This morning I was woken at 3am by the guys that went out drinking last night. The guy staying in the hotel room across from us was trying to unlock his door for about 5min. If I wasn't in my pjs I would have gone across to open it for him. The other two boys were obviously in the room above us, as all I could hear is what I could only describe as elephants walking on the roof. I don't know what the hell they were doing up there, but I could hear them riffling through bags and dropping stuff. Hmmmmm, interesting behaviour on the eve of a roll out day!!!
This morning I finished packing my bag with the last few bits and pieces that can only go in after I have finished getting ready. I must admit, I also feel a huge sense of relief when my bag zips shut. Sometimes it only just zips shut... so today was a good day as it zipped up easily. Phew, no need to repack!!!
A select few of us went for breakie this morning and we had made plans the night before to take our bags with us and meet the rest of the group at the pier. Where we get breakie is half way to the pier that we were leaving from, so it seems pointless going for breakie, walking back to the hotel to pick up your bags, only to walk past the breakie joint to get to our leaving destination.
We jumped on the ferry. This is where we saw the first glimpse of the boys that decided tequila shots were a good way to spend roll out eve. The two elephant boys looked terrible. So for today, these boys will be referred to as spewy and mcspewy. The minute spewy pulled out his blow up head pillow for the ferry trip I also pulled out one of my spew bags and gave it to him. There's no way I'm wearing his vomit for the rest of the day!! Mcspewy seemed to be doing ok with the ferry ride.
The boat trip was about 50 minutes. It was a nice smooth ride. The water was crystal clear today, and at times it looked just like glass!!
We arrived at the mainland and jumped straight in our private minibus. We were supposed to be catching 2 chicken buses today, however we all agreed that it would be better for us to chip in a bit extra to get a private transfer. So worth it!!
So today, our bus driver will be named speedy the third. We took off in the minivan like a bat out of hell!! Spewy was smart and he sat up the front of the bus clutching his spew bag.... Mcspewy not so smart. He was down the back of the bus, even worse he was sitting across the isle from me. I told him 'don't be a hero..... please let me know if you are going to be sick as I can calmly get out a sick bag for you.... Otherwise if you hold on 8 people will be wearing your spew'. I even did a reenactment comparing best case scenario and the worse case scenario just in case he couldn't process the words I was saying to him. He promised he would let me know early.
Meanwhile up the front speedy was hammering this minibus to capacity.... and the roads were again steep and windy. It didn't take long for mcspewy to ask for the sick bag. We also convinced him to move up the front next to spewy so he can see the road in front of him. He did. It made a huge difference, as neither one of them spewed.
4 hours driving at warp speed, we were lucky to occasionally catch a glimpse of the beautiful green rolling hills. We drove through the clouds at times which was magical, even if we were travelling at the speed of light! I honestly believe that speedy cut a 6 hour drive into 4 hours... Maybe they were paying for the minibus rental by the hour!!
When we arrived at Boquette, there was a light rain falling. So we dropped off our bags and got ready for our orientation walk. In the mean time, torrential rain began to fall... I'm guessing a rain coat will be the clothing of choice here.
We set off on our orientation walk, and the rain was hammering down. Needless to say we got a little wet.
We went and had a look at what activities they offered here in Boquette, I was interested in horse riding until they said that they could only do an afternoon ride. By all accounts it rains every afternoon, just like a monsoon, and for some reason I just don't trust horses in the rain... I'm scared that they will slip over. Let's face it.... the saying isn't 'as sturdy as mountain horse' is it??? And they don't offer mountain goat rides, so that option is out. I eventually booked in a tour, so you will have to stay tuned for that tomorrow.
After our orientation walk, Susan, Elena and I went in search for a cafe that our tour guide recommended. We came across a beautiful looking coffee shop and just assumed that it was the one she was talking about. So in we went. We ordered a cacaochino and a slice of cake and sat in our lounge chairs falling more and more in love with the cafe.
The cacaochino was a coffee and cacao mix.... On the top was some cafe art.... How fitting mine appeared and it was a butterfly. Elena's was a teddy bear. We were soon joined by our tour leader Lisa, who let us know that this wasn't the coffee shop she recommended, however the one she did recommend was closed today anyway..... So she also joined us for a drink and cake. Then another two from our tour group walked past and joined as well!! The 3 of them finished their drinks and left, and Elena, Susan and myself enjoyed our coffee. We thought we would try and outlast the rain.... however it looked like it had set in well and truly, so we decided to make a run for it. A soon as we left the cafe, Elena suggested that we jump in a taxi that was parked on the side of the road... however after seeing how smashed up and dinted the front of the taxi was, we were all in agreeance that we would be safer running than what we would in his cab.
We were like panthers, running from shop front to shop front. We managed to stay fairly dry. That was until we reached the road that our hotel was on. Two blocks is all we had to make.... we started running down the street and soon realised that this street was in fact a river. The very smart locals were all standing under shelter laughing at us!! It then just got to the point that we were officially wet. It was at that stage that a bus drove past and splashed a puddle all over me.... that just made it official. I knew the same was true for the other girls.... as as soon as I realised that I was wet I just stopped running and turned around to find Elena trying to recover her thongs from a puddle (and for my none Australian friends I actually mean flip flops and not a G-string) and Susan running and jumping in the puddles. Yep, we had all given up hope of staying dryish.
The rain has set in.... And our dinner plans turned from going somewhere that looks nice and yummy to somewhere that is close. Dinner was great.... Brilliant company, lovely conversation and quite a few laughs!!!
We were walking back to the hotel, when that friggen air raid siren went off. What the hell..... is there a cyclone coming, is the volcano about to erupt?? No, once again it is just letting us know that it's 9pm. Of course it is. The locals must laugh so hard at us tourists, watching us drop our bundles everytime the siren goes off!! The most important question that Elena asked the local was if it was going to go off in the morning, are we going to be woken up at 6am by this thing?
No we are not!! Yay!! Midday is the next time that we shall here that stupid thing!! Hear that... That us the sound of me fist pumping the air!!!