Thanksgiving on Jomabo

When we woke up Sunday morning the tide was so far out we could see sand and exposed dead coral for at least 2 km. We started to walk out to see what treasures we could find under where we were swimming the day before and it wasn't too long before we started finding sand dollars, starfish, and decent sized crabs!

The further we got out the more interesting our finds started to become. Quite a distant out there was a narrow net that lined the shore. We weren't exactly sure of the purpose but since there were a few crabs stuck in the net we assumed it was placed there to catch the crabs as they scurried on their way. There was this disgusting sea cucumber thing that looked like a gigantic worm slowly slithering in small pools of warm water. Ryan tried to pick one up with a stick and it stretched out so thin with all the liquid pooling in the head (or end?).

We also ran into a school of smaller fish that were scouring the bottom playing leap frog as they took turns in the front. They slowly made their way over to Ryan's feet where they quickly decided what they were looking for was defiantly not there and they changed their course and moved along. We also ran into this guy who was just walking around collecting treasures of his own to either eat or sell. He called us over to show what it was that he had found which included some larger crabs, sea cucumbers and 2 octopus! We asked if we could see the octopus and first he pulled out the larger one which I couldn't resist feeling. The tentacles quickly started to stick to my fingers as I slid my fingers down one of arms. He then pulled out a smaller one joking about it being the baby. It was pretty cool! Later in the day Ryan had been out snorkeling with Sydney and found an octopus of his own in the wild! Unfortunately when we went back with the video camera the Octopus had run away to a different hiding spot.

We also had fun finding loads of starfish and playing SAFELY around the different kinds of sea urchins. There were ones small white tips or long dark spikes all just waiting for a nice foot to attack. We also saw different types of starfish. Vibrant blue starfish (poor guy was missing one of his 4 legs), ones that looked like they had big Hershey chocolate chips on top and we also saw this HUGE starfish that looked a puffed up pentagon because all the 5 legs were webbed together. He was pretty cool.

After exploring we played in the sand and water. I got a good start on a new book and the kids just ran and ran. It was so relaxing. We had to come in at lunch time for a while to get out of the sun. It was so hot, it reminded me of summer here! The kids weren't so impressed to have to stay inside for a while but they eventually made their way out to the boat to play while the adults played cards around the shaded side of the cottage.

Finally the sun made it way down and the kids went to bed. We just relaxed on the beach under the moon before heading in ourselves. There was the hugest thunder storm that night that seriously shook our house so bad I whacked Ryan and asked him if he felt that earthquake... and I was 100% serious. I don't know if you are dedicated readers or not but I have posted about feeling an earthquake before. Ryan claimed it was just him moving around in the bed but I'm pretty sure the walls were shaking!