Saturday December 29

I’m just going to skip through the day’s activities and get right to the best part. Oh wait, 2 things first. One, we upgraded our moke to a TOT (Tricked-Out Truck – that’s an Erin term, not a local term). I was very sad to have hit the end of the road with the moke but we need a bigger vehicle for the rest of the trip. We’ve now got a great sound system, VERY tinted windows and really hip windshield wipers, in addition to lots of other perks. Its actually harder to drive on these roads than the moke, but I must say I feel pretty darn cool and kind of hip-hop-ish….

Two, I did finally go scuba diving today and there are a few things I wanted to mention about that. I have a new idea for a hand signal: “I’m bored”. Not sure what the proposed signal would be but one is needed. I’m not implying that the diving here isn’t good, it was great, I saw lots of great stuff, but I’m one of those divers who only needs 30 minutes – I like to end everything on a good note. If you dive for 50 minutes, it just gets kind of old and the other divers who sometimes flail their arms, blow bubbles like crazy and kick you in the head get really annoying. Plus I was freezing my butt off. I think that’s where the wetsuit would come in handy as opposed to a t-shirt.

Anyhow, we finished off the evening with an exceptional dinner at Fernando’s Hideaway. And the word “Hideaway” is there for a reason. It’s a little local gem and the homemade food and the atmosphere provided by the luminaries made out of flour bags and the hanging lanterns were both outstanding. After dinner we met Roger (the bartender from the Frangi) at the Gingerbread for a drink (below) and headed home as soon as it started to rain.

Rain is a bit of a problem when you have to drive up steep inclines, especially unpaved ones. We quickly learned this lesson after passing through the Mount Pleasant Christmas Arches and heading up the road to The Compound (my new name for our place). Suddenly the wheels on the TOT started to spin and the TOT turned a little bit sidways. I should also mention that many of the roads here are edged by very steep gutters, so if you get stuck in one, its to the body shop you go. I put the TOT in neutral with the brake on and we began to skid backwards down the hill. Did I mention it is pitch dark? In a panic, we finally got the TOT to stop, but found ourselves in a bit of a predicament. There seemed to be a tree in the car. Not actually the whole tree, but just part of one that came in through my window. At this point we decided to get out and scope out the situation. Of course we didn’t have a flashlight so we used the teeny LCD screen of the old camera that Noel had let us borrow to see where the wheels of the car were and to determine if we could get out and to make sure there were no bulls around. As we were looking, another car came up the road and we gave the universal signal for “We need help”. The driver slowed and rolled down her window and kindly asked “Is there enough room for me to get by?”. Huh? She was clearly a tourist and no one had yet told her that this is the friendliest island on earth. She needs to learn.

We discovered how to put the TOT in 4WD and made it out of our predicament while relieved but laughing hysterically. I know it probably doesn’t seem that funny but trust me, it really was………………….