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………………….

Friday December 28

Moving Day

Our time in Spring has come to an end, but not a day too soon. At the beginning of my adventures, I didn’t mind the 15 minute drive every time I wanted to go somewhere and loved the scenery on the way, but now that we are preparing for more guests we need to maximize our play time and be closer to the “action” (that word is relative here!). Plus I was wanting some privacy, as I found that renting a place that is actually an apartment attached to where the owners live is not always as charming as one would hope. It just feels funny to know that someone is always there. That, combined with the constant voices in my head telling me never to go home, never quite made me feel like I was all alone here. Below is a picture of Liz and I before Jill and I packed up the moke with our loads of luggage to head to Mount Pleasant.

We were told that we could arrive at the new villa any time after 10 a.m., so we drove up promptly at 10:10, extremely pleased to find that our place is protected by a private electric gate which will hopefully deter the local paparazzi that has been following us around :) The owners Patriece and Ashleigh were here to greet us, provided a wonderful selection of fresh fruit and some homemade Bequia cake, and showed us around the property. The only word that continues to come to my mind to describe this place and this setting is spectacular. View from the patio on this, another GORGEOUS day, is below.

Exhausted from our big move, Jill and I decided to treat ourselves to another tuna melt sandwich at Da Reef. One thing that I learned quickly here but I think I previously failed to mention is that a “menu” at a restaurant is more of a “guideline” – it gives you an idea of what could possibly be available if all of the stars aligned for the owner that morning. Well apparently the tuna stars did not align this morning because they had actually inserted a new page in the menu that didn’t even have tuna on it. Only cheese or ham sandwiches. So, so, so disappointing. Luckily Lower Bay has lots of good beach bars so we just walked 100 feet over to Dawn’s Creole Café and I settled for chicken salad, Jill just had fries because she had her heart set on a tuna melt. We will definitely have to return to see if it makes it back on the menu. At Dawn’s we ran into our friend Emmett who entertained us for a bit. He informed us about the local thief, a charming young man who we saw on the beach scouting out some potential targets (at least that’s the story we are using to keep things interesting). See, that gate does come in handy!

After another stressful day at the beach, I was craving the chicken BLT from Salty Dog. We also needed to stop by there to check on our rum punch order, which I should have listed as the number one priority of the day. As usual, Andre and everyone there greeted us with a smile and great service. We left with our tummies full and a nice big bottle of punch. How can it get better than this?!

Thursday December 27

I have been here for almost 2 weeks now and had yet to check out what is supposed to be the nicest beach on the island, Princess Margaret Beach. The road down to the beach is not the easiest road to navigate in a moke so we hopped a water taxi from the dock in front of the Gingerbread. Competition for water taxi passengers here is fierce, as it is for regular taxis. Everywhere you walk, if you look like you want to go somewhere other than where you are, the drivers all ask “taxi?”. As for the water taxis though, I wasn’t sure if its like in Chicago and you just raise your arm, and it turns out that works just fine. The drivers want to make the most of their time and keep stopping along the way to pick up other people, but lucky for us the woman on the boat with us told him to stop stopping. It was kind of funny.

Princess Margaret is quite nice, it has a different feel from Lower Bay thanks to the new restaurant/bar/spa called Jack’s. While it creates a beautiful setting, my opinion is that it doesn’t fit in with the culture of the rest of the island. Too L.A./South Beach. And it’s the only place to eat/drink on the beach, unlike Lower Bay where you have lots of choices. I do like, however, that they have quite the impressive spa menu. Everything from massages and facials to waxing and an eyebrow “tidy”, and all at very reasonable prices. While I was tempted to get the 90-minute hot stone massage, I just don’t feel like its possible for me to be any more relaxed. I might end up being a zombie if I treated myself to a relaxing spa treatment, but I may have to suck it up and give it a shot before I go….

After the beach, we jumped on the Dive Bequia boat and went out for a snorkel. There was only one paying diver and 5 stowaways: Jill, me and 3 adorable little girls ages 9 and 10. They had a ball exploring while Jill and I snorkeled and the diver and the dive master dove a wreck. I haven’t had the urge to dive here yet because I am just too lazy to get all geared up, but I think I need to add it to the agenda.

Jill and I had a lovely dinner at Mac’s, it was packed. We ran into John and Sue whom we had met at Christmas dinner, they were setting sail for charter the next morning. I had forgotten already that Thursday nights are the big night at the Frangi for the Thursday night Jump Up. Many people eat there or somewhere close by and then hang out and enjoy the steel drum band. We stopped by for just a bit, then headed home to get some rest in anticipation for our big moving day tomorrow!

Wednesday December 26

** note: pics are now posted from previous days!! **
Paul and Kevin - going diving Saturday :)

Luggage Day

Via the latest technology available on the island (Jill’s cell phone), we received word early in the day that Jill’s luggage had been transferred from Barbados to Bequia and was waiting at the airport. We had committed to be at Da Reef at noon for beach day fun and thought that we had plenty of time to get to the airport and back and then go to the beach by noon. We hopped in the moke and headed to the other end of the island to the airport and were greeted by the same friendly crew from the last time….. Sitting on the sidewalk outside the airport (mind you, there is no wall to the airport, its just an open area the size of my house) were our friends the immigration officer, the customs officer and the security guard/poet/singer. No one at the airline counters. Jill approached the 3 people and explained she was there to get her luggage and the immigration officer told her “Uh, you’ll need to talk to the customs officer”. Even though the customs officer was sitting right next to him, she repeated her story to him and he said “Uh, the airline people will be ‘back in a moment’, you need to wait”. OK, what to you think the over/under is on how long a “moment” is in Bequia? I decided on 15 minutes. The security guard/poet/singer helped us pass those 15 minutes by singing to us and reading poems. Turns out she had written a new Christmas song that she would sing later that night under the almond tree for the all-church Christmas Carol event. Side note: The almond tree is the central meeting place on the island. Come here and you will understand…

15 minutes passed….. no airline people. But then our new friend told us that they were just in the house “over there with the green roof” (imagine me pointing to the house across the hill) and that perhaps they were having lunch. She wanted to call them for us but was directed otherwise by the airport mafia. After many hand signals, covert actions and maybe a phone call, we saw some action occur on the porch of the house with the green roof and shortly thereafter the phone at the airport rang. Jill was then waved over by the most serious wave by a customs officer I have ever seen, she was provided with her luggage, and we were free to go. We both cheered and ran the hell out of there.

We did eventually make it to Da Reef, only less then an hour late. It was another gorgeous day at the beach but we grabbed seats at the bar rather then sitting on the beach. We enjoyed the best tuna melt sandwiches that have ever been made on this earth. Spectacular. Will definitely be back for those. Other than hanging out at the beach, that was kind of it for the day, no crazy night out. We were too exhausted from the airport stress.

Tuesday December 25

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

From Santa, Gem and Pepper

day of rest - no blog today : )

Christmas Post Script:

OK there are a couple of things that just couldn’t go unsaid from today, as much as I wanted to declare it a no blog day. First of all, Liz and Greg we gracious enough to have invited us to a traditional Christmas dinner at their place (upstairs), as well as the 6 guests who were staying up the road at Palm Lodge. In addition to us, 8 of their friends joined us and we really hit it off with John and Sue, who own a sailboat that they charter for trips in the Caribbean. Their boat is called the Makayabella and Jill and I have decided that the next time we are ready for a Caribbean vacation we are gathering up our friends and sailing with John and Sue. I’m pretty sure that after this trip my friends will finally believe me that vacationing with Erin can never be dull so get your deposits in now for the sailing trip : ) After dinner, Jill and I shared a cab with John and Sue down to the harbor so we could pick up our repaired go kart that had been parked there since last night. This was actually the first time I rode in a taxi here the way it was meant to be ridden in (pardon my grammar….) – the taxis here are pickup trucks with benches in the back and the passengers sit in the open air in the back. Quite comfy, I must say, in addition to being quite scenic.

Luckily, the moke started up just fine, so we decided to celebrate by walking down the beach to the Frangi to check out the scene. The moment we arrived, we saw our new friend that we had made the night before, lets just call him “The German”. We noticed he was wearing the exact same clothes from the night before, but then again, Jill kind of was too. The major difference, however, was that Jill had showered. Clearly The German did not. The German was staying at a place called the Lower Bay Guest House for a whopping $26/ night, which means there was a community bathroom. Apparently it must have been out of water. But isn’t the ocean only 20 feet away? Anyhow, after 30 minutes of Jill and I talking to each other and him standing between us, I finally discovered (thanks to Noel’s keen observation) that The German was committing the worst Fashion Don’t in the book. Green Capri pants with black socks and Doc Martens. Noel discreetly mentioned it to me and just like Elle Woods I shrieked and said “Oh my gosh! You are committing a major Fashion Don’t” and pointed to his feet. It didn’t go over well. He explained to me why those were the only shoes he owned and that all Germans only wear those shoes, while I argued that lace-up shoes on a beach were totally impractical. He left shortly thereafter, and we shall forever hereafter refer to him as “The Stinky German”. Hope he’s not reading this, he really was a decent guy other than the fashion and soap challenges.

Monday December 24

JILL’S ARRIVAL DAY!

My goal today was to keep myself occupied until 2:30 when it was time to pick up Jill from the airport. Doesn’t seem like a difficult task but after a week and a half by yourself time starts to go by a little slowly. I gave De Bistro another chance for breakfast and splurged on the bacon omelette. I was very pleased to find that I actually received a bacon omelet! I then headed to the famous Doris’ Fresh Food to get some snacks and was very impressed with her selection – I picked up the fixings for my favorite snack/meal: cheese, crackers and summer sausage. I’m all set.

After spending lots of time just walking around and hanging out, it was finally time to head to the airport, which is clear on the other side of the island. I arrived 20 minutes before her arrival time and parked myself in the waiting area. I was the only person there who didn’t work there, and all the people who worked there hung out together chit chatting. This was the first time I felt like an outsider since I have been here and I didn’t like it. In any event, I finally approached the SVG counter after being there for 45 minutes to ask about the flight. The group that was hanging out in the office (which included a toddler, by the way) looked at me funny and someone came out to see if I had a problem. I asked about the direct flight from Barbados and the woman looked at me like I was a nut and told me there was no such thing, but that there was a plane in the Grenadines somewhere that will eventually arrive. I tried to explain that was impossible and took out the map of the flight routes, pointing to the direct flight from Barbados and she laughed at me and said “oh, no, that’s not right, there is no such thing”. I sat down in frustration and just decided to wait. After 30 more minutes I asked again if they knew where the plane was but apparently the idea of knowing where their planes are is a strange one. I decided to take a drive out of boredom and come back in a bit, keeping my eye out for any planes.

As I drove up the road, I saw my friend Don MacDowell, he and Danette had just arrived back from Martinique about an hour earlier. They welcomed me into their home to use the phone and try to figure out where Jill might be, and as we were enjoying a laugh about my airport experience (as well as their experience that day, which resulted in them having to charter their own plane to get back from Martinique), Don saw a plane fly out of the airport. Danette got on the phone and found out that Jill had finally arrived, but there was some major confusion going on because I never gave Jill any information about where she was staying in Bequia. Even more confused, I rushed back to the airport and was waved over by the immigration officer. Apparently Jill was initally denied immigration because she didn’t have a location here on the island, and I was scolded for the second time in 2 weeks by an immigration officer for not having printouts of all of our plans. Are you kidding me? I could have told them we were staying on the Moon and it would have been fine, they just need something to write down. They don’t have addresses here anyway, I don’t understand how the name of a town or the made up name of a villa will help. Whatever. She then spent some more time in customs because she was behind someone who apparently was bringing in too many cigarettes. But once it was her turn, she had no problem since she had no luggage. Lost by American Airlines before she even made it to Barbados. Great.

Turns out Jill had a nice tour of the Grenadines, having stopped in Union, Canouan and Mustique to pick up and drop off passengers and to get gas. Sounds like the plane is more like the bus, and if you stay on long enough you will eventually get to your destination. Interesting.

We had to go to town to get her a bathing suit and on our way back up the road to Spring in our “glorified go-kart” as Jill calls it, we saw someone standing in the middle of the road. I explained to her that lots of people walk everywhere here and she said “no, that’s not a person”. It was dark, but I did see the 2 eyes glowing and staring at us, and as we approached we realized that it was a bull. Yes, a bull. Standing smack in the middle of the road staring right at us. Thankfully we aren’t driving a red moke. I’m not sure why but I slowed down to pass it and was reminded by Jill that we are in a go-kart and that we needed to get the hell out of there. It never moved and we had a good laugh.

We had a great Christmas Eve Dinner at the Frangi and as usual enjoyed the company of our new island friends at the bar after dinner. When it was time to head home, the moke woudn’t start. Given the luck of the day, we just decided to leave it there and get a ride home. I had forgotten my flashlight and I didn’t want to be telling the story the next day about how the car died as we were going up a hill and it fell off of the bluff, then we were attacked by a bull in the pitch dark. Better to be safe than sorry :)

Sunday December 23

Another GORGEOUS day today! If this keeps up my tanorexia is going to require professional help. After another relaxing morning at the pool I headed to Lower Bay, and today it really WAS the place to be. The key is to go on Sunday, now I know that. There were lots of families and kids playing on the beach and Da Reef was the center of the universe. I parked myself at the bar and looked around and saw pretty much everyone I have met on the island in the past week in one place. I chatted it up with Noel and some of his buddies and found out that Sondra left the island today and did make mention of the fact that I may have stood her up at the gym. Oh well, she isn’t the first person I ever stood up at the gym….. After a while I noticed my San Fran friends John and Paula sitting just a few seats down from me so we had a couple of drinks together. Too bad they are leaving tomorrow, I really had a good time with them.

Although I had originally intended to go home after the beach, another one of my new friends Emmett invited us to his place in Industry for pre-dinner drinks. I felt a little scummy in my bathing suit and yucky clothes but no one cares. It was quite the shindig out on his beautiful, huge patio, complete with my favorite h’ors d’oeuvres – oreos, pocpcorn and cheese and crackers. I was in heaven! And to top it off, all the kidlets were walking around having a great time serving it to us on trays. So cute. I met so many nice and very friendly people, most of whom I had run into at least once or twice before. I also learned, much to my surprise, that not just my friends back home are reading this blog!! I think I may have offended a couple of people with my comments about the furniture store and the furniture but I come from the land of Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel so I can’t help it. Hopefully I haven’t offended anyone else, and if I did just tell me and the next rum punch is on me :)

From there it was to the Crescent Beach Inn for the Full Moon BBQ Buffet. You would think by now I would stop being so impressed and amazed by the culture here but that’s not true. The band was playing, people were dancing and everyone in the place was having a great time. We ate at picnic tables on the beach under the full moon – my ticket was for the fish (you get a little paper ticket saying whether you get meat or fish) and it was another great meal. And I usually don’t even like fish. My favorite was the macaroni/potato bake thing. So very yummy, I could have eaten the whole pan of it.

Another great evening, totally unplanned. I really wish my camera wasn’t broken so I could share pictures ….