of cuisines and most exciting of all, you can learn how to make the towel animals! Awesome!
I think something not overly strenuous, but that might go a little way to reduce the stone I must have put on just since last night; kayaking, sounds fun. According to the instructions, you pick up what you need on the beach front, so stepping through the doors, gracefully held open for me and out into the now roasting sunshine, I don my sunglasses and head round towards the beach.
I had envisaged having to run through a pep talk, or sign my life away in a health and safety waiver, but to the contrary; I was briefly stripped of my sundress (luckily I had thought ahead to have my bikini on underneath) and strapped into a life jacket by a clearly practiced young man, given a paddle and pointed to a row of sea kayaks to take my pick and be on my way.
Huh, I’ve never done this before; gingerly I stick my foot out and poke the closest one person kayak. It moves with little resistance so it must be light. Lifting the end nearest the water, yes it is light, I proceed to drag it two metres across the white sand to the waters edge. Now what? The sea is mostly calm, small waves breaking just off the shore. Do I get in here in the shallows then try and push out through the breaking waves, or do I walk in past the breaks into what is probably at least knee deep water and then try to mount the unstable Kayak?
I’m starting to feel like a fool just standing here dumfounded, so I make a rash decision and march into the water, dragging my new toy behind me. Sadly the water here is deeper than I expected lapping at the tops of my thighs, and utterly freezing!
I don’t know what I expected, but in this heat the sea’s turquoise shimmer plays tricks on your mind telling you, “come on in, I’m so inviting, this is Mexico, not England, the water here’s just right”.
On the plus side I am intensely more determined to get into the damn boat, now bobbing precariously up and down next to me. Depositing the paddle inside, that’s one down, one more to go; turning my back to it, I place my hands on the side on either side of my hips and majestically jump up while pushing down with my hands. In one swift movement, just as I’m grinning that my bottom has landed on plastic, the other side flies up hits my shoulders (thankfully padded with the life jacket) and knock me straight back into the sea, face first, whilst simultaneously capsizing itself.
Spluttering salty water out of my mouth and wiping it out of my eyes, scanning the shore quickly, checking to see how many people have witnessed my clumsy feat, the life jacket man has his back to me securing the straps on a small child, but a couple of perfectly toned and tanned blonde bombshells are giggling behind their magazines, suspiciously averting their eyes and looking anywhere but at me, a sure sign that they were looking, but I think that’s about it.
Not too damaging to my reputation as a cool, savvy, solo traveler.
Righting the damn thing and retrieving the escaping paddle I’ve got to psyche myself up for round two. My plan of attack is to secure one leg into the kayak, hopefully ensuring its equilibrium, then with a hand on either side I should be able to hop my bum in then retrieve the remaining leg once I’ve stabilised. It’s not going to be pretty that’s for sure, but as long as it achieves the end result, that’s all I’m bothered about.
OK here goes, yes…no…ahh!...Yes! I’m in! Sweet Jesus that was a mission. Picking up the paddle, which is now wedged in beside me, I start rowing out, tentative at first, but then I find my rhythm. Before long I’m quite far out so I rest the paddle on my legs and have a look over the side. Even this deep the water is as clear as glass and you can see right to the bottom. Tiny fish of all different colours are darting around beneath me, they seem almost luminous as they shimmer under the rays of sun that pierce the waves,