Day 6 - What's a "Sherpa"?

(By Tiff) Brock left early again to help out on the Sea Monkey…this morning, Jude (Scottish Dive Instructor) was on a different boat, but another Instructor, Kyle, was on board with Brock & Chris. Kyle is from Palestine, TX … so Brock had an East Texas connection with him. They went to a site called the Ledges that had big southern sting rays at least 5 feet across. Stingrays are so graceful… imagine huge pancakes with tails and little eye balls on top. Today a customer on the boat asked Brock what another word for “Divemaster” is? … the customer answered “Sherpa” … Brock proceeded to ask the Brit (Chris) what Sherpa means … apparently Sherpa is a Tibetan dude who carries all your crap to the top of the mountain … thanks for the compliment mr. customer … oh well … after this week Brock now truly appreciates the people that take us diving on vacations … empty tanks get heavier and heavier at the end of every day … but somehow empty Caribes are not such a struggle … Another lesson for the day is that all 10-13 year old kids are little smart-arses … they don’t teach you that in DM class.

This morning was another late one for me…lots of sleeping in this trip…it’s nice! I had to turn in our little Suzie-Q (the Suzuki we rented because they needed it back), but was able to go through another rental company, L&S, to get an Ignis…”a what?”, you ask…I have no idea, but it’s like the toy version of the Suzuki and it’s called an Ignis. I started calling it Ignacio because I thought it sounded sexier…the poor thing is still a POS (Piece of Shizzle), sexy or not. So I picked Brock up around 1 in the new digs and we headed to Leverick Bay for lunch. This was the only part of the island we hadn’t been on…it’s on the north side, closer to where the sailboats & yachts hang out…but not really any pretty beaches, just a waterfront bar called Jumbie’s where we got some excellent lobster quesadillas.

After we walked around Leverick Bay (there is a whole complex of vacation rentals and shops for people who stay there) we headed back to the south side of the island. Came back to the condo for a quick change and then it was off to the Baths. We went through the caves and out the other side to Devil’s Bay beach where we got in and swam a little. Then on the way back, because it was pretty late, we basically had the caves to ourselves…so we got to take some time going through the cool boulder formations and wading in some of the pools that form there. It is still one of the most beautiful places ever!

We thought we were going to eat at The Top of the Baths, a kind of touristy restaurant ,but we weren’t feeling it, so instead we stopped at Mad Dog right down the road for some drinks. It was like we were in someone’s house…everyone there knew each other and they had a big wraparound porch…so we just sat on the porch and listened to everyone’s stories. We made friends with a local who had the cutest kid named Remy who was all over the place…he was hilarious to watch. After a couple of drinks, we made our way down the road a little more…to a place that didn’t look like it would necessarily be a good dinner place. But it looked local, and we were in the mood to be spontaneous, so we stopped at LSL Bakery & Restaurant (Sign said “We Specialize in Local Food”). You walk in and it’s like a bakery with fresh baked goods in the glass case, but they also have a full dinner menu, that was quite good I might add. We ordered shrimp banana curry, black bean soup, and conch fritters as well as a generous portion of bread pudding to go…all in all, great choice, and we got to enjoy it all on our candlelit back porch! Looking forward to tomorrow…I have a massage scheduled…yippee!!