Day 3 - Day long Washington Park with HopiBonaire

Up at 5:30 for our HopiBonaire Tour! Slept well! Had some caffeine & breakfast. Our guide, Sebastian, picked us up at 6:30! It was drizzling with thunder! Our tour was so extensive, it’s hard to list all our stops. We left early so that we could see birds. We headed north towards the National Park, pulling over if Sebastian saw anything interesting. We saw parrots, parakeets, ground doves, other doves, & pigeons. Lots of iguanas on the road because of the rain…warming themselves…drinking…as we got closer to the park, we saw Flamingos! In the road! Which Sebastian said is unusual. He told us a lot about the geology here…coral & volcanic. Very interesting. The coral grew around the island. The land raised up making coral shelves. As we went along on our adventure, Bas had juice & other drinks, snacks (biscuits) & fruit for us! As we toured onto the east coast, the sea was much rougher! We saw big waves & a blow hole. We had planned on taking a hike, but due to the rain, thunder & lightening, we just took a shorter walk into the woods to a salina…which is an inlet that has been blocked by coral, when then filters the water into the ocean…fresh H2O! the birds really like the Salinas! Saw pelicans & GBH (Great Blue Herons), egrets. We continued on for a great lunch of couscous, tapenade, curried eggs, crackers, and tea/juice. Yum! Then, into the park to snorkel. Followed Bas out thru the coral. Rod, Pam & I stayed out while Jim went back in. Bas came back out…The rangers started whistling at us as we were supposed to be out of the water by 3:30. We had to rush! It took quite a while to get back to the entrance (of the park). We changed back into our clothes there to finish up. Bas took us to an overlook in Rincon & we had a beer & snacks. Not sure what time he dropped us off (it was about 5:30), but we were with him 10+ hours! Showers, cheese & crackers, BED! Rod felt sick…a cold ☹. We also saw caracara birds.