school trip. The best when he nearly fell in the river. After lunch we went tubing down the river, We found it hard a first as our bums dragged on the bottom, being at the back this time meant we didn't have the essential into of which way to go! Soon caught up and became teachers pet making sure we went the right way. After we went waterfall sliding! Climbing up quite high we slid down several small waterfalls, mega! Great day! Back for tea at the Purple space monkey- lush.

Sunday (20th)

Whale shark dive number 1. Saw nothing but a bull shark, great shark but not the right one! The dive into the blue was pretty boring. The idea was to find the snappers and swim in a 'people ball' above them, the guide would purge his reg below us to simulate the spawning to attract the sharks. It was pretty hard to do and the group sank quite dramatically! After a long surface interval basking on the front deck of the boat, we went back out again but with no luck. The site was pretty regulated by park rangers and we were given set times to go in. The trip back was a bumpy ride back with lots of disappointing faces.. supermatch game....supermatch game. we went to the Barefoot bar for dinner and got smashed at the Tipsy Tunas' full moon party. Scott met 3 delightful ladies (see photo) Staggered home along the narrowest main street in the world (thats not a drunken observation its in the Guinness book of records.)

Monday (21st)

2nd day of Whale shark diving. Sat at the back of the boat this time so were a lot more comfortable as the boat sliced through the waves. 1st dive didn't see a thing at all! long surface interval relaxing in the sun (basking lizards) Back in for the afternoon dive, we managed to find the snapper and perform the 'people ball' successfully and could see one in the distance yippee .. however it still wasn't what we wanted! continued the dive and finally saw one at the end of the dive (video) was amazing saw a huge mouth coming towards us and then he swam past - awesome he was about 20 foot.

AWESOME - our whale shark diving was a success. We were so happy, there were lots of big smiles on the boat ride back to Placencia.

We had dinner at the 'Serenade at the beach' along the narrowest main street in the world and celebrated sighting our big spotty shark.