Wednesday we set out to explore the island by naturally making a first stop at the National Park Service's visitor center. This at least equipped us with some sort of rough plan for the week. We also took the opportunity (since we had found parking) to do a bit of window shopping at the shops in the center of town.
We made our first venture out of town to catch the National Park guide at the Annaberg Sugar Mill ruins. This was a neat spot to see and learn about the process of sugar can harvesting and processing. We got to sample some raw coconut as well as actual sugar cane. There were also loads of wild papaya trees. We did experience a few quick rain showers in the afternoon, but when the sun comes back out after 5 minutes and the temp shoots back to up the upper 80s, it isn't a big deal.
After several ringing endorsements, we headed for our first beach/snorkeling adventure at Maho Bay. We have seen lots of devastation from Hurricane Maria. Maho Bay is just beginning to be re built, but we did find a cool little food truck and bar that had tons of outdoor games and super casual seating areas. We grabbed a quick lunch, donned our snorkel gear, and head for the water. We had an awesome time just floating around searching the bottom of the bay for signs of life. The kids were awesome snorkelers and were rewarded by seeing lots of fish, sea urchins, and two sea turtles!
After having a taco dinner prepared by Audrey, we watched the sunset while the kids took an evening dip in the pool. This evening also presented the opportunity to do some star gazing with the national park service. It was probably a little too late for everyone, but we all were amazed at the cool things we saw through the telescope.
Today we set out to explore Reef Bay. We packed up our bathing suits, towels, lunches, and snorkel gear and headed to the trail. It was a 2ish mile hike down to some petroglyphs then another 3/4 of a mile down to the beach. It was hot, but we had the entire beach to ourselves, literally as far as we could see. it was absolutely idyllic, it truly felt like we were the only ones on some deserted tropical island. In fact, at the end of our time there we had to change out of our bathing suits and back in to hiking clothes, so we let the kids just swim naked to get all of the sand off themselves before getting dressed;) We had lunch then set out to snorkel and find some coral reefs. Our first attempt was a fail due to some big waves in a shallow area, but our second attempt took us around an outcropping and towards another beach where we were rewarded with a pretty amazing cluster of coral teaming with fish and so much life. It really looked just like Finding Nemo;) It was so cool for everyone to be able to see, so we call day two of snorkeling a success!.
The kids were such troopers since we hiked almost 3 miles, then swam for over an hour, played on two beaches, then had to hike back out over 2 miles. The hike actually reminded us a lot of the Grand Canyon hike because you go almost straight down on the way in, so you have to go almost all straight up on your way back out. We were hot, tired, and thirsty, but everyone hung in there and felt very accomplished at the end. We definitely stopped at the store on our way home for popsicles and ice to make strawberry fruit ice drinks.
We thought for sure that everyone would be wiped out by the time we got home, but they spent hours more swimming in the pool while Noah prepared dinner- cheeseburgers, french fries, and corn. We don't seem to have a working oven so we improvised and were able to make some impressively good french fries on the grill;)
