Tuesday, September 06, 2005

I Heart Eilat

Sunday night was uneventful, so let's fast forward, shall we? Monday, Sam and I hopped on a short flight down to Eilat, arriving around 1:30 in the afternoon. We checked into the very pretty Dan Panorama Eilat, and then decided began the "What shall we do now?" discussion. After viewing the tourist pamphlets in the lobby, we decided that the time had come to introduce Cara to snuba.

Unbelievable!! For those unfamiliar with the ancient Mayan water sport of snuba, it's a cross between scuba and snorkeling. You're given a breathing regulator, which is attached to a raft by a 20 foot tube. Then you go under water and swim around, looking at the fishies and coral and pretty things that don't exist on the surface. Getting put into a wetsuit was an interesting experience. I felt like a cross between a burrito and a penguin. They stick a hose into the suit to wet you down before you go into the water, and since the water was warm, it pretty much felt like I'd pisched in my suit. It was very hard not to start giggling. Sam had much better composure than I did.

The actual dive defies description. We took underwater photos, so once I have the digital pics, I'll try to post some for you all to see. The colors are amazing. It's hard to believe, when you look at the surface of the pretty blue sea, that there's so much going on right below the surface. We swam through a school of purple and orange stripped fish. I saw a long silvery fish that looked like a strip of polished sheet metal. I have no idea what the names of all the plants and fishies are, but I'm suddenly very interested in marine biology. Are those pink bundles related to flowers, or do they just look like flowers? What do the fish eat? What predators live down there? I can't wait to snuba again sometime.

By the time we got back ot the hotel, cleaned up and made ourselves pretty, it was time to eat. We found an amazing Chinese restaurant a short walk away, but it wasn't open for another 30 minutes. Being incredibly resourceful individuals, we walked to the beach and had some tasty fruity alchomoholic beverages while we waited. Then we went back for dinner. I had the roast duck in passion fruit sauce, while Sam enjoyed the filet mignon and sweet potatoes. Mmmmmmmmm...it was so yummy! Why can't we have food like that in the States?

In the evening, we wandered around and simply enjoyed. The weather at night is absolutely perfect. Now it's Tuesday morning, and Sam is being very patient while I post. So I'll leave this here and go figure out what we'll do with today.

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