Some of my best and fondest travel memories have involved water (despite not being a particularly strong swimmer). Learning to dive in Belize, doing a ship wreak shore dive with hubby in Malta, shark diving in South Africa, charting a boat over New Years with twin 350 horsepower engines in Cartagena – these all rank quite high on my list of unforgettable moments.
As far as birthdays go, I thought it would be tough to beat our 2010 sunset boat ride in Oman, which hubby had thoughtfully engineered. It was just us and the fjords, as we sipped some bubbly and snacked on canapés on the gulf of Oman, only to return home for in-room dining with our very own private chef. Kudos to hubs!
Though I must say – my aquatic birthday experience this year was equally spectacular, with the friendly Barbadians (or Bajans as they are familiarly called), and could easily give Oman a run for its money. We took the hotel’s speedboat, an 18 ft Boston Whaler, out to sea for a swim with the turtles. I wasn’t really sure how well I’d fare, given that I hadn’t gone snorkeling in years. Plus, I wasn’t overly optimistic that the turtles would make an actual appearance.
As it turned out, the experience was fantastic! We floated and glided with the turtles (who kept bumping into me, perhaps with the notion that I was one of their own?). Our captain did assure me that these turtles would not bite, in spite of being omnivores. “Although if you hold your hand out,” he said, as he casually tossed a piece of raw tuna into the ocean, “they may think that you’re trying to feed them.” For that very reason, I worked hard at swimming with both fists shut, which can pose its own challenges.
In spite of trying to over-engineer the entire thing, I was still a happy girl at the end of the day. Just the thought of floating in the Caribbean Sea amongst these lovely creatures (on my birthday, no less!) made me giddy with delight. It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip to Barbados, and might I add – infinitely more relaxing than some of my other oceanic adventures, such as shark diving in South Africa!!!
