Butterfly kisses are better than elephant kisses

Thursday, as our introduction to the island, we took a jungle safari. We first started out canoeing down a dirty brown river. After discovering that I really don’t have any canoeing skills at all (I know, disappointing mom) we realized we did better with our backs to each other. That way, just in case, on the rare (ok not so rare) occasion that we got ourselves turned around, the other person was ready to paddle forward. This method was our most successful, but let’s just say we weren't the shining example of what to do.

After the canoeing we drove through the coconut plantations and up the hills to a waterfall. We hiked up to a beautiful jungle waterfall. (no idea what the name of it is) On the way down we found a swimming hole and took the liberty of cooling off. One of the highlights of the trip thus far. The water was the perfect temperature. The ocean here is a bit too warm to swim for a while. You only go in to be wet once you get out. The waterfall, however, was VERY refreshing and actually cool. We had a blast there.

The next part of the tour was the elephant trekking – Lower this was for you! We were strapped on to an elephant and toted around for about 30 minutes. Terribly uncomfortable! Elephants are not clean animals. After we had the elephant show. There was a baby elephant that did all sorts of tricks. One of the tricks was a thai massage. Yale and I were brought down to the front and got to experience the Thai massage for ourselves, elephant version. As I lied down on the ground I saw the man wipe the elephants trunk, cleaning it of all snot and whatever else is on those extended nostrils. I knew I was in for it. The baby elephant started to attack first my legs and then my face with its trunk. This little experience did not help my touch-phobia or my love for animals. It was hilarious though.

The rest of the afternoon I just kind of kicked it on the beach. It was cloudy and there were sparse large rain drops – it was so relaxing I even fell asleep. Who knew the beach in the rain could be so wonderful? By the evening it had cleared up and Yale and I went on the hunt for a dinner spot. Just down the beach we had a great Thai dinner on the sand. At dinner each table was given a ‘balloon’ or a flying lantern so send off. Kind of bizarre but at the same time it was really cool to see all the lanterns high in the sky looking like a new constellation.
Signing off for the day…enjoy the pictures.