Puppy, Conch Salad and Rum on Superbowl Sunday

Since we had only rented the car for two days, to get to Daddy Joe's for the Superbowl meant we'd have to walk about two miles. Something we were quite capable of doing, though we ran into one small problem. And that small problem was a puppy named Toby. See, as we were walking to the Queen's Highway (really the only major road of the island) we saw a little puppy standing at the end of a driveway. I foolishly called him over, which resulted in much petting, cooing and drooling. The drawback, however, was that once we were done saying hello to Toby he wasn't quite ready to say goodbye and continued to follow us as we tried to walk away. The fear was that he'd follow us to the highway and then get hit. We tried a few things to dissuade him, such as ignoring him, talking in low masculine tones, telling him to go home and then finally walking all the way back to his house and knocking on a door so someone could hold him while we continued on our way. It was this last attempt that ultimately succeeded. Then we were off. But shortly after beginning our walk, we met Wallace - the man everyone and their mother seems to know on the island of Eleuthera. Wallace drives a taxi and has a fleet of cars that he rents to visitors to the island. He stopped and asked us if we wanted a lift, but I was hesitant because cab rides on a small island where gas is $5 a gallon are expensive, and I knew we could easily walk the distance. But this, he countered, would just be a ride, no money necessary. And so we made friends with Wallace as he drove us to the place.
Once there we enjoyed Kalik beers and talking with the bartender and locals at the bar (we came way earlier than when the game was going to start). This was my only conch salad of the trip, and had I known how much I was going to like it, I would have been ordering it up left and right. Citrusy, spicy, refreshing, marvelous.
We befriended the bunch of expats all enjoying the living room feel of Daddy Joe's. I was rooting for whatever team had the ball, so I was happy with the outcome of the game. Afterwards Wallace (who watched the game as well) drove us and our next door neighbors back to our digs. We then enjoyed rum and pineapple soda drinks. The shell looked on.

A Day at Oleander Cove

After our breakfast we walked the little ways down to Oleander Cove, where we took the one little spot of sand and called it our own. There were reefs just off the shore, by which I became quite entranced. I saw blue fish with yellow stripes, yellow fish with blue dots, one big purple fish, so many starfish, a big snail eating a crab and other fish that may or may not have been barrucuda. So many fish! My two big regrets are that before I departed the states I didn't spend $18 for an underwater disposable camera and that I didn't spend $30 for a proper snorkel mask. The first regret resulted in no proof of all these fish that I saw. The second regret caused me to constantly be coming up for air (I had goggles) just when I was getting into looking at something. You see that far point of the cove? We swam over there. There were bigger fish there.
Itty bitty snails.
Limestone.
There are two kinds of girls in the world. The kind who would photoshop their pimple out of the photograph and the kind who would not. Today, it seems, I am the latter.


It was good that I brought my water shoes, as walking along the rocks was fun...but a killer on bare feet.

That's me with my arms raised in triumph over the pretty. Also, I saw a bunch of starfish and I won't lie, I touched them. I not only touched them, I thought they deserved to have their own community and so I put them all on the same big rock. Seven of them.
L. taking her turn with the goggles and water shoes.



So that day was basically lying down in the sun and swimming with the fishes. We also made friends with a dude who has a house in the Oleander Cove community. He told us about a Super Bowl Party being held later that evening, which we decided we would attend.

Bacon and Eggs in Gregory Town

There had been some discussion of going to the Rainbow Inn and seeing the two dudes we met earlier in the day play music, but the timing was off just a bit. They weren't starting til later in the evening, it was 5. So we drove back to the apartment and ended up having a quiet night in, which was actually lovely. We read our books. Ate some macaroni and cheese with hot dogs. Drank a few beers. Peaceful. Quiet. The next morning I woke up refreshed and renewed and cooked up a mother load of bacon as well as eggs. Then I sat outside and ate it. I think L. had some bacon and hard boiled eggs.
This cat just wouldn't quit with the cuteness and the crazy.

Rainbow Beach

After Preacher's Cave, which was on the more northern part of the island, we drove a little further south, past Gregory Town (where we were staying) to Rainbow Beach. This was a nice little beach and if it had been sunny and not raining, I think we would have had a very good time there. Unfortunately though the sun had come out during our drive from the cave the the beach, pretty much the moment we actually parked the clouds came back in full force. Nonetheless, we went and hung out for a bit. Perhaps one of the highlights of this beach was this dog, who transfixed us by gnawing on something hard and crunchy (giant mussel?) for a good length of time. A rakish dog, but smelly.
This beach had nice little picnic benches and a little protection from the elements, seriously if it had been nicer this would have been the spot.
Still and all a nice visit. Those clouds, they spited us.