Island Hoppers

After a good night's sleep, we were up and read to explore the northern part of Eleuthera. Since we were not as liberal with the sunscreen as we should have been the day before, we stopped in Governors Harbour for some Aloe sunburn relief at the gift shop and then explored a church that was over 100 years old. There were some youngsters in there practicing for their easter service. It was nice to sit for a second and take in the beauty of my surroundings.

We set out for Rainbow Bay to find the lot that Perri's dad bought in the 60's...this was a MUST since that was the driving force behind our vaca in the first place! I'm pretty sure we found the correct place (or pretty darn close!). What a beautiful place that would be to build a home...ahhhh!

Another quick side road and we were on our way to find Surfers Beach. After telling Kara to just keep going down the road, we realized that it was becoming more and more sandy. We parked our lil red car and walked to a clearing that overlooked the most beautiful waves below. We took a few pictures and decided it was not in our best interest to continue in the car...our hilltop view of Surfers Beach would have to suffice!

Off again, this time with a stop in GregoryTown...home of Lenny Kravitz!! We stopped in a cute little gift shop with reasonable prices. We bought some souvenirs to take home, chatted with the girl that owns the shop and then we were off again.

Next stop...Glass Window Bridge. I have seen pictures of this online, but I was not prepared for the breathtaking beauty of this spot on the island. To the right is the deepest blue ocean you can imagine, crashing waves, whitecaps and all the fury of an untamed sea. But look to the left and you will see tranquil, turquoise-blue sea, smooth as glass as far as the eye can see. Under the bridge the two meet as if lovers seperated and desperate to reunite. AMAZING!!! The three of us just stood in awe, speechless (which is quite a task for the three of us chatty girlz!!).

Back in the car and headed north...we decided to go to Harbour Island. A little bit of discussion, some apprehension on my part and off we were! (We didn't bring much cash with us on this leg of the trip, not many gas stations around, etc....what can I say, sometimes I'm a pessimist). Anyhoo - I think it was $10 each round-trip for the boat ride to Harbour Island. We didn't get a golf cart since it was only about 5 min walk to the beach. What a beach it was!! The pinkest pink sand I've ever seen. We played in the water (it was a H O T day!!!) relaxed on the beach and then began our voyage back "home" to Lil Red.

Being accustomed to our quick shower, crank the tunes, drink a Kalik routine, we were soon dressed and ready to go to the South Palmetto Fish Fry. Many more locals than Governors Harbour, but still fun. We got there in the nick of time for food and ran into our friend Mike. Had a few drinks, enjoyed a good laugh and called it an early nite!! A wonderful ending to our exciting day! (Hope)

Friday and the Fish Fry

Have made it to another day! Slept pretty good, little itchy. Hope - well, she didn't sleep so good. Seems her OCD got the better of her when she examined somethings a little too closely - noseeums and/or sand fleas...RotRow. Kara and I decided NOT to inspect anything too closely! We joined Hope on the deck to see the lovely pictures she had taken of the SunRise, fully aware of the fact that we would only be observing the Sunset:) Once again we had a nice little wake up marvelling at the colors of the Caribbean right in front of us! It certainly doesn't get old! We decided we would try and find the Island Farm and some of the homemade bread we kept hearing about. We drove our new way around past Dolce Vita and past what kinda resembles a white, deserted quarry of sorts. At times not really sure if it was a road or not....Made our way back to the Queen's Hwy. Found farm no prob...quite a few people milling around and purchasing fresh veg and fruit as well as lots of yummy bread and jam! Smallish loaf is about $6 and worth it. The kind gentleman who runs the farm, lots of local varieties of plants, flowering shrubs and trees gave us a fresh "mango coconut" - we shared, it was sweet and different. We moseyed around and enjoyed looking at everything and asking lots of questions about the names of the plants.

We hopped back in our Hoopty and headed for North Palmetto so we could see how accessible the Atlantic was. We happened upon Unique Village and had a peek around - didn't see a soul?!? Picturesque with incredible views, steps long way down to beach - beautiful contrast to the Caribbean side! We drove on, there were lots of "private driveways" along that stretch of road. We stopped at the "big tree" and I think one of us got a pic. Cruised the rest of the way back home and ate some more bread smothered in lovely Danish butter and jam!!

We all dug out our snorkel gear and slathered (we thought) on the sunscreen. I wore a tee because I already have some bad memories of snorkeling for hours with a bikini on (years ago) and getting fried. We headed out to our beach - navigating your way past the rock and/or spiny coral can be a bit tricky! Not too far and there was a ledge that dropped off quickly from knee/thigh deep to over 6 feet. It was great - water was perfect and calm and there was lots of coral - saw a stingray, few Trigger fish, schools of some small fish, Trumpet fish and lots and lots of very small clear jelly fish. Was a bit panicky when I looked at my girlz and saw they were surrounded - which obviously meant I was too...but either they were non-stinging variety or too small, wee bit of luck there. Lots of coral and sea fans but did not see as many fish as I thought I would. We didn't go too far out cause we are weenies and felt more comfortable staying near the rock, although we did go quite a long way around the bend to the next beach. We only realized when we started heading back that the water was a bit choppy now and the beach seemed a little further than we gauged! Our legs would certainly feel this the next day - and we knew we would sleep like the dead that night! We straggled back to the house, shells in hand, and had a beer and mused over our findings. Next was the "holy quick shower and shave" rotation, with IPOD tunes cranking to get ready for Anchor Bay Fish Fry in GH. Thank Goddess were are low maintenance girlz! We had our island groove on, our Kaliks nice and cold and we were off again (on the left, remember!)
I DO IN NO WAY CONDONE DRINKING AND DRIVING! ALWAYS FIND A SOBER DRIVER:)

Lots of cars already there, and music coming from huge speakers in the street. Lots of people mingling, tourists, expats, locals - great mix! Great vibe - a lovely couple we had met at the airport who are regulars on the island, gave us a shout out and told us how things worked - am sure her name sounded like a flower?? what was it? Bob and ??! Gotta get in the line to get your meal (after getting your drink - beers/rum bubbas pretty much US bar prices) write your name down on a styro box and tell them what you want (over the very loud music).
God only knows how they remember what everyone wants - mostly women getting all food containers ready and taking orders - they worked incredibly well together and were very friendly. I asked if I could just "try" one conch fritter as we weren't sure we would like them....and she was super nice and gave me one to try! Conch has quite a chewy consistency and is a little strong in flavor, in my opinion, but after trying others these were the best - they had a nice peppery bite to them. The meals were $10 each - great deal. You had your choice of fried red snapper, grilled pork chop or BBQ chicken and conch fritters with a side of coleslaw, potato salad, rice & peas or a block of dense mac-n-cheese. I had the chicken and coleslaw and it was fantastic - and I was starving after all that snorkeling. We stood in the sand at a wooden thingy and ate like we hadn't seen food in days- BBQ sauce EVERYwhere!! Yummy. Fully sated, we wandered back to the "tent" area for another Kalik and a port-a-potty break...(fyi- by evenings end, to some, the ocean was the port-a-potty- Uh....AWKWARD) Music was going full blast now, we mingled and chatted with lots of people and took lots of pics with people. Who saw the Steven Spielberg look-alike? Hope? Kara? dragged me over to take a picture with this nice stranger.....I'm like - you girlz - this is so Not Spielberg.....SMILE = click!! We were having fun! We gave a ride to a new buddy, Mike, who was going our way and just happened to be friends with the people we had met at Mate & Jenny's. Exhausted - we collapsed. Even Hope managed to "forget" about the bugs and go to sleep. Ready for another day!
By Perri

First Nite & Next Very Long Day....Tarpum Bay

We had quite the journey down to Tarpum Bay, each time we stopped to take pictures, all I could think of was how badly I wanted to get into that crystal clear water! And it was HOT! The roads are rough and there are very few signs along the Queen's Highway. We "happened" thru Governor's Harbour and stopped at the Shell Station - only to find out that "everything" is pretty much on a "cash basis!" No Shell cards, no credit cards - just good old cash. Thought at the time the store wasn't that well stocked.....well actually it is! Large selection of canned and boxed food. On the HWY again....seemed like forever to get there, but Hope was doing a great job at driving on the left hand side of the road with a left hand car! We spotted the house and made the correct assumption (quite an easy process of elimination) and we drove on into Tarpum Bay and the lady at the little market let us use the phone so we could call the homeowner's sistah to meet us at the cottage. Had a peek around store, with the occasional cockaroach scurrying by and reminded myself "I am on a tropical island..." Finally met up at the house and all seemed just great! Brand new house! Gorgeous views - couldn't be more private. Whew! We made it! We got our cossies on and ventured out to the beach for a pre-sunset swim. I say swim loosely because the tide was way, way out. So we kinda floated in very warm, clear, knee deep water. It felt so good to let all your worries go and relax.
Next we ventured in to shower and go and seach for some food. Yeah, uh, sorry... no shower tonite. Good old hose rinse off outside, I always get sand in my pants. I think maybe Hope had her eye on me when I walked in the house to make sure my feet were sandless. OCD + SAND=bad mix:} She had already spied the broom. This is our first trip altogether and we all know I am not "known for neatness" so I wasn't too sure what I could get away with.....I didn't want Hope secretly wanting to swipe ME with the broom! We dressed and looked at some great notes & recommendations that had been left for us and we ventured into Tarpum Bay convinced we were all gonna love the fresh conch salad, well Hope and I did - Kara was smart and knew well enough to steer clear! After watching the local "conch maker" we decided against it. We went into the local "order your food to go" place (Sammy's?) and got our food to go. We asked where we could buy beer and we were directed to a little building a block down. Just a few older, local guys drinking beer, and we went and asked for a 12 pack of KALIK and when the guy told us $37 I almost fell over....Search around for cheapest beer - great liquor store in South Palmetto on the left driving North. Hope and Kara got the BBQue Chicken and I got the fried Red Snapper. Was good, prefer my fish guillotined though, and the rice & peas is good but more like brown rice and lentils (actually pigeon peas), and you get a thick chunk/block of mac-n-cheese. Hope put her PJ's on and we were all gonna relax and watch a little TV to wind down. But wait............Yes, that's Hope's ScReAm! Tada....Perri to the rescue. Who knew there were Scorpions on Eleuthera? Sorry, but we had to smush it in half....it had to go and not onto the porch either! Kara and I gorged our Cadbury's Picnic bar (yea! Cadbury's...luv'n it), while Hope nibbled hers and saved for later. ONCE AGAIN....tropical island=bugs! Hers was covered in the AM with minute sand flea thingys - not even rinsable. Needless to say we finally collapsed in bed and slept great.

New day, got up and wandered down to beach with tea in hand - Serenity Now! Was Nirvana! Per Hope, see about the dogs! I have never been so petrified in my life.....We were all in major panic stage - wondering what to do. If we got too deep in the water would they stay on the shoreline? Would they ever go away? They were right on our asses so it wasn't like you could stop to find a piece of coral/lava rock to what......... throw at 5 dogs? WTF?? I was so, so peesed off! I got out the phone book and called the Ministry of Tourism....Hope tells about our adventure where we pretty much got laughed right out of Tarpum Bay at the Police Station. We knew we were not going back on the beach so we decided it was still early enough to "find Ocean Hole" in Rock Sound. We gassed up and went searching. After asking directions, we were on our way again....Think small roads, very small settlements with lots of lefts and rights. We Found It! We were so hot and the water was so inviting we couldn't wait to jump in. Yea....easy to get in but how in the heck do you get out. We looked and talked and lo and behold here comes a group of teens from South Carolina visiting on a mission - all very sweet and polite. They were all lining up getting ready to jump in from the very top and we were asking them how they planned to get out! We couldn't wait for our turn. I jumped off a lower ledge - and managed to get out so we were confident we'd make it. Hope and I jumped from the very top and one of the kids got a great picture of her jumping. Kara came in at the lower ledge - it was a "BIG" jump and you either had to "run at it or jump really far out", at last we were all relaxing in the healing waters of Ocean Hole! What a thrill.

Getting out is very doable - just ungainly, as you can see! And Hope is getting a good chuckle watching me trying to pull my fat arse up! LOL! Then we kept driving looking for a beach and we got way off any beaten track - we were in the middle of knowhere! (Me thinks we were almost to Light House Beach?!?) Wisely decided to turn around and make our way back to the house hoping the issue with the city water had been solved! No water - come to find out there had been a problem with the new city water for quite awhile. Hhmm....doesn't sound good. Luckily after all that ensued we were able to find another place to go.......we got a full refund which had to be "gathered" but we waited patiently...and there was alot of luck involved because Spencer's Lil Red House was about the only rental in our little local booklet left on the counter other than a $500 per night resort! Hope and Kara went on a RE-packing frenzy while I sucked down my Kalik and called Spencer for the ThIrD time telling him we were on our way.............oh and how do we get there? It was a few Xanax and Kaliks later that we arrived (hot and sweaty - no less) at Mate & Jenny's in South Palmetto, ordered a drink and used the phone to call Spencer to "come get us" (we were to return to Mate & Jenny's pronto for a few more cocktails and some friend making). Not much business goes on after 7 or 8 at nite and Spencer was packing to go on a family cruise. He was super friendly and we followed him down a dark and VERY bumpy road to our new humble abode! We ended up closing Mate & Jenny's and making some new friends.........
By Perri

ps. Our new local buddies thought it was really funny that we wanted to jump in Ocean Hole! They don't! We are going to get them to jump in next time!