Today was the 4th of July: Independence Day! This was Alastair and Emre's first as U.S. Citizens, and what a way to celebrate it! We thought of the most American thing that we could do, and so we ended up renting a jeep, taking the windows and roof off, and exploring the island!
Alastair had read about a place called Owl's Hole, a small, secluded pool found in a 30ft drop in the middle of nowhere. Because we had the jeep (and believe me, we'd have had no chance if we had rented a normal car) we were able to scramble over the rocks on the overgrown trail, and find Owl's Hole. That was an adventure in and of itself, since all we went off was a satellite image saved on a phone, but before too long we had found the Hole.
After climbing down the long ladder to make sure the water was deep enough (never trust a review enough that you jump without checking), Alastair threw himself off the edge of the cave a couple of times while Laleinia took pictures. It was really hot, and so the cool cave water was a treat! For Alastair, this turned into one of the highlights of the whole trip so far; a definite must-do if we ever come back!
We got back into the car and headed over to Gold Rock Beach, where part of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies was filmed. Emre was a champ, playing in the water for a while before taking a nap under a tree with his daddy for an hour or so while mommy played around in the ocean. The beach was really beautiful, especially at high tide when we got there. We had read that low tide was the best, not so!
After the drive back to the hotel, we ate a lovely dinner, had a virgin strawberry daiquiri each, and headed off to bed, shoulders throbbing from sunburn. Lesson learned: put sunscreen on earlier. We did this for Emre, but waited on doing it for ourselves. All in all, best day of the trip so far!