But First...We Dance!!!

Day Eight

I don’t think I’ve ever danced that much in my life.

The Friday night fish fry in Governor's Harbour is a heck of a street party.  We wound up having to finish posting at “Da Perk,” as the connection at Sunset Inn was virtually non-existent.  Beautiful place for a Kalik, but not so hot for blogging.  By the way, if you’re ever interested, “Da Perk” has the fastest wi-fi connection of any place we found other than GHB airport.

We could hear the music thumping and smell the grill from all the way over at Sunset Inn, and the party was in full swing by the time we parked at Haynes Library. Almost immediately, we were found in the "Rum Bubbas" line by fellow Eleuthera Forum member, (and fellow blues harp player) Sammy and his wife, Lynnelle (sp? Sorry. Forgot to ask) from Atlanta.   

We were happy to have their company as we loaded up on the requisite fuel of Rum Bubbas and “fried” fish.  (all proceeds go to the Governor's Harbour community fund) 

 Krista and I even FINALLY got brave enough to try Conch Salad – a mixture of fresh, raw conch, onion, tomatoes, celery, green and hot peppers, lime juice, and dressing – all prepared from scratch and chopped right in front of you on a table by the beach.

We needed the fuel to join the dance party in the street.

VIDEO: See Krista Dance!  Fish Fry Dancing

Now, I’m not much of a dancer.  OK, I actually don’t like to dance, but I married a dancing queen, and nothing could keep Kentucky Krista from kicking off her sandals and getting down in the middle of the road.

I also realized very quickly that if I left her alone for an instant, she would be whisked away by some older, charming, (if a bit “handsy” and forward) Bahamian gentleman crooning along to songs like “I Wanna See What Your Wife Can Do.”   Ahem! We whirled and twirled to ‘80s music, then Bahamian dance hall hits, and eventually the music shifted to hip hop.

So, out of necessity, and rum, and why the hell not, I danced until well after 11 pm.  I finally dragged Krista home, where we collapsed and slept fitfully, partly due to anticipation to travel in the morning, and partly due to a recent invasion of REALLY ANNOYING flying bugs in our bedroom.

In the morning, Krista was up with the sunrise for a final beach sunrise photo shoot.

We packed, said goodbye to Oceanaire, and had a lovely breakfast at Sky Beach Bistro.

So here we sit in the crowded waiting room at Governor’s Harbour Airport, waiting for our flight.   I imagine I’ll reflect on this trip in many different ways in the days to come, but here’s something I’ve already processed:

This trip was the first time Krista and I went anywhere just the two of us since our honeymoon in October of 1996. The whole point was to just be together, in a beautiful place, away from the real world for a week. And yet, I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive:  Without the kids, and work, and the daily household issues and tasks, what would we talk about for an entire week?   I needn’t have worried, though, because I should have reminded myself that I was not only going away with my wife, I was travelling with my best friend.  She can read my mind, for starters, which always disturbs the heck out of me, and more importantly, I don’t ever remember laughing as much together as we did this trip. We frolicked like kids, and gazed in awe of the beauty of Eleuthera, but what I think I’ll treasure most is our laughter. Krista’s laugh has always been a gift to me, and I always have felt honored and humbled to have ever been the cause of it. I got more than my fill this trip. This is something that I’ll treasure the rest of my life.

Final Full Day....sniff...

Eleuthera Journal 6-15-12

A deliberately lazy last full day here at Oceanaire.  I went early into town to check out “Da Perk” café and picked up a piece of ham/spinach quiche to go, then wound my way over to the bakery for some freshly baked cinnamon/sugar doughnuts. MMMMM…coffee was finished brewing by the time I got back home. Perfect.

Oceanaire comes with a tandem ocean kayak, and as the sea was calm today, we (I) rigged it out with paddles, seats, PFDs, and ice water, and we (we) carried it down the 47 steps to the beach – no small feat, given the steepness, roughness, and semi-irregularity of the stairs. Large ocean kayaks are heavy! There must be another method that the owners use, or they’re just tougher than we are.

We enjoyed a beautiful paddle down the coastline two miles or so each way to Twin Coves Beach (because, according to Kentucky Krista, an expert in gauging distances in the open water, and intimately in touch with her kayaking endurance, “It’s right there! We can see it. Come on, wimp!”),  ahem, enjoying seeing the island from the water as we noiselessly glided over patches of green and blue and coral reefs with hidden treasures of life.  We also briefly followed a surprisingly fast ray of some sort. Four miles of ocean kayaking is hard work, by the way, ahem, and we both collapsed in the water at the end, lying in the shallows and gentle waves until we had the strength to carry the kayak back up the stairs. A “clear out the fridge” lunch of jerk chicken, and leftover prosciutto, sausage, asiago, brie, and goat cheese from the meat and cheese plate at the Beach House last night awaited us. (By the way, the Beach House turns into an open-air night club on Thursdays. We rocked out to a great island band, and enjoyed more of Michelle’s elegant island hospitality.)

It wasn’t even 2:00 yet, but we were pretty wiped for the day.

Krista took up residence with her trashy novel on the steamer deck (her very favorite spot on this whole island), and I did some snorkeling around the coral reefs out front(‘cause every day I’m snorkelin’) and then went into town for last minute gifts and afternoon snacks to hold us over until the fish fry – rumored to be a hoppin’ community gathering of both locals and tourists that includes live music, food, and Rum Bubbas.  

We’ll make our final official blog post tomorrow from the Nassau airport, where we have a substantial layover. Tonight – the Sunset Inn for wi-fi and our final Eleutheran sunset, and then on to the social event of the week for the island.

(Side note – I’m fascinated with the popularity of Bob Marley. I’ve long loved his music, and the prophet-like power of his lyrics. I understand his frat-boy appeal,  and his iconic status both artistically and politically in his homeland of Jamaica, but he’s also EVERYWHERE here. It seems that every bar, local or tourist, has some Marley playing, one of Donald’s helpers was wearing a sweet retro 1975 concert T, and I just find it pretty profound how he has become part of the fabric of an entire region and island culture.)

Day Six – Lighthouse Girl…and Boy . . . and sharks, for real!

Thursday was to be the marquee day – Lighthouse Beach (often described as the most beautiful beach on an island full of beautiful beaches, and the beach in the background photo for this blog) by boat with Donald from Eleuthera Tours. Writing this back at Oceanaire, making a jerk chicken and rice dinner, exhausted, we have only one reaction – WOW.

We made the long drive to Davis Harbour to meet Donald to begin our journey. We were both a bit early, so off we went. Once again we were stunned by the colors of the water – emerald to turquoise and sapphire…and amazingly clear. Donald, who was charming and kind, gave us the inside scoop on all of the beaches we passed, and coming around the point to Bannerman Town, we made a breathtaking approach to the western side of Lighthouse beach, greeted by its trademark cliffs and cave.

This cave would be home base for Donald and his crew as they prepared our lunch of grilled conch, rice and peas, and cole slaw, washed down by quintessentially Bahamian rum punch.  Donald was wonderful from the start, insisting that we take our time, relax, we’re not on any schedule. “Come back whenever you’re hungry.” 

While they worked, they sent us off over to the other side of the peninsula to explore, swim, snorkel, and walk the endless pink sands on the eastern side.

We were told to take our time, and we did. The water was so calm and clear, and with coral reefs like fingers and clusters of stars within walking distance of shore, I had to get my snorkel gear on immediately.  I even convinced Krista to join me, figuring we’d see any sharks (AKA “wild” dolphins) from a long way off.  This was instantly the best snorkeling of the trip. I really wish I had a more reliable underwater camera, as, oddly, with the waterproof pouch, the camera takes crummy stills through the plastic, but pretty good videos. When we get home to a real internet connection, I’m going to post a bunch of videos.

There was a school of bonefish in the shallows, a group of medium-sized barracuda just floating innocently along, one HUGE barracuda (four plus feet long!) a big stingray, a spotted ray, and all sorts of beautiful fish.   There was also a group of other snorkelers, which helped to reassure Krista of the shark-free status of this gorgeous underwater garden. 

VIDEOS:  Snorkeling: Lighthouse Beach Snorkeling

              Barracuda!  Oooh, Barracuda!

Soon, we decided to take a break and go for a long walk on the beach. Just after we put our snorkel gear away and began our walk, we spot a large dark shape slowly cruise into the reef garden. This was no dolphin. It was unmistakably a large bull shark*, 5-6 feet long, coolly cruising through where we had just been snorkeling a minute before. We watched from shore (actually, I stupidly waded out to try to get a video, but it just moved a little tantalizingly further away from me.)  After the first shark passed, then another,  smaller bull shark cruised right on by.  I figured I’d never get Krista back in the water this trip. (* Thanks to Donald for the identification of our finned friends)

After our walk, though (and by the way, one of the pre-requisites of this trip for both of us was opportunities for REALLY long beach walks. We chose wisely.), Krista was up for going in again. The snorkeling was THAT good. Then, of course, shortly after we got back in, we realized that the other group was spear fishing, which explained the presence of the bull sharks, which implied that there’d be more, and agitated, and we took that as our cue for lunch.

And lunch turned out to be the best part of the day, anyhow. Donald had a table set up with an island print table cloth in the back of the cave, rice and conch grilling over an open pit fire in aluminum packets, and a LOT of rum punch waiting for us.  Lighthouse beach is impossibly impressive and beautiful -- the geography, the sand, the water --  but eating native food in a cave overlooking the most stunningly blue water either of us has ever seen, listening to Donald regale us with stories, and getting a little warm from the delicious rum punch, was perhaps the best moment of the trip for both of us.

 

 Krista kept exclaiming, “This is ridiculous!” as she looked out on the azure expanse. Words don’t do it justice. Pictures don’t do it justice. Perfection is like that sometimes. Finally, after jumping back in the water like a couple of teenage kids, we loaded the boat for our trip back to Davis Harbour.

  On the way, Donald put out some fishing lines, and I landed a nice barracuda, which jumped and fought like a champ.

When we got back, Donald showed Krista his technique for removing and prepping conch, gave Krista the shell, and then he left us with one final thought.  From a newlywed to us veterans, he said, “I hope that in 15 years I’ll be celebrating my anniversary with Kristel.”  What a touching way to punctuate and add weight to an amazing day.

Tomorrow is unbelievably already our last 24 hours on this beautiful island.  We are hoping to spend a quiet day around home, packing, and then, as our grand finale, attend the legendary community fish fry in Governor’s Harbour.  Say hi if you’re around. We’ll buy you a Rum Bubba.

Day Five - Plans and Surprises

Day Five

First of all, I want to follow up on our grouper adventure. Krista has been working witchcraft with this grouper. Last night she made a pan-seared blackened grouper with root vegetables, and then, because apparently we don’t need three pounds of grouper in one meal, she just turned the leftovers into a grouper salad with chopped almonds and fresh mango. Amazing. Fresh, light, delicious.  She’s now just concocted something with the leftover mango and way too much rum and has taken her trashy novel to the steamer deck while I compose before we wander down to Sky Beach and wi-fi.

Before I get into today, I want to share an unusual and awesome incident. We’re planners. OK, let me clarify, Krista is a planner. I’m more of an ironically obsessive-compulsive control freak who doesn’t like to acknowledge rules and who plans poorly. This isn’t a great combination, but, Hey! We’re on vacation!

As we mentioned on the blog yesterday, the plan for Wednesday was to hit the big Atlantic-side beaches. Less than an hour after I posted yesterday’s blog, and just after we got home from our visit to the library, the phone rang at the house. Krista and I both froze and stared at the phone. This couldn’t be good. The only people with the number to this house are Krista’s folks, the house/cat sitter/neighbor, the car rental guy, and the owner of the house.  Hello? … What followed was one of those moments you won’t experience on many vacations, anywhere…

It was Kristel from Eleuthera Tours. Oh, right. We gave her our number, too. Kristel mainly wanted to confirm the details for our trip on Thursday to Lighthouse Beach, which caused Krista and I to both exhale and mix a drink, but then Kristel surprised us. She says, “So I see you’re planning to go to the Atlantic beaches tomorrow.” Uh oh.  She’d read our blog. Already. Someone who lives and works here read my amateur ramblings about her home island. Should I be worried? Did I say something offensive? (I’m REALLY good at doing that unintentionally) But no. “The weather forecast still has winds coming from the ocean side tomorrow. You might not want to do any snorkeling on the Atlantic side. If you think the snorkeling at Rainbow was good, you’ll love…..” and she proceeded to name and give directions to beaches that she, a professional guide, thinks would not be affected by the high winds and have some of the best snorkeling on the island.  

Seriously?  Only on Eleuthera. A professional guide calls you up after reading your personal travel blog and offers you advice on where to spend quality time the next day, based on inside knowledge on both the weather and the secret spots on the island. Heck, the place she suggested isn’t even in the coveted “Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera” guidebook.  

Before I continue, I must give Kristel and Donald at Eleuthera Tours another plug: http://www.eleutheratours.com 

Weather on this long, thin island can be variable, to say the least. When we got up this morning, the Atlantic winds and ocean were very calm. With the long drive tomorrow, with the rattletrap Suzuki something-or-other, and with $6.50/ gallon gas, we decided to go with our original plan of hitting the nearby Atlantic beaches.

We began at Twin Coves, which is aptly named, for some sun and snorkeling. 

 I did an exploratory run, and noticed that there were tons of fish, and some cool coral structures, but the visibility wasn’t all that great, especially with some passing storm clouds.  While I waited for Krista to bravely don her snorkel gear, and for the clouds to move away. I had fun watching a couple of bonefish chase what seemed like tens of thousands of small (3-4”) shiny fish, and a sated barracuda just floating contentedly outside of the swarming school.  And as Krista and I started swimming out from the shallows toward the reef, I thought to myself,

“Hmmm. If there are that many bait fish swarming around, you’d think that more predators would be interested, too.”

Ahem.

Tension is a bit high, as Krista is pretty frightened to snorkel, and she’s grabbing on to my swimsuit for dear life. So, we’re not even to the reef yet when something , big, dark, and extremely fast swims right at us from out of the murky green. My first thought is: SHARK! Krista’s first thought is: SHARK! I shout something like “Holy smokes!” through my snorkel. Krista screams and practically rips my swim trunks off. Meanwhile the thing takes a good close look at us, just out of arm’s reach, turns in profile to give us a good look at it, and speeds back off into the turquoise haze.

It was a dolphin. According to Krista, a WILD dolphin. 

Scared the crap out of us, but what a thrill.  Krista made record time back to shore while I stayed out with the camera in a futile attempt to get a picture / video if it came back to see me again.  Although, Krista, from the safety of the shore, was able to watch it porpoising repeatedly just a few feet away from me, somehow I missed it as I was frantically scanning the water to try and take its picture in order to prove that this really did indeed happen.  No such luck --  though a couple other snorkelers saw it, too.

I ventured back out to the reef, but Krista was through with snorkeling for the day, and spent a while on the far less stressful task of gazing into the tide pools on the cay in the middle of the two coves – again filled with fish waiting for high tide.

But both of us were getting a bit sun-baked, so we headed back to our rattletrap Suzuki and went to find lunch. We decided on the Beach House on Club Med Beach / French Leave Beach (an aptly named beach, because when Hurricane Floyd wiped out Club Med, the French left.)   People talk about how Eleuthera has this effect on them that makes them feel like their stress and tension simply melt away when they get here. I have to admit that I hadn’t felt that, yet. Like I said, I relax poorly.  I’ve been excited and awed by the beauty of this place, and I’m sleeping well, but I wouldn’t say “melty.”

That was, until I sat down at the Beach House bar. 

This place is tropical perfection – situated in the shade on a stunningly long and beautiful beach (Club Med chose wisely), understated, weathered teak furniture, bottles lining the back shelf, and with some light reggae playing through speakers, something clicked inside of me. I could not remember being more at peace and relaxed than I was when I sat down at that bar.  Just….melty.

And the menu!! Both the tapas menu and the drink menu were extensive and full of fresh, light, and inventive dishes. Michelle does an amazing job. I had conch and lobster fritters with some gorgeous dipping sauce, and Krista had spicy shrimp, and we shared a large plate of  cubed feta, olives, tomatoes, and cucumber hunks drizzled with homemade Greek dressing.  These were our compromises. We wanted everything on the three-plus page menu. We kept it simple and ordered the house rum punch and Kalik beer for our drinks, although Krista was tempted by a drink called “(special time*) with the Captain.” She’d better start calling me “Captain.” (*Sanitized for the reading pleasure of our children.)

Afterward, we walked the length of Club Med beach stopping to swim now and then to cool off, and I took a detour and totally trespassed on the ruins of the old Club Med. I love ruins, whether it be Rome, or Epidaurus, or Eleuthera. COOOOL. Most of the buildings are gone, and the birds and lizards have moved into the abandoned property. But all of the foundations to the club remain, and that means that not only are all of the old marble-edged walkways still there, but so is all of the fancy tile and mosaic flooring, as is the very large pool in the middle of the main complex, looking very much intact and filled with fetid brown water.

PHOTOS (not mine): Club Med Eleuthera Ruins

 I was getting swarmed by the mosquitoes who have also taken residence in the standing water and un-mowed Bermuda grass. The imported coconut palms neglected and heavy with fruit, I knocked down a coconut for Krista (possibly for her to use in defense against wild dolphins), and we headed back to the car, and home for another one of Krista’s amazing meals. We usually share the cooking duties, and I love to cook creatively, but she is being a culinary genius on this trip. I’m happy to step aside for her brilliance.

Interestingly, on an island where beaches vie for supremacy in beauty and serenity, we haven’t really found any that we prefer to our beach here at Hut Point. 

Sure, some are a bit more postcard perfect, and others are somewhat better for swimming, but this beach at Oceanaire is long, beautiful, and EMPTY. In five days, we’ve seen three other people on this beach, and one of them was the person WAY down the way at Sky Beach who is responsible for grooming the beach in front of the resort. All three have been Bahamian. It’s not like we feel like we’re on a deserted island, as we know that there are people within a mile or so diameter. It’s just that we never see them on our long stretch of paradise.

That said, our Lighthouse Beach tour with Eleuthera Tours is tomorrow. This is supposed to be a knock-your-socks-off spectacular beach. So we’ll see. Bring it, Lighthouse.

We’ll report tomorrow night. Thanks for reading.

Day Four - Under the Sea

Day Four – Under the Sea

One of the design problems of an eastern-facing house that was built to maximize your view, is that you will not sleep in on a sunny morning. So far, every morning has been sunny, and we’ve been up by 7:30 or earlier each day.  That seems to be fine with both of us, especially since we haven’t seen 11pm, yet, either. I’m all about maximizing daylight!

So, it’s another “whitecaps in your coffee” morning (back off, Carly Simon), but our plan is to hit the Caribbean side for some gangster snorkeling in Rainbow Bay. I do hope, however, that this wind dies down, and that we can go enjoy some of the Atlantic-side beaches. Maybe this afternoon, it’ll mellow out.

Unlike yesterday, when an entire busload of Bahamas Habitat Mission workers were swimming and snorkeling at Rainbow, we were the first ones there at 9:30.  It was low tide, but we didn’t let that discourage us. I finally got Krista geared up with a mask and fins that fit, and, promising that I would NOT leave her side, we went in the water. Almost immediately, we were greeted in the shallows by two needlefish and a two-foot long barracuda.   Krista didn’t care for that too much, so we moved away to where the little, pretty fish were hanging out.

We worked our way along the southern rim of the bay, all along the rocky overhang, and as it got deeper, the fish got bigger and more colorful. Just at the tip of the bay where it meets the open Caribbean, we saw at least one VERY big fish – not a shark, but a good three foot long grouper or something, it spooked before we could get a good look at it, and that was Krista’s cue to get the hell back to shore.  But I went back to the point later to see what I could see. It was later in the day, hotter, and the fish seemed to be hiding, mostly, but the colors of the coral and plant life on the reef were incredibly beautiful. I took photos and video with my camera in a waterproof pouch. It worked OK.  When I get a better connection, I’ll try to post more.

VIDEO:  Rainbow Bay Coral

VIDEO: Rainbow Bay Crab

Soon, we were waterlogged and sun-baked, so we went home for cool showers and a bite to eat.  Then, adventure number two: FIND THE FISH!   (O fishy, fishy, fishy, fish!) We wanted to get some fresh fish for dinner, so we piled in the Suzuki something-or-other and headed south toward Tarpum Bay.  I’d heard about how this quaint fishing village sells frash fish from the docks in the afternoon, so that was our destination.  Problem one:  it was a LOT further away than I had anticipated, and problem two: because the seas were so rough today, they only had conch – no fish. So we headed back to GH, stopped by Island farm for produce and some amazing black bean salsa, and then checked out the docks on Governor's Harbour. FOUND THE FISH!  Well, the men selling had one large grouper left...and two different tourist customers.  We agreed to split the fish, which is good, because I'm quite sure that we got the tourist price - $60 for the whole grouper.  A big one, but....

 Well, blogging at the library, then home for cocktails and fish tales....tails.....?????

Tomorrow...Club Med, Twin Coves,  and the Beach House Bar?

Day Three – “The City Boy and the Kentucky Girl”

(Wherein the limits of Blake’s manliness are tested en route to the Nantucket of the Caribbean) AKA “Krista, get AWAY from the edge!”

It’s a windy one today. So windy, that there are whitecaps INSIDE of the reef.  Fine. We’re hitting the road, anyway, for mandatory side-trip #1 – Harbour Island: winter home of rock stars and oil magnates, and yes, known as the Nantucket of the Caribbean. Sounds civilized.

Getting there, however, turned out to be rather an unexpected adventure.

First off, I thought it would be fun to take the sand road along the shore until it intersected with the main highway. I’d even seen a youtube video of this exact trip, which goes by the entrance of Oceanaire about halfway through. Banks Road By Car? I told you I was obsessive about this.  So we hopped in our little Suzuki something-or-other, and began barreling through the brush, as it became more overgrown, and more overgrown, branches whipping the car on all four sides, the “road” becoming less distinct, then invisible in the brush, then rutted, then deep, soft sand under the overgrowth, crabs, birds, and blue lizards scurrying out of the way. I turn to Krista and say something like “This is pretty messed up,” and she coolly smiles and says, “I’m glad we did this. We’d have wondered, otherwise. You’re doing great.”  And thus, the first example of Blake the urban twit in contrast to the barefoot hillbilly who is his traveling companion. And it was a very beautiful view of the coastline. Through the trees and brush.

Finally we get back on to Eleuthera’s version of pavement and head north to uncharted territory, through the various settlements, and I’m noting places I’ve read about, Kel-D’s, Laughing Lizard, Rainbow Inn, etc. We stop for a brief souvenier visit at Pam’s in Gregory Town, and pick up a few things, and then pay $30 for five gallons of gas up the road – full service, by the way.  We soon approach two major natural sights on our journey that we’d intended to roll into our trip north: the Queen’s Baths, and Glass Window Bridge.  We fly past the entrance to the Queen’s Baths and I decide we’ll turn around after Glass Window and come back.  Glass Window Bridge was made famous in a painting by Winslow Homer, an it marks the narrowest part of the island, where  the spray from the Atlantic meets the calm of the Caribbean.

We cross the single-lane bridge, park, and I decide it would be a genius idea to scramble up the rocky hillside to get a look at the waves crashing below.   As I near the top, I realize that there is a precipice rapidly approaching me. One that drops 100 feet straight down to the roaring ocean below. You see, I have a REAL issue with heights. In fact, as I write this, I’m feeling nauseas just thinking of this again. Of course, I’m rapidly slinking away from the edge, when Krista comes up from behind, and says “What’s wrong with you? Stand up, let me take your picture!” Ugh.   As this was picture being taken, my head was spinning, I had visions of either hurling myself over, or that the rock would give way, sending me plummeting to the rocks below. “Say cheese!” 

So, of course Krista wanted to get RIIIGHT near the edge and look over to take pictures. No, seriously, sitting comfortably on the couch back at the house, drink at hand, I’m having minor convulsions just thinking about this ordeal.

Finally, we get back in the safety of our rattletrap car and head back to the Queen’s Baths, which are neat rock erosions that created divots in the rock by the Atlantic shoreline which, when the tide goes out, remain filled with water. When the tide comes roaring in, the whole thing is underwater, and all of the guide books say, in red ink and all caps “VISIT HERE ONLY AT LOW TIDE! YOU CAN EASILY BE SWEPT OUT TO SEA AS THE TIDE COMES IN EXTREMELY FAST!”    So, we’re here two and a half hours before high tide, but Adventure Girl wants to see and explore them anyhow.  We get out, hike over the obligatory razor-sharp pock marked rock, and scramble to the lookout over the baths.   

Very cool, and the tide is roaring in, wave after wave, slowly climbing higher.  Krista decides that we have plenty of time to explore the baths. “Do you want to skinny dip in them?” HELL NO! I want to watch from a safe distance. So, down goes Krista, clothed, but like a billy goat over the rocks to inspect the baths closer.   

Of course, I follow, slowly. Keeping one eye on the water level. The waves keep crashing closer.  Luckily, Krista sees that there is a fair amount of ocean life swimming around the pools, humorously waiting at the edge for the water to flow over and give them a way out, so she wants no part of getting in.  However, she thinks it is a brilliant idea to go right up to the edge and wait for a wave to crash over and get her wet.  Of course, I’m thinking whether it’d be better to try to rescue her, or play it safe and be sure that the kids have at least one parent left.

 I almost order her, ok, beg her to get back from the edge.  She grumpily does, and airily  says something about “Oh, look how much higher the water is now”  on the way back up the cliffside.

Now we’re on our way to Harbour Island in earnest. We go to the docks, get our water taxi, another weather-beaten vehicle, but with new looking twin Yamaha 150s in the back that rapidly bounce us over the swells to the docks in Dunmore town, adjacent to some VERY large yachts. We rent a golf cart (the preferred method of transportation on Harbour Island), shop for straw hats, successfully, and head over to Sip Sip for lunch. Sip Sip came doubly recommended, and it was delicious.  Krista drank “Sky Juice,” which is coconut water and gin, and I had a pineapple chili martini, which was amazing, and left my mouth and throat tingling and tickling. For lunch,  I had a curry chicken and currant dish, and Krista had conch chili. YUM! 

And yet, we definitely felt a bit like we were crashing the lunch spot of the rich and semi-famous. No recognizable celebrities, but everyone was trim, beautiful, perfectly tanned, perfectly orthondontist-ed, and stylishly dressed. Men were in country club casual with nautical-themed baseball caps, the younger women in diaphanous or lacy covers over bright bikinis, and the older women in large hats and aviator sunglasses. A C-note just covered lunch, and after, we walked the beach in the high wind for the next two hours, admiring the private homes and estates overlooking the beach.

  We tooled around on our golf cart for a little while, exploring, then back to the docks and the water taxi and our Suzuki something-or-other. On the way back, we stopped again in Gregory Town for a pineapple. Krista wanted to go directly home, but I had packed the snorkel gear, and I wanted to check out Rainbow Beach – in a Caribbean bay that the guide books speak very highly of for snorkeling. I just asked for 20 minutes, and I’m so glad I did. It was like snorkeling in an aquarium. Perfectly clear, still water, and abundant with marine life. More types of colorful fish than I could identify or keep track of, some longer, needle-nosed predators, purple coral, shellfish that would close in unison upon you getting near them, and at least two different types of rays.  Krista, exhausted, didn’t even get in, but I convinced her to make this our main event tomorrow. This is a huge bay, and I want to spend hours exploring it. We have a date with our snorkel gear tomorrow morning. I’ll try to use the waterproof pouch and get some pictures to post.

We had little to nothing in the cupboards, but while I wrote this, Kentucky Krista rustled up a steak, potato, onion, and cheese hash out of leftovers that was so surprisingly delicious I almost cried. Time to refill my drink, eat, and then head down the beach to Sky Beach for our wi-fi fix, and posting. The sun is setting. More tail-curling adventures tomorrow!

Day Two pt. 2 - A Long First Full Day

Sunday afternoon – Krista keeps giggling / cackling in surprise and disbelief of our surroundings.  I can’t help but agree with her. The beauty of this place is pretty surreal.  I must admit, a small part of me pats “Obsessive Blake” on the back each time she does this on a job well done in picking our destination.

Right now, we’re lounging in the steamer chairs on the deck at the top of the bluff, Marley on the outdoor speakers, watching the tide go out. We’re each on our second “dark and stormy,” and we’re noting how much green and blue dye they must go through to color these waters.

Hey!  We have a new car! After the Kia stalled twice on our way into town, we called Clinton, and he hooked us up with a Suzuki Sidekick of similar vintage as the Kia, but with actual working seatbelts. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the windows need to be wiggled substantially in order for them to go up, and, worse yet, it’s a British setup – yes, driver’s seat on the right.  But hey, it has working seatbelts!  We have a fighting chance! Keep left!

Apparently, this is Sunday, and everything is closed. So much for our trip into town. After we picked up our car, we headed over to Cocodimama’s for lunch and an internet fix.   This quiet resort has a Mediterranean feel to it, and it sits in the heart of a large, crescent-shaped bay (Alabaster Bay) on the Caribbean side of the island.  This means less blue, more green to the water, shallow, and no waves.  After drinking a lot of water, we enjoyed a lunch of shrimp salad and Calamari.  We split one rum punch (again, for you “boozies”) and it was beautiful, but neither of us much felt like drinking at 1pm. This, however, was not the case for the drunk widow at the table next to us who berated us for being on our computers, saying how we need to savor this time without our electronics. Another hater. What some people don’t get is that this is not work – it’s a lot of fun. Also, we don’t have any access at the house to the internet, so we steal an hour at a bar / restaurant. People see (or read) one hour’s worth of writing, and they assume we’re wasting something precious. No, being able to do whatever the hell we want whenever we is precious enough. Maybe our need to write and share this is narcissistic or exhibitionist, but for us it’s therapeutic. And fun.

After lunch and blogging, we spent the next 2-3 hours (we lose track) wading up and down Alabaster Bay, just soaking in the sun and gin-clear waters, punctuated by many of Krista’s outbursts of disbelief. This beach was crowded, thanks to the 12 room resort, and on a mile-plus stretch of beach, there were about 20 people on the beach and in the water.  Might be a record for Eleuthera. During our walk / wade we were visited by a very large ray of some sort – probably spotted or sting. This guy must have been three feet plus in diameter. Krista just assumed that it was the pet stingray of the resort that they let out once in a while for the visitors. Like  I said, this place is pretty unbelievable.

 

Oh, and speaking of pets, we have a pet gecko that has decided that our front door frame is the coolest place to hang out. We don’t mind him being our familiar familiar.

OK, drinks are empty, and I need to cook the steaks for dinner. We’re still going to try to make a sunset at Coco’s. Yeah, we’ll post pics if we do.

Like this one: 

Tomorrow, Harbour Island - where the rich and famous play.....