Note: For additional photos please see the four (4) online photo albums at:
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/ctssyount/1/tpod.html.
Admiralty Bay and cresent-shaped Lower Bay beach in the background (Princess Margaret Beach is between the two headlands just before Lower Bay).
I woke up later than usual this morning, around 7am, and to the sounds of birds chirping and daylight starting to gently seep in softly through the windows. The Passion Fruit Suite features a large bedroom with high, whitewashed, wood-beamed ceilings complete with turning ceiling fan, a very comfy king-size four poster bed, large master bath and “walk in” shower, and quadruple set of folding French doors with white wooden shutters leading to the large porch and poolside. The overall gracious and well-cared-for presentation makes me feel like I’ve stepped back in time to a tropical plantation estate.
I walked to the patio doors and slipped the bolts at the top and bottom of each door holding it in place, and then folded back the shuttered doors to enjoy the view of the porch leading to the plunge pool and palms in the foreground, and the lush hillside vegetation and sparkling harbor below in the background.
View of windward side and Atlantic Ocean (leeward side is Caribbean Sea)
Aqua also features wireless Internet access, so I spent the next couple of hours relaxing in my room, reading and replying to emails to handle business details with TMM, my contacts at the Sunshine School, and other details back in Maine. Later in the day I slip into shorts and a lightweight shirt and my favorite “island flops” and hike into town for some groceries so I can cook most meals in the full kitchen. While there I run into a friend who introduces me to a couple who work with literacy on the island, something near and dear to my heart since I love to read and write. We start to chat about how I might get involved, and she mentions that she and her husband are going home tomorrow. When I ask where home is, I’m surprised to hear her answer “Maine.” It turns out they live in Kennebunkport, only about 45 minutes south of Portland. We make plans to meet in Maine to talk about working together on the small island of Bequia, thousands of miles away. Life is full of so many little ironies.
Lisa had offered to drive me back, but I had some other errands to run and
wanted to walk for the exercise. With my load of groceries later in the day, the climb up the long hill from town gives me a great (and sweaty) workout. During my stay I am to make many climbs up that hill because I try to walk wherever I go instead of using Lisa’s car. From Lisa’s place it’s only a few minute walk to the beach in town, and even the more remote beaches of Admiralty Bay, like Princess Margaret and Lower Bay, can be reached by walking along the road for only a mile or so.Beach outings and driving around the island
One of my favorite outings while at Aqua was to walk with Razmataz and Saffron to the beach at Lower Bay. Once there we’d walk along the sandy shore and swim together among the waves rolling in from the Bequia Channel. These outings reminded me of many similar walks Tim and I make with our dogs along nearby beaches in Maine. I’m glad Tim is there to continue those walks with Sammie, Kenman and Jaz, but I look forward to joining them when I return.
Being able to swim comfortably with Raz and Saf in the warm waters of Bequia makes me wish we could do the same in Maine. And of course we CAN do that, and Miss Samantha especially seems to think nothing of wading into the water up to her neck and paddling away at our Willard Beach. But not having that thick Husky skin ourselves, when we join them in wading in the chilly (50-something degree) water, it tends to quickly make our skin frosty red and our lips a deep shade of blue. :>) So we don’t join them in the water as often as we might like.
On the day of Lisa’s departure I rode with her to the airport on the other side of the island near Paget Farm, and then drove her car back to Aqua. I had purchased a temporary (6 month) driver’s license as required by SVG law so I could drive legally while I was there. Now all I had to do was get used to driving someone else’s car which I seldom to, and to driving on the left side of the road and on unfamiliar roads.
As you might expect, many roads here are quite narrow and windy, and even though they often include “turn outs” here and there to allow another car to get
by, if you meet another vehicle in the areas where it’s too narrow for both, then someone must back up until a turnout is reached. That can be a rather daunting task, given the narrow roads and steep drop-offs on the hillsides with no guardrails. Most roads also have at least one side that simply ends when the edge drops into a deep concrete culvert designed to handle the water flow from rainy deluges common here at certain times. One of my biggest fears is misjudging the distance on the left side (since drivers sit on the right) and dropping a wheel off the edge and into the 2-foot-deep culvert. I’m not sure how much damage that would do to a vehicle, but I try not to think about that as I navigate the unfamiliar windy roads on my way back to Lisa’s place at Aqua.Raz and Saf resting on the tiled floor of my apartment. Must have been a hard day.
Typical Day Ashore
After Lisa’s departure for the U.S., I gradually developed my own daily routine. Since I tend to be an early riser and am typically up by 6 or 6:30am, I’d start most days by wandering through the apartment and opening all the shuttered windows and doors closed the night before to keep out mosquitos and other insects. Then Raz and Saf would follow me next door to Lisa's apartment where I'd feed them their morning kibble and dog bones and fill their outdoor water bowls for the day.
Rich snapped this photo of me on the less developed windward size of Bequia.
The gym is open from 8-8 most days, so just before 8am I’d collect water for gym guests by filling a large pitcher with ice and filtered water from the tap (no Poland Springs water delivery here so we do it the old fashioned way). Then with pitcher in hand, I’d walk down the concrete steps to the gym, open both doors and all the windows, turn on the lights and ceiling fans, and check the supplies in the bathroom. Then I’d dump the soiled gym towels in the washer to be washed and hung on the line later, and then go outside to turn on the water pump for the pool which also operates the automatic purification system and the infinity edge “waterfall” sound as the overflow drops into the rock holding and recirculation area below.
During these “opening” tasks, I’d leave the dogs free to follow me or stretch their legs and roam a bit as they chose, for once gym visitors began to arrive on most days I kept them more contained upstairs with me. Lisa has gates on both sides of the porch, so that left only the steps down from my apartment to worry about, so I rigged another “gate” with a baby gate and chair that left them the run of both porches and access to my apartment when I was home, but kept them contained upstairs and separate from gym guests below. 
The Gym
Lisa’s porch is bordered in the front by the roof of the apartment below, and the dogs are small enough they can squeeze through the railings onto the roof, and this has become a favorite spot of theirs, especially when home alone. They often sleep in the sun on the roof or watch the traffic on the road below, and if someone comes near the house they bark to let me know, so they were a great doorbell. I can understand why Lisa says many people refer to her place as “the one with the dogs on the roof.” 
The gym is currently based on the honor system and guests pay as they use it or when billed monthly, and since the gym is often unattended during the day when Lisa is out conducting other business (and the same for me when I was there), the gym log is the primary way Lisa knows who to bill or who was there. It’s great to see places where people still trust each other’s “honor” to do the right thing, and you don’t have to flash an ID or member card in order to gain access to something. How refreshing and “stepping back in time” is that? It’s great to know there are still places out there where people have the kind of self-emposed honesty and character that it takes to make that possible.
The windward (Atlantic) side is more deserty and has more rock and less "lush" vegetation.
When I happened to be in the apartment while the gym was open, I could typically tell when someone was onsite by the clang of the free weights hitting the concrete floor or the beeping of the electronic treadmills. That was my cue to wander down the steps when I had a chance with a fresh pitcher of water or more ice, to check the supply of cups and towels, to review the log to see if any fees needed to be collected while I was there. It was a pretty easy “job” that left me 
free time to do other things as I needed, so I think I could get used to house-sitting as a way of life part of the time.
Kenny uses a compass to cut open coconuts.
Of course I’m not alone at Aqua. Lisa must have a knack for finding good people to work with her, something evident by her part-time staff Kenny and Abbi. Abbi, Lisa’s housekeeper, is a lovely and very dedicated and hardworking young woman who comes in a few times a week as needed, and Kenny is the overall handyman and gardener of the Aqua grounds. While I was there Abbi took care of daily cleaning tasks and we shared some of the laundry tasks since things were typically drying on the line when she left for the day. Kenny did an awesome job of keeping the grounds looking pristine and lush, and that seems to include gathering the fruit from the onsite tropical plants.
One day when guests David and Lita were taking a break from working out in the gym, Kenny picked ripe coconuts from a nearby tree. Then he used a compass (like a machete) to cut them open so Abbi, David, Lita and I could drink the sweet milky water from inside and eat the soft white flesh. When I asked why the shells weren’t covered in the “hairy” brown husks like I expected, he explained there are green coconuts, red coconuts, and I believe one other which escapes me at the moment. Interesting. Life long learning is not just about school eh?
Later in the week I watched as Kenny brought up a long strand of green bananas (about 4 feet long and heavily laden with bananas) to hang them on Lisa’s side porch for ripening in the shade. For the few years Tim and I have planted a small organic vegetable garden in our back yard to reduce our produce budget and gain more control over how what we eat was grown. That’s been very rewarding (and cost effective), but it must be really cool to pick coconuts and bananas from a tree in your own yard. 
Excursion to see the rest of the island
Eventually I overcame my fear of dropping Lisa’s car into a culvert enough to drive around the island when needed. When Aqua guest Rich arrived from Oregon later in the week for a weeklong diving trip, I was able to drive him into town with his heavy diving gear so he could deposit it at the local dive shop.
Hegg Turtle Sanctuary near Spring, Bequia
We spent a couple of hours driving the windy and narrow roads leading to the other (windward) side of the island and it’s breathtaking windswept views. Thanks to the loan of Lisa’s car I finally had a chance to visit somewhere I’ve always wanted to go: the Hegg Turtle Sanctuary out past Spring, where a local resident is trying to save the Hawksbill and other sea turtles from extinction. In addition to the photos shown here, there are additional (and larger) photos shown in the online photo-blog noted below. That's all the entries I found time to write while in Bequia, but please see newer posts for whatever I might have posted more recently about Antigua or Maine.
More photos
There are limited entries in the blog about my second working trip to Bequi and Antigua in April because I didn’t seem to find much time to write during my stay. However, I did snap a number of photos when I could as shown here. If you’re interested the other photos can be viewed at your leisure in one of four (4) photo albums stored online at the photo blog:
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/ctssyount/1/tpod.html.
Cheers! cy
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