It gets better by the day
here. We're enjoying the laid-back lifestyle, the hot and sunny weather,
the food, the rum punch, music, people, parties and more! I've had to
reduce my intake of rum punch from the copious amounts I was putting away (well
it goes down so easily) so that I don't just lie around groaning all day as I
did on Wednesday. I did manage to rouse myself to greet our friends
Richard and Geoff when they arrived on their boat, Fleck and also to watch the
emotional arrival of yacht Be-bop-a-Lula who had heroically rescued two other
Arc participants whose boat was sinking. We've spent the last few days
socialising in the day with other Arc people and partying at various Arc events
in the evening. On Wednesday evening we had a lovely meal with our friends
from yacht Tintagel and said farewell to Lem who would be flying back to
Savannah the following day. Although we
still have tons of food on board, we decided to visit a supermarket on Thursday
to get a few fresh things, so we ventured out onto the hot and dusty road that
led to it, fascinated by the chickens, goats and bulls which trot around the
roadside from the unfenced fields. It was extremely hot and we'd
forgotten our hats so it was a relief to get into the air-conditioned mall after
walking for 40 minutes. The mall was very similar to any other town
centre shopping complex, only much less crowded and the Christmas decorations
weren't as ostentatious. The supermarket was interesting because of the wide
variety of different and unusual foods and products on display but we didn't buy
much because we are still over-stocked and had already bought some fruit and veg
from our cheery 'come back again man' who has a little boat stocked with a
colourful array of produce and who also entertains us with his typical Caribbean
accent and humour.
Our good intentions to do more
cleaning when we got back never got underway - it was hot and a cold beer was
needed followed by an afternoon nap to prepare us for the evening's prize-giving
event. As it turned out we missed the first part of it but we didn't win
anything anyway (although Paul still insists we should have got the award for
smallest boat). The ceremony went on for over two hours, after which we
got some food from one of the
stalls, had a very strong rum and
coke (no half measures on this island) and went back to the boat.
We get up
early here due to the heat so we decided to go on the free bus that leaves at
9 o'clock each morning to take Arc people to
a shopping centre. It's sponsored by a jewellery company called Colombian
Emeralds and their representative was on the bus with us and one other
couple. He gave us rum punch, a very nice pen and a gold coin before
telling us all about the jewels but I was more interested in looking at the
spectacular scenery we were passing. We decided there and then to hire a
car next week to explore some of it. The complex, about half an hour from
Rodney Bay was very much like an out of town outlet village and we were ushered
into a plush jewellery shop and introduced to the manager who wanted to show us
bargain pieces and explain about emeralds, gold and their unbeatable prices.
Other assistants were positioned ready with trays of trinkets and rings to show
us, none of which held any interest for me. In fact all four of us
couldn't get away quick enough and edged hastily away, muttering something about
coming back later as soon as it was polite to do so. The other shops were
more suited to us and we spent an hour browsing and buying gifts before checking
out a nice rum bar to see how their rum punch compared to others :). From there
the bus took us to Castries and that was great, a lively,
vibrant and colourful town with a market that had all the
sights and smells you'd expect in the Caribbean. After walking through the centre's
streets we went to the market where we bought some yams and plantain from a
lovely friendly lady who explained how to cook them. Then we ambled round more
stalls before meeting up with the other couple, Bob and Sally for lunch and
arriving back here at 2 o'clock in time for our customary afternoon beer and
nap, promising ourselves that we'd do more boat jobs
tomorrow.
It's Christmas Eve now and I'm off
to do more festive things to the boat before the sun gets too hot!
Season's
Greetings,
Kathy.