Hopetown, Bahamas 

My International education has been coming along nicely.  I have learned that Hopetown has the smallest cars to fit their teeny tiny streets which is awesome.  They use very little gas and the island isn’t that big.  Compared to the USA and the consistent, truck/SUV fetish everyone seems to have, it is a bit startling to see them.  They all seem to look like cartoon cars.  Also, when walking home one night after dark, there are NO streetlights…at all.  It was so dark I could hardly find the road.  These are things we take for granted and come across as surprising to me in my sheltered little life.

Dark as in DARK

One of the bigger vans in the island

Then there are the prices for everything food & drink related.  Beer is $80 a case which makes me miss Walmart where cheap beer can be had for less than $20 a case.  We happened to find and excellent deal at one of the restaurants here selling out their stock of Island Beer for $25 a case so we bought 4 cases so far and may go back for more.  Needless to say, we did not provision our beer very well.  A box of Cheerios is $9.27 here vs. $3.98 at home and they heavily tax cheese which makes me sad.  Even hummus is $11 for a little package of Sabra.  That is quite the duty.

Speaking of duty, our boat parts are in and we decided to head back to Marsh Harbour for another lovely walk and to pick them up.  As long as we were at it we could pick the SIM card we didn’t get last time.  We paid $241 total for the boat parts plus $86 in shipping then add the duty of $170.  OUCH!  We left thinking we had every boat part known to man then the only thing we don’t have breaks.  Of course, Murphy strikes again.  Sadly, it is a necessary item we cannot run the engine without so…$497 poorer, we will get our parts.  Well at least we had snorkeled the prior day and have seen the best reef we have seen since “The Indians” in BVI.  Ron had caught 4 Lobsters with his handy little Hawaiian sling, and he was eating high on the hog…for free!  He ended up trading two for chocolate cake.  Not sure how I made out on this deal but cake?  Smack the donkey!  I love traveling!

Biggest Stag horn coral we have seen

Very heathy reef

Dinner for a few days

The day after our snorkel adventure, we headed back to Hopetown Harbour to pick up our mooring again since we were full on water, needed to remedy our trash situation (which was getting full), and some weather was heading our way.  We planned to fix the engine and wait this out before heading south to Little Harbour.  Ron let me drive the boat back into the harbor and I only scared one boat on my way in.  Not too terrible for a first time.  I have driven the boat before a little but only our where I have nothing to hit.  there is a bit different and let’s say, I have some practice to do.  I handed the reins back to Ron to pick up the mooring, so we didn’t lose the other engine!

As we were tromping around Marsh Harbour the next day in a full downpour, we were joking about our new mode of transportation…walking, which somehow just became funny.  The good news is our boat parts were in, we attempted to get a SIM card with no avail, and we made a last stop at Maxwell’s grocery.  Strikes me as funny again but did you know they still make Sanka Coffee and Tang?  I think they stopped selling these in the U.S. back in the 70’s.  I am not knocking this as Funyuns had made their way into my cart which ironically have 0% onions!?!  Anyway, while heading back waiting on the Ferry we met another older gentleman who as we chatted with as he downed a 6 pack of beer in less than an hour.  That there is talent, but he said it fixed his back issues so there you have it.  The secret cure.

One small seal stopped everything

$500 worth of boat parts. We celebrate cheaply