Dave-a-roni's trip report, part 3

[Dave-a-roni]

Day 5

What? You want more Bananaquits?? Of course I have some pictures... It's almost become a morning ritual now with my father in law, were the 1st to get up in the morning. We drink our coffee and watch Bananaquits, he laughs at me for filling half my camera's memory card with them.

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Today my wife and I kind of decided for everyone what beach we were going to do today, and that would be Maho. We've never been there and have heard so much. But, of course because there was so many people with somewhat differing idea's, we split in two different directions today (as usual) One group to Coral bay, and the other straight to Maho. The Coral bay group was Me and my wife (again), both my niece's Abby and Melissa, my nephew Pete, and my Mother & Father-Laws to go see Drunk bay and eat at the Aqua Bistro (the group wanted to see Drunk bay after I told them about it from yesterday, and experience the laid back countryside of Coral bay) I didn't mind going out a 2nd time, because I was determined to tackle the Ram's Head trail that I miss yesterday! The plan was to meet the other van/group at Maho after we were done.
On the drive out we saw this enormous pig just outside Coral bay, which I saw last time I was here in 2005, funny she's still around.

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Everyone has this pic of course, don't you always feel like the one you have is the best?...
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And the view from Bordueax was awesome as usual!
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Ahh yes... Coral bay, where my wife and I honeymooned in 2005. We missed quiet Coral Bay in comparison to crammed Cruz. Once you go Coral bay, you always love Coral bay... we can never get enough of it. The others were impressed at the view and found the east side of the island much more laid back, they loved all the animals, and the roads in much better condition.

So... let's skip to Saltpond bay, and Drunk bay. My father in law is a big man, tall and round, and sweats so bad that he sweats while he eats (no joke). We thought he may have a hard time walking in the sun to Saltpond bay and Drunk bay, but he was fine. Everyone was blown away by the view of Saltpond bay, except my wife, for some reason she hates it. I love it, it's so unique and has much more texture than the other "white sand beaches", I like the coral chunks that make up the beach.

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Everyone loved Drunk. We spent some time here and my nieces and nephew made Coral people.
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I checked mine again and needed a little fix'in from one day... and I added a beard
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Here's a crab I spotted, very nimble.
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We headed back to play around at Saltpond bay as I went and conquer the Ram's head trail. It was quite and amazing hike for those of you who have never done it. Lot's of variety of terrain, goes up and down, crosses a pebbly beach, ten rises to an amazing view of the Flanagan Passage and the Caribbean Sea. Well worth the work. I'd rate it in my top 3 hikes for sure.

A view from the trail into Saltpond
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And a handfull of trail pics.
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A cool Coral Octopus on the trail (beach portion)
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Me on Rams Head... got to love those gorrilapods... they help on the trail when your by yourself! (Thanks chicagoans, you were right, they're great)
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Now I'll skip on to Maho. We met the other group there, but left after about an hour. I'll probably have a lot of hate mail after saying this, but we weren't too impressed with Maho as far as the beach goes. I'd personally say however that the snorkeling was great at Maho point (thanks to everyone's recommendation on the forum for that!) But, the 1st group had been here half the day, and we were ready to do another beach. And the votes went to Hawksnest... democracy in action. It was a short stay anyway, about an hour of floating it Hawksnest's crystal clear water. This is starting to be our favorite beach, so photogenic.

Tonight was another "Survivor challenge", put together this time by the other team. Can I just say that we REALLY got our butts kicked. It had to do with being blind-folded and throwing an object into a floating bucket in the Villa pool with guidance of your fellow tribe members... wow our tribe sucks. 2 loses in a row. Tomorrow we make up a challenge.


Day 6
No, I'm not getting sick of those Bananaquits! So here!

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Mission of day 6? Trunk, Iguana feeding at the Westin. Ok. Trunk was my wife and I's favorite beach last time, so couldn't wait to show everyone, heck they kept seeing it on the overlook, they couldn't wait.
This morning , my wife, my sister-in-law and I put together a Survivor Challenge to do while we at Trunk. This is the Challenge we whipped together (I hope you can follow) We tied rope that we found at Drunk bay around 6 small rocks, all the same length, all knotted together and wrapped around the individual rocks. They were laid out in a row in different depths in Trunk. 2 feet, 4 feet, 6-7 feet. Each tribe gets 3 rocks to untie, they race out to untie each string from the rocks (underwater only) and can't return the beach with out their untied strings. Once that is done, they can start digging for their puzzle pieces buried in 1 foot of sand in a circle. Then they race to put the puzzle together, 1st one wins. My wife made the puzzles out of 2 cereal boxes.
We won! Yeah baby!

Here's some digging of the puzzle peices.
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Here's putting the puzzle together (Too windy!)
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Everyone thought Trunk was incredible
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I got a few nice pics of fish were I was actually able to keep still enough to get a good pic.
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After Trunk, we went back the Villa, cleaned up and headed right back out for The Westin, which was a 2 minute drive from our Villa. Again, you guys on the forum filled me in on the Iguana feeding that I knew nothing about (thanks!), so everyone but 2 of us went. It was really, really, really cool. Wait, did I say it was cool?... no I didn't... it was cool! They looked so mean and aggressive, but they were quite gentle and used to us silly humans.

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Here's the Westin's bush cat named Snorkel. He came in to check up on my wife and I as we ate some Westin grub (You may have seen him (her) in my video)
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After the feeding and other iguana shenanigans we all sat for some alcohol at the Westins bar near the pool and talked about the Survivor challenge, word around the campfire was that a few didn't like the Challenge.

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As everyone was being lazy around the villa after dinner, I got the hiking itch. I took off in one of the vans and drove off to Peace Hill for a quick exploration. I hiked up to the ruined windmill

Here's me at the windmill, would have liked to have seen that huge statue that used to be here in the day before 1995.
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Then followed the TrailBandit map down a trail to Dennis bay, the beginning of the trail was infested with night blooming cirus catus.... it was all over eveything and was very weird to walk through so much if it. I felt as it was going to come to life like the apple trees in the Wizard of Oz.

I hung out at Denis bay for a while and took pictures.
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[Tracy in WI]

Great report Dave and great pictures. I'm impressed with your creative Survivor challenges! SOunds like fun

Tracy

[liamsaunt]

I am really enjoying your report. It's great that you were able to keep such a large group organized and harmonious!

[sandollar]

Love the underwater pictures too - Thanks for sharing and giving us our Monday morning fix!

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[Neeners]

What a great trip report, and I especially loved the pictures. I had no idea about the iguana feedings...

[XOXO]

Great trip report. Last vacation we stayed near the Westin--I wish I knew about the feedings!!! We are staying on the east end this time but might need to plan a trip into Cruz to do it!

I enjoyed your report and pictures!

Gina

[Dave-a-roni]

The Iguana feedings were really neat, I highly recommend if your not afraid of them. I don't know how one can be afraid of a vegatarian lizard, but what do I know The feedings are mon-fri right behind the beach at some sort of court yard, at 3:00. A Westin employee comes out with kitchen vegatable scraps and tosses the scraps at the iguanas, your free to take some and feed them yourself if you like. The little kids love it too. Iguana's are everywhere at the Westin, they're like squirls, in the trees and bushes, running across the lawns.
Here's some more pics.

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[JT]

Nice pics & reports, Dave! Real glad you made it over to the ISland Art Gallery a.k.a. as Drunk Bay, and good joss for the Ram Head Trail. You'll never regret doing it,eh?

[California Girl]

Another excellent report. I don't want them to end! Your Survivor Challenges just crack me up... they're uber-creative! Love, love the pic of Dennis Bay...gorgeous!

[sea-nile]

Wonderful report and pictures! I love the coral people and octopus!

[SusanNJ]

Everyone has this pic of course, don't you always feel like the one you have is the best?</a>

I just had to laugh when I read this. You are SO RIGHT!!! That's a great picture BTW of the Trunk Bay overlook but I think mine's better - LOL!

Great trip reports. Keep them coming.

[wontongirl]

Loved the trip report Davaroni. I picked a great day to get on the forum. Really enjoyed reading it.
We are huge Survivor fans and I loved reading of your challenges. We have Survivor night at our house too. We drink out of coconut cups and our dinner usually follows the theme of the season. We wear buffs for the current season or our favorite one and print out bios of all the players for everyone. The kids love it. There freinds are always wanting to come over on Thursday nights. We only let the quiet ones come. Ha! Sometimes its really hard to hear those conversations on the show. Ok , I realize we are a little manic! September 18 is the premiere of Gabon in western Africa. We can't wait - gotta start getting my menus ready.

[California Girl]

Hey Wonton! Welcome back! Where ya been??

[Barb Y]

Dave- I am loving your reports. Your pictures are beautiful. I am a huge Survivor fan too. I love that you created your own challenges. Sounds like you were all having lots of fun. I am looking forward to the next segment. Thanks!