Day 1- Malawi

July 1, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

I am here! What a mission to get here. Which I knew it would be. But to give everyone an idea of the journey I took to get here:

Los Angeles –> D.C.
4 hour flight
3 hour layover

D.C. –> Addis Baba, Ethiopia
13 hour flight
2 hour layover

Addis Baba –> Lilongwe, Malawi
3 hours 25 minutes

Lots of plane rides. Long plane rides. I left Monday night at 11:30pm and arrived in Malawi on Wednesday around 1:00 in the afternoon. My first flight to D.C. was fine. There was a hot second when I got to the airport where I thought I might actually miss my flight, which was stressful for a moment. United’s new process to check in is theoretically good- You use kiosk stands and check yourself in, printing your own luggage tags and placing them on, then you stand in line to actually hand your bag to a worker, then you get to leave and head to security. I am not sure that it reduces time, so much as it increases chaos. Mobs of people, trying to run kiosks, going through a 15 question menu just to print tags. Technology is not for everyone, which causes delays. If you are flying internationally, you need an employee to come over and verify your passport before you can proceed. So there I was, impatient after this couple struggled to get through their kiosk menu and print their tags, filled out my kiosk questions, hundreds of people around, waiting for some United Airlines employee to walk over to me to verify my passport. I was convinced I was going to miss it. My first leg was domestic, so I did not think I needed to get to the airport so early. Traffic into the airport was madness, it took almost a half hour just to get to my terminal and then, this. Me standing at a kiosk, waiting for an employee at 10:35pm. Still have not given them my checked bag, still have not gone through security, flight leaves at 11:30. Eventually as I am waiting to flag down a worker, another one appears from behind and verifies everything for me. It prints all 3 of my boarding passes for the remainder of my journey and I jump in line to hand over my bag. This is the part that sucks and truly does not feel any different than just the standard check in with a ticket stand. Whatever. I wait in this long line. I hand over my bag, and by 10:56 I am headed to security. Convinced this is where I am totally going to get screwed, I walk up to security to be pleasantly surprised. There was only one person in front of me needed to get their passport checked and then it was me. I walked up to the man, who said I was lucky and had just missed the rush. I walked on through. Went through security, walked across what felt like half of the airport to my gate and by 11:09 only to find them boarding my zone and walked straight onto the plane! All I could think of was how much my Dad would have loved that timing (he hates waiting) and how stressed out my Mom would have been trying to get onto that plane. Bottom line is, I made it, and I was on my way.

My second flight, of course the long haul, was mostly fine. The guy sitting next to me was occupying SO MUCH SPACE. Sat boldly, legs wide, elbows on both armrests spilling over into the window and aisle seats. Just occupying so much space. THEN he took his shoes off and his feet smelled SO BAD. It was awful. Half of that plane ride I slept, the other I entertained myself. I actually watched Hidden Figures for the first time which is an absolutely fabulous movie that everyone should see. I got off the plane and there was a worker asking about connections. I showed him my ticket and he looked up at me in the most heartfelt concerned way and said “You have a long day ahead of you!” I laughed said yep and moved along.

Anyways, got to Addis Bbaba in Eithiopia. Oh my gosh, what a mess. The airport was total chaos. SO crowded with people EVERYWHERE. When I left D.C. and they had verified one of my boarding passes by re-printing a new one with more information, I assumed I would have to do the same thing in Addis Baba. I walk off the plane, start trying to figure out where my connection gate is using the screens. After a lot of walking back and forth, I decide to walk downstairs to Gates 1-6 and see what is down there. Turns out, my flight was down there and leaving out of Gate 6. I get to the gate, it is blocked off, and there is no person at the ticket counter. I have about two hours, but I don’t want to get screwed by not having the right boarding pass. I decide to go back upstairs to see if I can find anybody at a ticket counter to help me. Nope. I can’t. Because there isn’t one ANYWHERE. Walked back and forth through the entire stretch, passed every ticketing gate and nothing. The only workers were the ones at security. The airport was interesting, security fed directly into the waiting area with no real separation. Also, you could not purchase anything once you went through their security. Just gates and chairs. Security just told me (and other people) to just go to our gates and talk to our ticket person. Um. Okay.

So that was awesome.

I decided just to wait at my gate for a ticketing agent and hoped when they got there to board the plane, they could help me. Flight was leaving at 9:40am and boarding time was 9:05. As it got closer, the gate was still blocked off, but people had begun to swarm. I am happy I chose to wait right by the front of the blockade, it allowed me to end up now in the front of this giant mob/line. Well after 9:05 a ticketing agent appeared, but we were still blocked off. One guy, came out of the woodworks from the back, wiggled his whole way forward, crossed the barricade and walked up to the ticket lady. We could not hear what she said, but she put a whole hand up and pushed it outwards (implying he needed to go back) and I am assuming told him to go back. This guy turns around, walks back to us, gets on our side of the barricade and stands there. Everyone starts looking around with that same “Is this guy serious?” Look on their face. We were not all standing there for nothing. It was not an organized line, but those who waited their time were in the front, and those who did not were in the back. Someone spoke in the native language to the group next to me and gestured with his thumb pointing to the back. Those around who understood him, started to laugh. Including me. It was clear based upon the gesture and the tone of his voice, he was making a joke about how this guy needed to go to the back of the line. I did not need to understand his words to understand what he was saying. Eventually people started to speak up, someone tried using English, and eventually the guy got it and went to the back.

Finally, at like 9:20 the flight attendant calls people going to Blantyre and Lilongwe to come forward. I show her my boarding pass, she lets me past the barricade. I get in a short line, show that woman my boarding pass, she scans it, I was good to go. So all of that worrying for nothing. I get on a shuttle with lots of other people. Get shuttled to my plane and get on. The woman in front of me on this flight did not care about a single thing in the world. She threw her chair back (straight into my knees) before we even took off. Flight attendants walked by and asked her FOUR times to put her seat up and she just would pretend to, then lean back on it even harder into me. So that was cool.

Landed in Lilongwe, got off the plane and started dealing with customs. It took me over an hour to get through Malawian customs. I got handed a Visa Application form, I filled it out. After you fill out the form, you have to get in a line to get the form authorized. After the form is authorized, you have to get a different line to pay for it. After you pay for it, you have to get in another line to get a sticker/stamp for it. After t that, you get in your final line to cross into the airport. Holy Cow. LINES LINES LINES. It took forever. Everything was pretty much hand written, which made it longer. I was pretty sure my friends were just going to change their minds and go home, haha!

I got through that, walked out, got my bag, walked towards the exit only to find Holly, Meg, Mitch, and Bec standing there holding a beautiful sign welcoming me! It was so exciting. So happy to see them and be off of airplanes. Holly asks me if I can rally and I immediately tell her yes. We head to our driver, Bonaface, load up the car and head to the hotel Korea in Lilongwe. We stop there, drop my bags and the groceries they just picked up, and head out to an ATM where I pulled out some Malawian Kwatcha and headed straight to the market. Before we came, Holly had told us we could buy Chitenje (Malawian fabric) and have clothing custom made for inexpensive prices. We all sort of looked up online what styles and clothing we liked and were now on the hunt through this market, looking for patterns we liked. Markets and alleyways here in Malawi were crowded and tiny. People are selling anything you can think of. Food, fruits, fabric, sunglasses, fish, wood, everything! You could find anything you needed. We went to 3 or 4 different shops selling different types of Chitenje and picked out lots of different fabrics. We never paid more than 3.5 for 2 meters of fabric. K3,500 is about less than 5USD. After running around this market, we went to a tailor whom has made Holly clothes before and ordered our clothes! We are really excited about it! We will pick them up once we are back in July.

So, let me tell you about our friend Mitchell. Mitch is tall. Really tall. 6’10” tall. He is real tall. Malawians… not so tall. Walking around through the market today EVERYONE was starring at him. Heads turning, calling out to how tall he is, calling him tall and long. It was hilarious. One guy joked about how if they got in a fight he would have to punch upwards. I kid you not, everyone turning heads. Constantly. Poor Mitch. But it was rather entertaining. Malawi’s beer is Carlsberg beer and their slogan is “Probably the best beer in the world” I kid you not. Probably. So we keep joking that Mitch is PROBABLY the tallest man in the world. An on going joke for us all.

After all of that it was late. We went and had dinner at a local hotel. The food that everyone eats here in Malawi for lunch and dinner is nsima (see-mah). I am not even really sure how to explain it. Like, if you mushed up rice and made it into one giant ball? You’ll have to look at the photo. It is eaten often for lunch and dinner with a variety of meats and relishes. We were told we had to try it and we did. I definitely did not mind it but I did not like the relish that was part of this particular nsima. After that, we went back to the hostel and everyone crashed. Tomorrow we are leaving at 6:00am to head to Zambia.

Last Days in the Bahamas

June 19, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

Our last two days in the Bahamas were filled with our favorite thing. If you haven’t figured it out yet, that’s laying in the hammocks and reading.

We spent another day lounging, finishing books. I finished a book called A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Bachman. Everyone should read it. It’s a lovely book and quite possibly my favorite one so far.

I haven’t said too much at this point about the mosquitoes, but oh my god. Eaten alive. I have to have at least 30 bites covering my legs, back, arms, hands, and feet. Sam is only a little better, they mostly got her back and feet. The itching is unbelievable. On top of that, I have PMLE on my back- which also itches and is a result of my ambition to soak up the sun. All the itching. Everywhere.

Anyways, laid in hammocks. I finished my book, went and climbed along the rocks that divide us from the port next to us. Got to the end and sat there a while watching the boats come in and out of the dock. It was peaceful.

Upon returning, the sun was setting and Sam and I decided to walk the beach to look for shells and rocks. Doing this, Sam says this is the most romantic vacation she’s ever been on. Thinking about it, I laugh. I agree. Maybe one day we will each experience this type of vacation with someone we are romantically involved with! Haha.

While we were walking, I found a pair of white and pink goggles that looked just the right size for a tiny human. Looking around I see a family packing up and leaving with daughter who is around 12. Too old. I look a little further down, I see four girls playing the ocean with each other splashing around. I approach the water, near two of them and ask if these goggles belong to any of them. A blonde, probably 8 year old girl, turns around from the distance looks at me, looks at the goggles and her face explodes with excitement. It was like a slow motion reaction. She sprints towards me, splashing water everywhere yelling “Oh my gosh! Thank you so much!! I was looking for these!” Her friend trails behind her, running.

I don’t know if I have ever seen a more excited, happy face. Genuine happiness.

She takes the goggles from me, jeers right and takes off, sprinting toward a man sitting on the sand. “Dad!! Dad!! Dad look!!” she’s yelling as her and her friend race toward him.

She hands them off to her Dad and the race back to the ocean. Passing me, the little girl tells me, “thank you SO much!” passing me up for the water. Her friend trails behind and stops to say, “Thank you. She couldn’t find those. She was really sad.” and joined her back to play in the water.

I said to Sam about the girl, “I feel you, girl. Having all the feels about inanimate objects and the things we love.” Sam looks at me and says, “Your hat” And all I could think of was my hat. How I was certain it was gone forever. All I could think about was how sad I was about losing that hat and how happy I was when it wasn’t actually lost. And all the things I have ever lost that I have cherished so much. All the things that make us happy. How much we cherish them. So that was pretty cool.

We walked to the end, across a shore of rocks and tide pools, looking at all sorts of rocks, shells, and crabs then turned around and walked back. We decided tonight to eat dinner at the restaurant on the property, which was interesting. Interesting because of one single family sitting near us, having a great time, made it interesting. We sat outside on the patio, looking at the ocean. This family near us, we could not pinpoint the language they were using, was listening to music via external speaker loudly, so the entire patio could pretty much hear it. Pretty sure the parents were drunk. But hey, they were having a good time.

We went back, packed, read and planned to get up and try to see the sunrise again.

Alarm went off, watched the sunrise, discovered wifi on the beach, went back showered, napped, cleaned up, and checked out. Laid by the pool, crossed our fingers it wouldn’t rain, it did. We got out before a dropped hit us! Third time is the charm, we figure out how to read those clouds! Haha! We sat in the lobby, changed into real clothes until our cab to the airport came.

Our cab driver definitely made us uncomfortable, which sucks. Literally, half of the drive he called us “Charlie’s Angels” making comments about looking for a wife, asked if we had husbands or kids, constantly complimenting. Said we were so beautiful we didn’t need a third angel. Justified it by saying “Don’t mind me talking trash” and proceeded to continue. This 48 year old man (he told us his birthday was Wednesday and that’s how old he was turning). Nothing cute about this. Nothing funny about this. This is not flattering. There’s nothing worse than having this happen and being stuck in a car with the guy. The walls shrink fast and the sudden feeling of being trapped comes on quick. It was not pleasant, probably the worst part of our entire trip.

After being able to breath again and in the airport, we were ridiculously early. The full two hours. Their airport is tiny, both security and customs were a breeze.

Got to Fort Lauderdale. Figured out a hotel to stay in and had the worst possible taxi driver ever. 7 miles. 7 miles and I was ready to throw myself out of the car. He made me sick. He was so bad, even Sam was queasy! Didn’t put our hotel in his GPS, took a million U-turns and hard turns. Awful.

Got to our room- adorable! Walked up the street to a place I saw in the cab called Taco Bar— SO FREAKING GOOD! It made everything better. The tacos, corn, beans, drinks- to die for.

Woke up to rain. Decided the beach was out as an option. Decided to walk to Walgreens to get me all the anti-itch medicine. It was too much. We walked about 2 miles to the Walgreens and purchased the magical-ness of modern medicine. For anyone that knows me- I NEVER take medicine. But the swelling and itching of all the bites + rash was too much. I took Benedryl and am mind blown. I see why everyone always does this. It’s helped so much.

Anyways- Sam went on Yelp and found a cute little cafe nearby called Atelier 3 in Hollywood, right down the street. Yeah, there’s a Hollywood, Florida. It’s weird. We went to this cafe intending to just have a coffee and lunch.

We spent the entire afternoon there. 3 1/2 hours, drinking delicious coffee, eating delicious food, playing chess and talking to the owner and his brother. The cutest place. Sam got to play her very first chess game! It was a perfect, relaxing, and quiet place to end our trip with great conversation. We got an Uber, went to the airport. Now, headed home.

Bahamas Day 5

June 17, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

This morning we got up and headed out the door. We signed up for a tour to take us to the island’s National Park. On our drive to the park and caves, our driver gave us a lot of history on The Grand Bahamas and the local cities we have been exploring.

Until 1973, The Grand Bahamas were under British rule. The indigenous people, Lucayans, have been here as early as 300-400AD. Back in 1492 when Christopher Columbus sailed across the world, he landed on the islands- he also thinks he discovered the Bahamas. You can’t discover a place where people already live. Anyways. When he landed, he came across the native people of the island who traveled here from what is now Cuba.

The Islands were under British rule, with the abdicated Duke of Windsor being installed as governor. In 1955, an American by the name of Wallace Groves came to the island with a big interest in their pine trees. This particular Island of the Bahamas naturally has really tall skinny pine trees with the pines only at the tops of the trees. They only grow on three different areas across the various islands and keys because Freeport in particular has a huge natural supply of salt and fresh water. These trees can only survive with fresh water and have thrived here in Freeport. With lumber interests in mind, Wallace came to the Bahamas to cultivate these trees and sell them to buyers in South America. It was agreed then by the Bahamian government that Wallace could have land to cultivate these trees, so long as its purpose was to develop the island economically. Under Wallace’s grant, Freeport became the first free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama. Alas, the name, Freeport.

In 1973, Grand Bahama elected to remove themselves from British rule. The agreement is that after 100 years of independence, they will officially be let go into independence and cut all lasting ties with the British. However, until then Queen Elizabeth is still technically recognized as their monarch. They will celebrate 44 years of independence on July 10. They also go dollar for dollar with the U.S. and are technically one of the richest countries in North America.

I guess I’m giving you all a major history lesson, again. But, I find it all very interesting and we learned a lot about the island today. Also, their population is less than half a million. I think ~475,000 is what he said.

As we drove around, our driver talked a lot about the Hurricanes and the damage it as causes the island. And boy is it a lot. Hurricane after Hurricane they have endured. He explained the different parts of the city that flood, almost 6 feet of water just due to elevation and areas that flood up to 4 feet.

We drove by one area and he pointed out and said that it was their hill. He said, “You all may call it a speed bump, but to us, we call it a hill” haha! It’s 41 feet above sea level. Big hill, y’all.

We arrived to the National Park only to see the skies looking stormy. Everything around us was wet, but it wasn’t raining. We go to explore their national park which is 40 acres. Baby park! Walk around trails and go into caves. Beneath the park there is actually a huge system of underwater caves that look really cool to explore!

The first cave we went into was called Ben’s cave. The cave was discovered when part of the ceiling collapsed to reveal a clear pool of water. It is fresh water that actually sits on top of a layer of salt water! Weird, right? There are underwater passages that spread from Ben’s cave for thousands of yards. This makes the Lucayan cavern system one of the longest surveyed in the world. There’s tons of bats that live down there.

After we walked to a second cave called Burial Mound Cave. The bodies of several Lucayan Indians were found at the entrance of this cave. The bones were perfectly preserved in fresh water under a mound of rocks, about 6 feet down. There’s also a new, rare class of crustaceans that live here too!

After the caves and walking around the park, we got back on the bus and headed toward Gold Rock Beach. We had about an hour here, but neither Sam or I felt like swimming and the clouds were looking mean. But the water was unbelievable! I couldn’t believe there was water bluer than what we had already been seeing. We found a bench, posted up and enjoyed the view.

The second we felt a rain drop, we jumped. We already played this game on this trip and we learned our lesson real quick. That one drop was about to turn into a bucket. We jumped up, gathered our few belongings and began to quickly make our way down the path back to the bus. We still got soaked. Because it did eventually pour. BUT, not as wet as we could have been had we moved slower. We laughed, as always. Made it to the bus and began to freeze our faces off. The first time we have really legitimately been cold on this trip. OH! And we totally brought rain jackets on this trip- we just chose NOT to bring them today because.. I don’t know. I honestly don’t know why. Half asleep? Didn’t check the weather? Didn’t occur to us? All of the above probably. So our useful handy dandy rain jackets sat nicely folded, warm and dry, in our room.

We go to the next stop which is another beach, but mostly restaurant. Banana Bay. It would have been beautiful if it was raining. I mean, it was still beautiful in the rain, but I could see the huge appeal for it in the sun. You can sit outside on a deck over the ocean. Over that clear blue water! We sat inside, obviously, where there was not nearly as much seating, understandably. We had their world famous banana bread, which was delicious, and dragged our cold wet selves back onto the bus to head home.

We get back and are tired. I lay on the bed, only to take an impromptu nap and Sam, being all productive and stuff, read some more and worked out. When she returned from her workout, she brought back reports of sunshine, warm weather, and motivation to get our butts and hammocks outside. So we did. We put our hammocks back up, read on the beach, and enjoyed the insanely beautiful sunset. Then we came to the lobby and I sat down and wrote this.

Bahamas Day 4

June 17, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

We got up this morning, grabbed our hammocks and slack line and headed back to our palm trees. At this point, Sam and I have finished two books each and gotten some sun. We lazed around, all day. All. Day.

I finished a book, got up to check on Sam who was passed out asleep in her hammock. I went for a swim and while in the ocean I saw a sting ray jump out, try to fly and fall back in, then jump out and do it again! It was pretty cool. Animal wise, we have seen crabs roaming free, the biggest butterfly ever, all the misquotes (we have been eaten alive at this point) and now this sting ray.

And that’s pretty much it. All we did, all day.

At night we decided to go to back to Lucaya Marketplace for dinner and drinks. All those restaurants and bars I mentioned before? We saw one we wanted to try and we had also heard that a place to go to is a place called Rum Runners. We get to the port, wanting to eat at a bar we remembered from two days ago. We get to the bar and sure enough, it is Rum Runners. We decide not to eat there (intending to go there later) and eat at a place next door called Kalypto. We ordered a drink called the Relaxer and ordered food. Again, we waited… forever to get food. But the time food had arrived, the entire bar around us was packed with more people from the Navy ship in port. So many people. This bar had two bartenders and probably 30-40 people trying to get drinks. Sam and I were sitting at the bar and these guys around us were all having a hard time ordering. Literally, I think it’s just because they were young and inexperienced? One guy was like “I said Hi to her twice though”

….there are a ton of people here right now trying to get drinks. Don’t say Hi, order dude! We helped some of them out by ordering for them.

Finally, it started to die down a bit and Sam and I were finishing up our food, who walks and sits next to us? Jacob. Alabama. Don. Ani. All the guys from the fish fry. It was fun to know people again and talk. Everyone ordered drinks and hung out talking and laughing. This Alabama kid, just making Sam and I laugh. He’s a young kid having a good time, being funny. It was entertaining to watch them all interact with each other.

At some point, I decide to go to the bathroom. When I come back I hear and see whispering among all of these guys. I hear Alabama with his back to me say, “no no, she’s lost it” and Jacob responds with “I hate when she does that” and looks up at me and next thing I know, Alabama (Connor) turns around and leans towards me like he’s holding a mic and starts singing “You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips” followed with Jacob and his microphone “and there’s no tenderness before in your fingertips” and I know exactly what is happening. In sync and growing louder, “she’s trying hard not to show it, but baby, baby I know it” and then whole little group of sailors start singing loud and together in this bar, people looking good, “you’ve lost that loving feeling, whoaoa that loving feeling, bring back that loving feeling cause gone gone gone… whoaoh- oh-ou-oh ba-dum, ba-dum” and y’all know the rest.

That one scene in Top Gun with Goose and Mav ? Yeah. That happened last night. In real life. Except they weren’t in their summer whites and didn’t have real microphones.

It was absolutely hilarious and adorable. Sitting next to them, a little befuddled, Sam looks at me and said, “I have no idea what is going on” I laughed and got red as they sang and said, “oh, I sure do. It’s Top Gun. This is a movie.” And just let them finish.

So that was fun. We ended up staying at Kalypso the entire time before catching a cab and heading home.

Bahamas Day 3

June 17, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

We set an alarm today! And it woke us up! Success. We did it. We woke up at a reasonable hour. We got up with a plan and ready to put it in action. We each poured ourselves a bowl of cereal with our fancy almond/coconut milk blend. Ate breakfast, categorized books we had finished read on our reading challenge (don’t judge) and got ready. Learning our lesson from day one, we covered ourselves adequately from head to toe in Sam’s zinc-based sunscreen. We had successfully made ourselves look whiter, huzzah. Determined, we got our hammocks, straps, towels, water bottles, books, hat, sunglasses, assortment of sunscreen and aloe, phones and go pro, and set out for a day of relaxation. We returned to our perfect palm tree spot of three trees we found last night and began setting up our hammocks. Hammocks up, without discussion we both seemed to agree not to put up the slack line yet, which we would later find out was an excellent choice. Putting up the hammocks was fun, because it was insanely windy and they were blowing out like parachutes, but we managed. Posted, this was our view.

We each laid in our hammocks, reading our books. Mine happens to be taking place at a beach so that was nice to relate to the scenery. It’s warm, sunny, and breezy. Paradise.

Until it wasn’t. Until I started feeling a little mist of water. Until I sat up, curious, only to hear Sam say, “Do you feel the rain?” I respond with, “Is it rain, or just mist being blown by the wind?” Only to have Mother Nature respond with an increased amount of downpour upon on. Now both, sitting up in our hammocks look at each other with a “What do we do? Is this going to pass?” Only with out thoughts to be answered with MORE RAIN. It’s pouring. Outside. On the beach. On us. On our hammocks. With that, we are up. We jump up and immediately start stripping the tree of our hammocks in a windy, rainy, madness. I opted to leave everything that was in my hammock (towel, book, hat, water bottle, room key) all in the hammock and carry it back that way. However, I was determined not to walk back to our room in just my bathing suit. I HAD to put on my dress. So, there I stood. On the beach, in the crazy wind, with rain pouring down trying to put my dress back on over my suit. The problem was not only was my dress getting more wet and harder to manage by the second, the wind blowing was shaking my hammock amuck, and I didn’t want all my things to blow out. One hand holding the hammock closed together, and keeping it as still as possible, while the other hand and my mouth worked to find the bottom of my dress and put it over me. I don’t know how I managed to make this work, I just did. Looking back, it feels like magical forces were on my side because
I literally have no idea how I made that happen. Dress on. Soaked, sticking to me, wind blowing, I somehow manage to get everything off this tree. I look at Sam, equally wet, cold, and wind blown who also got everything down, and set off back to the room. Soaked, standing at our door that we’ve now mastered, we try to dry off and wipe off all the water and sand we have just accumulated before going in. We manage that, bring everything in, hang it up to dry, change and decide to play Bingo that was just about to start around the corner. We played the weirdest rounds of bingo. Some were four corners OR a square of four, Lucky 7 (literally just the first person to get 7 numbers), and bad luck bingo. Bad Luck Bingo was my favorite because it meant the person with the worst bingo board got to win. Anytime a number was called, if you had it, you were automatically out. Sam made it to top 4 for this round! I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing….? But she got out before she could win. She was close!

Of course, after bingo, the sun was out again and it was back to being a beautiful day. We decided we were gonna pick everything back up and go set up in our spot again. So we did. We got all our towels, hammocks, slack line, sunscreen, etc AGAIN and set it all up. This time, slack line included. Side note, as we were walking in to our room, the is older couple (who is on the other side of our locked door) came out of their room. They stopped and asked if we were the ones staying our room (as we stood at the door) and we said yes. The woman responded with “Oh, you were out partying last night?” Sam and I looked at each other confused. We told her no, and her husband proceeded to say, “well, then you were up late” Sam and I again, look at each other confused, knowing we weren’t and the husband tells us how they were up late watching TV and could hear us. Even more confused I respond with “We were up late in bed reading our books” and the woman says something about how she heard showering (Sam showered) and assumed we were going out. We all laughed, said nope just up reading. After all that was settled, I realized what I said and looked at Sam and we both laughed and shrugged it off. If people didn’t already think we were a couple (which we are pretty sure they do) they definitely do now with my “we were in bed reading comment” oh well, no problem in that. We went back in to get our stuff.

On our way out, I was making the conscious decision that this time I would not bring my hat. The moment I did this, I looked around for my hat and then panicked when I could not find it. This hat, my lovely sun hat, has had a lot of hoopla in my circle of friends and buying/owning this hat. But I love it. I’ve stuck by it, in my whole.. uh… two weeks of owning it? Haha! Anyways, I instantly realized my hat was missing. And I was so sad. In all of our panic and rush, it must have fallen out and blown away. I was convinced it was gone forever, while Sam held a lot more optimism. Sure enough though, we walk out back to our area, and there rumbled up- but there!- in the sand was my hat! I grabbed it, so happy to have it back, and apologized to it? Because inanimate objects have feelings in my world and I felt bad it got left behind and beaten up.

Hat back, hammocks up, slack line up, we decided to go for a swim and to take the GoPro. I’ve never taken my GoPro in water before and read online it was waterproof up to 33ft in water without a case. I must have read this a million times on the internet, but was still convinced I read it wrong and that I was carrying my GoPro to its death. I didn’t. It was totally fine. We had a blast swimming in the warm blue water, talking and soaking up the sun. After we jumped in our hammocks and just read away the afternoon.

We knew we had to go back to the room around 4:30 to shower get ready and head out to the fish fry tonight. Right before we went in we decided to play with the slack line a little more. Next thing you know, this shorter stockier older man comes up and starts talking to us. His accent was apparent immediately and I knew this guy had to either be from New Jersey or Philadelphia. Too many of my family members sound similar to this guy. Sure as shit, he’s from New Jersey. He was a kind retired construction worker who owns a home and spends time here a couple months out of the year. Told us about his kids, asked what we did, and looked like he had been in the sun a lot more than we had.

Back in the room we got ready and left. We double checked with the front desk lady about how to get there. She said it was walkable, or we could take a $3 cab. Sam and I opted to walk and set out. It was so hot. Like, really hot. 5:30 in the evening, sun up and we were covered in sweat. It made the walk feel long. Not to mention our directions were “follow the road all the way and turn right, then any of the three entrances” so walking without being too sure of where the road ended, felt long. We eventually see a stop sign and assume that is our end and note to turn right. As we approach this stop sign, a taxi drives by full of guys. One of them says, “hey pretty ladies” and followed by “we have alcohol” as they keep driving. We roll our eyes, ignore them (as any girl out there understands how annoying this is) and keep walking. We see them turn where we are turning. Then turn again where we need to go.

Great.
Awesome.
Fabulous.
Super excited.

We keep walking, lose sight of the cab, round a corner and see a group of restaurants. We have found the fish fry. We walk up to one, decide to check the other and after being handed menus, pick the second place. It’s hot. We are sweating. Sitting outdoors, no fans. So, we got two beers. Sam and I have now tried both Bahamian beers here. There is Kalik and Sands. A server went out of his way to tell us Sands was produced on the islands, which leads me believe Kalik is not. Kalik claims be “The beer of the Bahamas” while Sands is “Truly Bahamian beer”

They’re both light beer.
They taste like light beer.
Light. Beer.

Sands was a little better. But now we’re getting into details and the classic debate of Coors or Bud. Light beer is light beer.

Anyways, back to my main story. Me. Sam.
Ordering beer at the bar, a guy comes up to the bar next to us and orders a drink? Many drinks? Wasn’t really paying attention. All I noted were his shorts and his Hawaiian style button up he was sporting. Then I hear him exchanging words with the bartender. He never looks at us, but he knows we are there and is talking loud enough. Bar tender says something about his total, the guy responds and says something like “Not to mention the $80 I dropped at Señor Frogs earlier today”

Okay. No. If you know what Señor Frogs is, you understand this. Those of you who don’t, Señor Frogs is a total American tourist trap. I’ve mostly seen them from my time in Mexico. They play loud American music, cater to American things, etc. and to each their own. But oh my god.
The way the guy said this though, I wanted to laugh. He thought he sounded so cool. Already on a roll, after the bartender makes another response this guy responds with “Tell that to my accountant”

I think my eyes almost rolled out of my head. Sam and I looked at each other, rolled out eyes, laughed and commented on how much of a tool this guy just sounded like. To be honest, I’m pretty sure the word “douchebag” was used. I could not handle how pompous this guy sounded. We left and went back to our seats.

We drank our beer, fanned ourselves and made friends with the people sitting next to us from Maryland. Mother, her two daughters and son-in-law. They frequent the Bahamas often and the mother (from Mississippi actually) let us borrow her bug spray! Which was nice.. and we used.. on our legs. Didn’t spray our backs. Remember that.

Waiting for a server, 45 minutes, one beer and a Bahama Mama later, no server. We flag down a guy and just tell him we are ordering with him. The people next to is make a joke about how we are gonna wait another hour to get our food. They weren’t wrong. Service was slow. Real slow. Dad, you would have hated it.

Talking, drinking, waiting, looking around and across the seating area four guys sitting at a table, drinking. And then Sam says, “Oh look, and there’s douchebag with them” of course. We agree. Of course douchebag, his friends- these were the guys in the taxi. Of course. So what did we do?

We judged. We judged real hard. We stared at them, assessing their glasses, visors (yeah dude had a visor) and their demeanor with each other and judged. We guessed what they did for work. They looked younger, clearly Mr. Tell-My-Accountant thought he was coolest one there. We guessed them to be engineers, accountants, or maybe IT. After a solid debate on what they do for a living, and still no food, I tell Sam I will buy her two drinks if she just goes and asks them what they do so we can settle this. I didn’t need to bet her, that was dumb on my part, Sam is ballsy. Those of you that know her, she’s got no shame and no fear of things like this. I admire it greatly about her. Sam jumps right on up, walks over, and says “Hi friends. I’m Sam. My friend and I have a bet about where you’re all from and what you do for work. So, ready? Go.” And proceeds to point around in the circle to each one so they know it’s their turn.

No chill.
No shame.
Have to love it.

They’re all going around at this point, I can’t hear or see so I turn back to my drink awaiting Sam’s report. Next thing I know, there’s a guy, sitting in the chair across from me. Who says, “My friends and I have a bet about what you two do for a living” I laughed, told him to guess and figure it out.

Turns out they’re all part of the Navy. Jacob (dude who sat down across from me) admitted that they were the ones in the taxi who yelled at us, that it was douchebag (of course) who’s name is Yosh. Jacob apologized for Yosh, trying to justify his actions with “he’s only 19” I took this moment to educate him and explain that contrary to popular belief, that is 100% not a way to successful get women’s attention. The wrong approach.

A whole group of navy men, and one woman! were in port for a few days. We sort of? Made friends. Not with Yosh. That ship sailed. Ha get it? Cause they’re in the Navy?

We got our food- Conch, fried Barracuda, broiled Grouper, rice and peas, plantains, and mac cheese.

That’s right, friends! I ate barracuda, conch, and grouper! Look at me! Trying stuff. Conch was the best, followed by grouper. Wasn’t feeling the barracuda, it had bones in it! This morning I looked up pictures of all the fish I tried last night. They look gross. Never again.

We walked from one restaurant to the next, which had music playing and a dance floor. We hung out, hand fun with everyone and watched Alabama dance around and have fun. Alabama is what we called one of the guys all night. I don’t actually remember his real name, and he’s not from Alabama, but super into and all about Alabama and Alabama football. He kept saying “Roll tide!” All night. So, all I knew to do was call him Alabama.

It was a fun night, we walked back to our room and crashed.

Bahamas Day 2

June 16, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

WSo last night Sam and I went to bed, exhausted, at around 10pm. Didn’t set an alarm, nothing. Just figured we would wake up and start the day.

Well, we sure did wake up. And missed the day. Well, most of it. I finally got up out of bed in search of a clock, only to see my phone read 12:56. Extremely confused, I looked at the microwave which also read 12:56- but had the pm. It was 1:00 in the afternoon. I laughed and told Sam to guess what time it was. The minute we realized, we were up and moving. We made sandwiches and decided we would take the water ferry for a $6 round trip to Port Lucaya, just across the marina.

We got on the water taxi, had our ride, got off and picked a direction to walk. After being stopped by a woman who was trying to sell us on a timeshare presentation for gifts (dodged that bullet- that’s Dad!) we were in cute little town of restaurants and shops. There, the first thing we saw were daiquiris for sale in coconuts. Now that the start of our day had been 1:00 in the afternoon and now it was only 2:00, we decided to go for it. It was so. good. So good! A mango daiquiri in a fresh coconut- which we also ate, so stinking good. Everyone should have one. Only downfall: the coconut is super heavy, haha!

We walked around the different shops, talked to various shop owners, hunted for souvenirs and noted the places that looked cool and like something we could return to. We walked around for about 2 hours in the heat. It’s no joke! Around 4:00, we took the ferry back. Hung out a bit, ate some cold pizza and delt with the door.

The door.

The door is the door to our room, which thus far, has proven to be a total pain in the ass. It would jam and get stuck and take a lot of full body heaving at the door to get it open. I kid you not, it as a 10 minute ordeal to get through the door. We went to front, who sent someone. He said he would do something about it. We left for a bit, didn’t see anything, returned, same problem. We went back to the front, who sent someone else to look at it. I demonstrated for him, put the key in, pushed the handle down, push the door, it jams. He takes the key, puts it in, pulls the handle up, the door opens with ease.

……. really.

He laughed and said whoever came and cleaned it or fixed it must have put it back together backwards. But just to lift up and voila, problem solved.

After laughing about this whole stupid door situation, we ate some cold pizza, set up the slack line in our new found spot, and did some slack lining as the sun set. We could see storm clouds rolling in and lightening in the distance.

It was beautiful. Tomorrow- we set an alarm!

Bahamas Day 1

June 16, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

After a long day of things, Sam and I finally made it to Rose’s. We all grabbed dinner, dessert, and headed to the airport. Have any of you ever flown out of Long Beach Airport? We hadn’t. And this whole indoor/outdoor airport was really tripping us out. We could not get over it. I would post pictures, but I didn’t take any because I called my Mom instead to immediately ask if she has ever been to LGB and explain my astonishment to her.

We got on the plane, took our seats (whole row to ourselves- whaaaat!) plane took off. It flew. We landed. The end.

Ft. Lauderdale, we were suppose to have a four hour layover. No big deal. Except the airport was FREEZING and we were going to die. Really. So cold. We plugged in devices, charged up, until some fly attendant told us we couldn’t (we plugged it back in after he left) and waited. Read. Waited. Four hours came. Four hours went. No plane. Five and a half hours later, we got on the tiniest plane I have ever been on in my entire life. Tiny. Like, two seats on one side and one seat on the other. Propeller-blades-aren’t-even-encased tiny.

Teddy, Rose- you would have hated it.

We get on this tiny plane only to find a woman sitting in our seat because her seat was broken. Yeah. Broken seat on our plane. Flight attendant didn’t know what to do with us yet. Tiny plane. We moved into seats, until those people showed up, then somewhere else until those people showed up. Jumping around, dodging other people, the flight attendant finally tells us our seats are now the very two at the front. So there we sat. As one blade spun for a majority of the time, making us confused. Plane takes off, and it’s so loud. It’s got the loud hum that reminds me of an electric toothbrush, but amplified. Short flight, 28 minutes later, we were in the Bahamas. Sam was the first off the plane! It felt like we had just landed and were getting off a plane in Cuba- very Casablanca-y. We got off, greeted kindly by workers, and went to baggage and customs. As we walk into customs (the first ones in) a band immediately begins to play. Live music. In the airport. What a welcome!

Sam and I had been debating how to say the name of our resort. It’s Taino Beach.

Tay-no
Tai-no
Ta-ino

We had no idea. As the customs person asked where we were staying and we fumbled with words, admitting we are unsure of its pronunciation, she kind of smiled and told us it’s tay-no. Although,
I would argue at this point I have heard people say it tee-no. We commuted to
tay-no and that’s where we are at.

We pass customs, see a bunch of signs welcoming us to Bahamas and set out to look for a taxi. A gentleman grabbed us a cab, we got in. Our cab driver was really nice and quickly Sam and I learned how religious of a people Bahamians are. Also, if you were wondering (because we were) it’s pronounced ba-hay-me-in. Baha, Bahay.

Our driver was kind, explained a lot about the island, what to do, where to go and included a few religious references. He got us to our resort and we checked in. The front desk woman explained all of the activities at the resort, that there was a grocery run later, and how everything worked. We went to our room to get settled and figure out what to do.

Our room is adorable. Really great for a couple. Probably more designed for a couple, than two friends, but hey! We made it work. One queen bed in the middle of the room, with a tub behind it..? Yeah, we don’t know either. A glass shower that is open at the top to the rest of the room and a tiny half kitchen. Super cute. Hilarious for us. But it works and we don’t mind.

We scope out the resort and the beach. It’s unbelievable. Sam keeps calling it heaven or paradise. White sand. Blue water. Beauuuutiful. We decide to go get towels, sign up for the grocery run at 4 and then we’ll just hang out in the sun until then. While at the front to get our towels, we inquired about the restaurant on site. We asked the front desk lady what type of food the restaurant has. She responded with, “What do you mean?” Sam and I looked at each other confused and like “I don’t…know.. how else to… ask this..” and elaborated with like “does it have pizza, burgers, pasta” and she laughs and says oh yeah, there’s no pizza, but it’s not Bahamian food. Question answered.

We switch to our suits, go to the beach and just lay out and swim. All afternoon. Forgetting we are farther south. Forgetting we are closer to the sun. Forgetting all the rules and totally accidentally getting fried. Both of us. So red.

We get back, meet for the grocery run and get a van that shuttles us there. The shopping center has a market, Italian shop, pizza place, and a liquor store. We hit the Italian shop first. Not really impressed, we went to the grocery store. Oh Lordy, how fast we learned how jacked up prices are on Islands that require an import of goods.

A box of Wheat Thins- $7
4oz of Aloe Vera- $14
Cheerios- $8

Insane! It was also clearly a local market, locals were also grocery shopping. We picked and chose the most cost effective items, paid and left. We headed to the liquor store. Also expensive, but more reasonable. Picked up some Bahamian beer, Kalik, Heineken, and a bottle of wine. We got back in our shuttle and headed back to the resort.

We saw the pizza place had delivery, so we took a picture before we left. Got back, ordered pizza and took our pizza and a beer each out to the beach to enjoy the night. It was a beautiful warm night and pizza and beer was exactly what was needed. We’re also pretty sure we found a solid spot for hammocks and slack line…