The bio bay itself was memorable for its remarkable beauty, the tour was also memorable...It all started when our group had assembled for the tour and the operators realized that they had too many participants than spots in their van. As they explained, their other van had broken down as had one for another bio bay tour operator. "Does anyone here have a car?" they asked. We were the only respondents and were immediately assigned to transport ourselves and a lovely Indian couple from Minnesota.
As the rest of the tour participants, 15 or so, piled into the wreckage of their functional vehicle, we were pleased to have our own ride. Their van had limited seats, no side doors and the back door was latched with a piece of wood from the outside. The more than 15 passengers were crammed in like refugees.
Once on the road, we followed that van, driven by our trusty guide Samir (who kept asking us: "are you ready for adventure?"). We quickly turned off the main paved road onto a dirt path. The road--or perhaps we should call it adventure trail--was uneven, full of gut-wrenching turns, massive puddles, and mini ravines. We were relieved that the rental agency had not assigned us a Dodge Neon and wondered why the tour operators had not asked if we had an off-road vehicle. Michael, meanwhile, was loving this chance to return to his boy scout adventure days.
Once at our destination, Samir handed out our life vests and paddles, at which point he realized there were not enough paddles for all participants. I was left without a paddle. Thankfully, Michael agreed to paddle me around. At this point, our fellow participants are joking that we not only had to transport ourselves but also were paddleless, suggesting that our bio bay tour was more like a bio fail.
But we all ended up in our kayaks, were able to paddle around in the crazy illuminated waters, and even swim--until that unfortunate moment where that one girl was stung by a jellyfish.
Ready for adventure we are!
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