Day 39

Eilat! We had to wake up at 5:30 for breakfast and to pack our lunches and then we were out the door by 6 for the 4 hour bus ride to the beach. We broke it up with some pixar and some ipod karaoke, so it went by pretty fast. When we got there we got briefed by one of the national park reserve guys on where we were and weren't allowed to go, not to grab the line around the reef or try to feed the fish. Then we jumped right in and started snorkeling. There were a lot of really pretty fish, some Nemos and some Dorys and some long needlefish and these really cool neon pink and green striped ones, all of them were so beautiful and interesting in their own way.

The reef runs all along the beach, and most of it is roped off so you can't swim there, you have to swim parallel to the coast a few yards out and look at the back side of the reef. We started off at one "bridge" boardwalk and let the current carry us down to a second bridge. It was the clearest, bluest water I've ever seen! It was so interesting too to see Jordan and Saudi Arabia across the water, which both looked like a solid gray, from the lifeless mountains to the dusty sky. The contrast was pretty cool. Definitely glad we were on our side of the sea. There was a shallow lagoon-type area right up next to the beach where we could swim and play, and a lot of the day was spent in chairs at the edge of the water, getting the perfect combination of the hot sun and the cool water. I even got a little bit of homework done while I was soaking in the sun.

We packed up around 4:30 and were back on the bus at 5 to head back to the JC. We stopped on the way at one of the Kibbutzes for dinner (schnitzel, hot dogs, and gelato) and then made the long trip home. It was such a fun day, but definitely exhausting. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow, one of the kids has a waterproof camera and got some great pics of the fish!