Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Tarpum Bay, Beautiful Beaches, and Vicious Dogs.....

The drive to Tarpum Bay was beautiful. Queens Highway runs the length of the island - a twisty, curvy road with little to no signage directing us...The sea was amazing...it shone in the most incredible shades of turquoise, aqua, teal....Our view was mainly of the Caribbean. (It took us a couple of days, really, to find the Atlantic even though the island is barely two miles wide!)

After traveling, I guess about 45 minutes south on Queen's Highway, stopping to admire the views and take pictures, We found our adorable little house in Tarpum Bay...off of Queen's Highway and offset from the road. We turned right, from the left side of the road...(it was a bit difficult getting the whole English way of driving down....) onto the gravel drive and were THRILLED at what we saw. There was our secluded little brand-new house and from the porch at the back of the house was a beautiful view of the Caribbean.

We could not wait to get out of the clunker and into that house! Loved it! Perfect! Beautiful......

Yet, Perri and Hope have mentioned our travails - the scorpion - I thought we were in big trouble. I had no clue there would be scorpions. We told one of the locals, they said that they really don't see that many scorpions.....hmmmm, one of the few on the island and IT'S IN HOPE'S BEDROOM! Well, as Perri mentioned, the scorpion suffered a tragedy, and we all were able to sleep our first night in Eleuthera (not without checking under the beds, under the sheets, inside the pillowcase......etc)

Next morning, BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR A WALK ON THE BEACH!

Cannot express the tranquility, the beauty, and the absolute peace I felt on that beach. The walking was a bit difficult, though. As we found out, the Caribbean side of the island is much rockier than the Atlantic side. There are ledges of rock, at times, between you and the sea which makes for a bit of a treacherous trek into the water. There is no running and jumping straight into the ocean on this side of the island.....which brings me back to the walk. There we were, enjoying the sun, the walk, the shells.... Quite a way down the beach from our house, on the hill above the beach, we saw a dog. No sooner had I said, "Oh, look a dog...." did that thing come bounding down that hill, onto the beach - and he brought his friends with him!!!! These were not nice dogs, these were Cujo's friends! One even had yellowish eyes! Controlled panic is all I can think when I look back: My thoughts were -we are going to be attacked; question was, how many of us would be bitten and how bad was it going to be......Adrenaline and instinct made the three of us immediately turn around and head back to the house. We could not stay on the beach - we had to get something between us and them so we headed into the water. Yet, These dogs DID NOT STOP! They just kept coming after us. Hope was our lookout, really, and the furthest in the water from them....It was Hope, Perri in the middle, and me closest to the beach......we kept edging deeper into the water...walking (stumbling) over the rocks....we grasped hands. The three of us were in a chorus line of sorts, our elbows were bent, I had Perri's right hand in my left, Perri had Hope's right hand in her left.....and we kept walking.....we walked as closely together as we could....all the while they were behind us, growling and snarling .....only after we were safe did Hope let on that one of the dog's was inches from MY ARSE!!!

We Survived obviously, realized we truly had no running water in the house as Perri had mentioned, met the local police, and decided that Tarpum Bay was nice, but GOTTA GO! We moved on from our perfect house, and with the persistence, energy, control and determination she so well embodies, Perri got our money back - ALL OF IT- and began the search for our next home away from home......

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