Day Four: The looming storm

We woke up Saturday morning to what we had anticipated the islands to offer... bright blue skies, warm weather, and surly waitstaff. We were totally excited to have the weather improve, as we were really looking forward to our horseback ride on the beach. When we went to breakfast, I was greeted to the distinctive sounds of people speaking Norwegian. Since you all know how common THAT is, I was eager to talk to them. I turned and asked the woman, in Norwegian mind you, "So where are you from?" (Implying which city in Norway.) She responded, "Norge." [Norwegian for Norway.] I then told her, "Well I knew THAT. I meant which city." She then realized that it was obvious that I knew she was from Norway since I'd asked her in Norwegian. We had a laugh about that, we then commented on how cold it had been and I told her about the local woman we were talking to who told us that she was FREEZING and when we commented that the water was warmer than the air, she responded, "I would have thought that there would have been ICE in the water!" The Norwegian lady just rolled her eyes and I told her, "Yeah, she does't even know REAL cold."

We met up with the horseride guide, who drove us to a secluded beach with her horses. Margaret and I were the only ones on this parrticular ride, so we were looking for a nice relaxing ride by ourselves. Traveling to the beach, we got to visit with the owner, who had the most amazing story. She was French, but had been a foreign exchange student in Tennessee, where she fell in love with America and decided to stay. She then fell in love with a rodeo clown and started traveling around to rodeos, which is when she trained a brahma bull to do tricks and did shows at the rodeo. The clown thing didn't last, and she eventually went on vacation in the Bahamas, where she met an islander, fell in love, married him, had a child, and started a horseback riding company. I'm sure it is every French parent's nightmare to see their little girl flit off to America and end up in the rodeo and then trying to earn a living horseback riding in the Caribbean. That's just under the nightmare Jerry Falwell felt when his son decided to go to Berkeley and study human evolution.


Anyway, back to the horse ride. It was inCREDible! The horses were nice, the weather was perfect, and we even got to ride in the ocean! No wonder the French lady decided to stay. We'd be willing to trade a lot to have that to look forward to every day. Margaret remarked, "from now on, when I need to go to my happy place, I'll be remembering this!" Phew! The horseback ride was her birthday present and from that comment, I was safe to assume that she liked it.

Near the end of the ride, we came across a bunch of buzzards and when we rode up to what they were picking at on the beach, all three of us had the same thought: a dead body! Talk about a perfect end to riding on a beach that was once frequented by pirates! As it turned out, it was only a dead dog. What a disappointment! Talk about a great story when we got back... not only pirate ships, but the remains of someone who had been forced to walk the plank! Oh well, maybe we'll see something like that the next time we go to Salt Lake.

After we got back from the ride, we went into the village and had some lunch. We saw a pirate wench statue, which I had to get my picture taken with that was a little too R-rated for this blog, but I got a picture of Margaret kissing it, which is safe for all viewers... even in Utah! (Even though the actual statue wouldn't be allowed in the state... what with the plunging neckline and she's wearing PANTS!

We went back to the hotel room and took a nap, only to wake up to some pretty brisk wind. We went do to the beach, since it was still sunny, but only could endure about 15 minutes because the wind was so cold. So much for my high hopes of getting some color to lord over my friends back home. As you can see from this picture, it's evident that I've been in Portland all winter as you can barely make out where the white Bahamian sands end and I begin. The cold drove us back to our hotel room, where we ended up just watching tv that evening and hoping for the best for our snorkelling trip the following day. Little did we know that the winds of doom were just beginning!