Hitchhiking to Hatchet Bay

Since today is the last day of lessons for our Week 2 Swimmers, we arranged the schedule so we could have a little time to explore in the morning. We made another trip to the post office (it was open this time!). On our way to the bakery, we passed the house where the woman who bakes amazing bread is suppose to live and three little kids were knocking on her door to see if she had any loafs left. She did! Ana bought a loaf. It really was amazing. It tasted a little bit like a croissant, but more bread-like. You'd have to try some to know what I mean! Sadly, the bakery was closed, but after having a piece of bread we didn't mind too much.

We had decided to try to hitchhike to Hatchet Bay this morning and see what else was in that settlement. We walked for a mile or two before a truck picked us up. Hitchhiking is definitely a little awkward, but we are repeatedly told that it is a natural thing to do here. The man was very nice. He showed us where the Hatchet Bay Caves are so we can check them out at another time. He also said that there wasn't much to see or do in Hatchet Bay, but we still wanted to look around anyways. We strolled around the town to see what there was to do there. There were probably fewer stores than Gregory Town, but the waterfront was worth the trip. Ana and I investigated one of the cliffs and found 'some stairs to nowhere.'

We went in a couple little shops and ended up talking to a woman in a clothing store. She had a table with CDs strewn across it, so we figured we'd ask her where we could find a place to get some local music. There is a lot of 'island-sounding' music, but Ana and I were interested in getting some music with more of a reggae/hip-hop sound. The woman told us that there was a man down the street who could possibly burn us a CD of island music. It turns out, he's the DJ at the Sea Side Nightclub we've heard so much about. The woman, whose name was Tanile, walked us down to his house and introduced us. He told us to come back in a half an hour or so and he'd have one for us. In the meantime, Ana and I went to go visit Double D at the internet cafe and to get a smoothie. I was definitely craving a smoothie...

We went back to the house and he had our CDs! I was so excited! Island music! Yay!! We decided we should start heading back to Gregory Town for our afternoon lessons. It was so incredibly hot out in the sun. It seems like when you're hitchhiking, the cars are always going in the opposite direction. A man with an air-conditioned truck picked us up after we had been walking for about ten minutes. We were so thankful! I don't think I could have walked much further in this heat!

So, we are getting ready for afternoon lessons and our rendezvous with Rick and Barbara (the couple from Georgia) later on this evening. Yesterday afternoon, Barbara invited Ana and I out to eat at the Seven Seas Restaurant in Bogue. They are leaving to go back to the states soon and wanted to treat us out to dinner. Hopefully we'll still be able to go to Elvina's tonight!

Still can't call the States... but, keep the emails coming! :)