Another sad day. My housing could not be fixed locally, so I retrieved it and wrapped it for the trip home. We will see what happens with B&H, and Sea & Sea. I don’t get the feeling that the results will be good, and I fear I will be forced to buy a new housing. And there really is no option, as I have bought all the appropriate accessories for this housing. Deep sigh. I really love that wide angle lens, and its effect on the pictures. I just am not thrilled by the very weak point of breaking at the hinges.
Wayne didn’t sleep well last night, and was up very early working on his dive log and his photos. We went out to breakfast at 6:30, passing Jodi in the lobby. When we got onto the Mnuw and into the dining room area, but the heat was so overwhelming that we decided to strike out elsewhere. To no avail. We went to the former Trader’s Ridge, now the Yap Dive Resort and in serious disrepair, but their breakfast area was no better. We got the waitress to turn on the fans, but another one came over, threw menus at us, and turned off the fans. We left. From there we walked to the Bank of Guam ATM (needed cash!), and then looked in as many stores as we could in search of yogurt or breakfast items. No luck. I found out later that there is no yogurt available on the island, go figure. When we got back to the hotel, I ordered us breakfast to be delivered to the room. Lesson of the day is if it’s too hot on the Mnuw, they will deliver the meal elsewhere.
Matt and Jodi did the land tour today, and I think that they really enjoyed themselves. Wayne and I did a study of our drying dive gear, bringing it back into the air conditioned room, and getting it ready for packing. We had a very lazy day, for which I was grateful, and I had a massage/mani/pedi at 2 pm. My masseur originally went to college in the Philippines to become a civil engineer. Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford to continue the program when his scholarship ended, and he became a barber/hairdresser/masseur/nail technician. He originally came to Yap to work in a hair salon, but that folded, and he applied to work at Manta Ray Bay Hotel. My benefit. The massage started with a half hour hot bath alone in the room. And me without a book. I was glad when the half hour had ended. I was very happy for the massage - he found dozens of knotted muscles and worked them into submission. The mani/pedi was not quite what I expected, but good for a small island in the Pacific. It took a half an hour per appendage to complete the mani/pedi, so I wound up having quite a long stay in the spa.
We tried to Identify our manta rays based upon the images at the hotel and dive shop, but our mantas appear unidentifiable. Sigh. It was so much easier when it was Kahn.
Wayne, in the meantime, caught up on Screencasts Online, a video podcast by our friend Don McAllister. I highly recommend it if you are an Apple product user.
We had a light solo dinner, and then slept for nearly four hours before checking out and heading to the airport. It was a sad day leaving. We got to the airport, and had the usual bag inspection, although they didn’t pull everything out and then have me repack it this time. From there it was through to departure tax ($20 per person), immigration, and then another inspection of our carry on luggage prior to being patted down. The xray scanner was not working, so the wait to get patted down was a wee bit long.
Super plus, the airport has free wifi and air conditioning now! Of course, when you fill the waiting room, the air conditioning becomes less effective. And the ever present mosquitos had not given up on their hunt for blood.
The flight between Yap and Guam was uneventful, Wayne slept for over half the flight. We went through Guam customs and immigration, and then headed to the United Lounge with Jodi & Matt. Jodi was able to get her seats corrected (love those ladies at the front desk), and we fed Matt coffee. Wayne started uploading his photos to the cloud, and we both updated the apps on our iPhones and iPads. It feels good to be current!
Wayne was able to secure super saver business first seats for the leg between Guam and Honolulu, for which I was grateful. We slept for over half the flight between Guam and home. Once we had our bags, we parted ways with Matt and Jodi who had one more leg to go. I handed in our customs form, and we went to our car and headed home. Once in the garage, I carefully opened up the door to the house, and sure enough there were three four legged beasties waiting for us. I treated them to soft food, and we started to unpack. I loved my trip, it was marvelous, but it is always good to be home. Eliot had already left, so we changed, watched a tv show, and headed to bed. Back to the grind tomorrow.
