My struggles with the Internet service here have continued. For the last two days every time I tried to get on my Comcast Email, I was somehow redirected to the hotel wireless log in page. Finally yesterday afternoon, laptop in hand, I camped in the business center and wouldn’t leave until they admitted it was not my problem but theirs. After I spent an hour convincing them, they agreed to work on the issue. At that point, I took my laptop, and told them to call me when they got it fixed. I headed down to the pool with a large rum drink to get out of my mad. It worked. (Oh and the Email access was fixed when I got back)
Earlier in the day we drove to the very remote end of the island for lunch. It is indescribably beautiful, and there are wild goats and monkeys everywhere. We ended up (literally) at the Reggae Beach Bar and Grill which was at the end of the end of the road. You could see the island of Nevis very close by. The Reggae was an open-air board floored sand everywhere kind of place. There was smoke billowing from the grill in the back and the blender was buzzing away on the bar. All complete with the customary Reggae music background. The menu was interesting, and we made our choices. Vickie got a barbequed chicken salad, Brenda got a hamburger, Jerry got a Mahi Mahi plate, and I got (finally) my Conch chowder, and Conch fritters. The food came and it was wonderful. The plates all had a salad that had pasta, little black beans, lettuce, cucumber, peas, and some type of fried orange root vegetable that was delicious. My Conch chowder was perfect, with just enough sand in it so you knew it was real, also plenty of conch meat slightly chewy. The Conch fritters were made from conch meat and the orange root vegetable used on the other plates, crisply fried and delicious. Jerry commented the fish was perfect, and Vickie raved about her chicken.
Also today was our shopping day. We usually take one day and let the girls take us shopping in the little booths and stalls of where ever we might be. Today there was supposed to be no cruise ship in port in Basseterre so we thought that would be a good time. Unfortunately the woman who though she knew the cruise boat schedule didn’t and we pushed and shoved with all the cruise boat folks to do our shopping. We did find some cool shirts and stuff for the girls, and sent some postcards home.
On today’s docket is some possible snorkeling; it has been so rough that we have not been able to get in the ocean here. Today seems a little calmer.
Well I wrote the above earlier, and did get a chance to do some snorkeling. It was rough, but once you got away from the shore it was tolerable. They have a breakwater off shore from the Marriott beach, and all along the breakwater were numerous kinds of fish. I spent about an hour cruising around, and ended up with a lot of salt water in my sinuses from the wave action.
After snorkeling I retired to the veranda for some refreshing rum drinks and also laid by the pool for a while. We decided to go to the famous Mr. X’s Shiggity Shack for dinner. We drove over and got a great table right on the beach. I really wanted a Caribbean lobster, and they had that on the menu grilled. Jerry and I both ordered that, Brenda ordered Mahi Mahi grilled and Vickie ordered Spear Ribs, which was their take on spare ribs. We had the specialty fruity rum drinks of the day, and awaited our food. When the food came, I got a disappointment. Jerry got the last lobster, and they brought me Mahi Mahi without even asking. Since I love grilled fish, I went along, but I had expected more from a place that had been so highly rated in Trip Advisor. Guess I’ll just have to come back for my Caribbean lobster. They had a band at The Shiggity Shack, but their first few numbers left us cold, so we headed back to the Marriott. Turns out the Marriott had a great Reggae band playing in the lobby, and Vickie and I danced, drank and sang the night away. It didn’t hurt that I had on my Bob Marley shirt, and knew a lot of the words to the music they did. We were the sparkplugs of the gathering, and made a lot of new friends that night. I don’t really remember how many rum thingies got consumed, but when the band took it’s last break, Vickie hauled me off to the bed. (I think she just wanted to go to the casino)
Saturday was a pretty laid back day for me. After I recovered from all the snorkeling, swimming, partying, eating, drinking, dancing, partying, dancing, drinking, well you get the picture. Guess I sort of felt my age a little on Saturday (To put it politely).
Saturday night, we had a wonderful dinner of all the leftovers, sandwich stuff and snacks from the week, and packed our bags. Later we all indulged in rum-raisin ice cream from the Pizza Shack at the Marriott. Sunday morning it was up at 07:00 and off to the St. Kitts Airport. Now we’re on a 5-hour layover in St. Maarten, waiting for our flight to Atlanta. Tonight we stay in Atlanta, and then back to GSO Monday morning. We’ll have the first cell service in almost 2 weeks tonight so hopefully we can contact some folks. Leaving paradise.
More later,
Wes
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