The summation of the day is a fun day in the water, but with a little sting in the tail (or arm)!
Today my role was chauffeur, chief photographer and, for a short while captain, as this morning the kids had fun at Cala de Deià and this afternoon the kids and Amber snorkeled in the Balearic Sea.
After the long hike yesterday we didn't fancy the 3km walk down and back up to the village of Deià, so we decided to leave the cottage at 8am with the aim to get one of the much sought after car parking spaces at the beach. There are approximately 50 spaces and all the guides suggested that to get a space you would need to be there by 9am, 9.30am at the latest. So when we pulled in at 8.37am to find only a couple of other cars, we could have probably got up an hour later and still been fine, but at least it meant that to start with we had the beach almost to ourselves.
Beach is probably the wrong word to use to describe Cala de Deià since there is no sand or pebbles in sight, the shore is made up of large rocks, but within the cove the water is crystal clear and the kids enjoyed playing with their cameras under water trying to take photos of the fish. Once we're home we'll add a few of their photographic attempts.
By 11.30am the sun had started to shine directly on the beach and the late night/early start was catching up with Forrest, so we decided it was time to move on to our second destination of Port de Sóller for our snorkeling trip postponed from earlier in the week when Paloma was unwell. As you can see Paloma was back to 100% and this was one of many poses from getting dry!
I took the photo below walking off the beach and whilst busier than when we arrived, it was far from full and we do wonder if some of the information online and reviews about how difficult it is to reach the beach are written by locals trying to dissuade tourists from visiting. This was also the first location where there was prominent graffiti basically telling tourists to "go home". Whilst we've not seen anything directly, there is a growing anti-tourist movement on the island, but it's a very fine line that is causing a divide with tourism underpinning so much of Mallorca's economy.
Our first stop once in Port de Sóller was a restaurant called Caluz for lunch. It was one that I'd found on Google that was supposed to be highly recommended and the food was very good. Forrest went for a pizza, Paloma grilled chicken whilst myself and Amber shared a more traditional tapas like you would expect on the Spanish mainland.
It was then time to head to Octopus Scuba to check-in for our afternoon snorkeling boat trip. I'm not a confident swimmer and the thought of swimming in water with a lot of fish really doesn't appeal, so I took a step back as Amber and the kids were fitted with the snorkeling masks and flippers. I was happy to come along for the ride, take a few photos, and at the first stop when the captain jumped in for a swim and to chat to a mate who was anchored next to us, take unofficial responsibility for our vessel! I'll hand over to Amber to describe the first snorkeling adventure first hand...
As Matt mentioned he is not a confident swimmer and whilst I am okay with swimming it is not something I particularly enjoy. However both of our kids have had lessons and love any opportunity to get in the water so I was surprised when both of them met me with trepidation rather than excitement when I told them I had booked this excursion. After clarifying the difference between snorkeling and scuba diving (and that we were doing the former) there was a bit more enthusiasm but also still a few nerves.
Octopus Scuba had good reviews online and had impressed me with their flexibility earlier in the week to move our session.
The first stop was at Cova des Vell Maria where the plan was to snorkel around the cove and then if we wanted to we could also swim under the ledge and into a small cave like area.
Paloma decided that she would use a pool noodle to help her as whilst she was fine with the swimming it helped when she needed to rest or pause but Forrest was off and away on his own.
The snorkeling itself was brilliant. I had been worried that without my glasses I wouldn't really see much but the magnification effect of the water seemed to help, and what and how far you could see was so much more than expected. I did have a constant worry keeping track of both kids but the instructors were great and I always felt safe if I could see one of the kids near them so I could then check on the other one.
We did duck under into the caves together and whilst interesting it was unanimous that watching the fish was more fun than the darker waters in the caves so quickly headed back out.
I eventually started to tire so shepherded the kids back to the boat and was relieved to see others doing the same so it wasn't too difficult to persuade the kids out of the water.
Once all back on-board we headed to Smugglers Cave. And this is where things started going a little bit askew. Firstly the instructor said we didn't need to use our flippers for this one if we didn't want to. Myself and Paloma decided to stick with them as we felt it helped make the swimming easier but my bold little man decided to try without.
Then Paloma who had gone into the water first came swimming back to the boat upset, saying she had been stung by something. One of the instructors checked her over and after a quick scan in the water said (in my mind a bit dismissively) that he couldn't see anything. Paloma was still adamant she had been stung but said she wanted to carry on so we started swimming towards the cave to catch Forrest and the rest of the group up. Forrest was finding swimming without the flippers much more effort and was also having problems with his mask so I was caught between helping him and keeping an eye on Paloma who still seemed a bit shaken. We went to the back of the cave where turning back towards the light and looking at the entrance underwater creates a brilliant blue colouration. Despite the troubles both kids were impressed with this.
By now you could see a visible welt on Paloma's forearm and so something definitely had stung her, so we decided it was best for her to swim back to the boat. This meant though I had to abandon Forrest temporarily making sure that he was in range of the instructors. Having seen Paloma safely into Matt's care I went back for Forrest who was tiring and struggling slightly without the flippers to help him tread water and we then also swam back to the boat together along with the rest of the group.
Back on the boat, Paloma had been checked out and they think it was a “small stinger” which, from looking online later at what is commonly found around Mallorca and the look of the mark, we think might have been a Mauve Stinger jellyfish. She said it was sore if touched but otherwise she was absolutely fine and thankfully it hasn't spoilt her enjoyment of the day or put her off giving it another go some time.
We had planned a BBQ tonight, but after our lovely lunch and busy day no one was feeling that hungry so we had a fruit platter instead and we'll save the BBQ until tomorrow.
Blogged by Matt and Amber
