the flight leaving SJC was late enough that there was nearly no layover at JFK. for some reason jetblue had lost their collective mind and thought that my accomplice had missed the flight we'd just come in on, which is doubly perplexing considering that reservation had been made online and mine hadn't.
a short 90 minute flight had us touching down in bermuda, a country i've never been to before (and probably would not have ever gone to, if not for jetblue).
forget all the propaganda countries tell you about themselves and each other and consider simply this.
all foreigners traveling into the US, are required to submit to a retinal scan and/or fingerprinting on entry to the country. you're warned, repeatedly, not to bring in arms of any type or dangerous foods such as mangosteens.
in bermuda we had a guy that looked like an 80 year-old JJ walker playing a soulful version of "the girl from ipanema" on a tricked out casio.
you tell me the land of the free and the home of the brave.
(i imparted that to the customs agent as she was working my papers and got a tremendous smile and a laugh.)
bermuda is renowned for being Expensive. it's impossible to rent a car here, scooters will run you on the order of $50 US (which is also $50 BD) a day.
forget that. in fairly short order i scored local currency to ride the bus into town and get transport passes .... all buses and ferries, unlimited, for three days, $28.
the first impressions hit pretty hard. it definitely feels caribbean here, but there's a much higher sense of order and purpose than, say, jamaica. things are clean clean. people are super-friendly. houses are all smart and freshly painted. roads are skin-you-inside-out narrow. traffic is modest and well behaved (although you hear a lot of horns as people honk at everyone else they know). everything works. everything gets done.
english is the language here, although there's a patios that sounds a bit like a cross between british accented english and 70's american jive that's easy to understand (and lovely to listen to) but would be impossible for me to speak.
the weather is warm and humid without being openly hostile.
we're staying at the 9 beaches, a place my accomplice had rooted out online. eco-friendly, with sailcloth for walls.
me, walking from the bus stop, to 9 beaches
(first time i've ever put a pic of myself on a blog)
the closest bus stop is about a mile from the resort and as we were walking down the street a white woman pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride. of course i do. i always take rides offered to me in foreign lands -- it's always been the way i've learned the most.
on the ten minutes in we learned she's canadian by birth but lives here as part of her husband's job as a HVAC coordinator. she loves it here. when i asked her if there's anything i should know about that wouldn't be otherwise obvious she warned of the classic tourist stuff: pickpockets and overcharging. i was disappointed. i was hoping she was going to talk about something weird to see or eat.
our cabana wasn't ready when we got in, so we sat in the restaurant and shared a ham and cheese sandwich and an order of conch fritters. both were good -- the conch extremely fresh.
conch fritters with jerk mayonnaise
here's my view from the patio door:
and here's the reason you want a camera with zoom
the bad thing about night travel (planes and trains) is you don't gain a full day of activity the next day ... you're always a little beat. we were both tired so when my accomplice suggested a nap, i quickly agreed and fell immediately into a four hour stupor with the back doors and windows open, stripped to my shorts. it just felt too hot to my inner being to do anything else.
we woke up at sunset and discovered that maybe there was a special event in the dockyard (first monday of every month, ending today), but the front desk seemed fairly certain in that say-no-but-don't-upset-the-guests way that it wasn't.
we went to the high street and waited a bit for a bus that could only take us half way ... so we went ... but then were stuck in the netherlands waiting for as much as a half an hour. things stay open pretty late here ... many restaurants are good 'til 22:00 ... but we were going to end up pushing the time envelope. i flagged the first lit taxi i saw and the driver's pal said, "where are you goeen, mahn? dockyards? sure. climb in. wheel just geev you a ride. no charge. weer a-goin' there ourselves."
i insisted that the woman who was stranded with us jump in too and off we went. i talked about jetblue's pass, which they both thought was impressive. the driver said, "oh, yee know, mahn. back in tha day, there was easteern airlines and they had a fly anywhere pass. i deed that, ya know, oh yes, i deed. but that was back in tha day, you know?"
there's a laugh here that people do, it sounds sort of like santa claus if he was trying to convince you to buy cola nuts. deep, hardy and unbounded. i love it and got them both to bust up a couple of times driving in. (my best joke: it cost $600 US, which i believe you call '$600.'")
once in the dockyards we prowled a bit looking for the "event," but it clearly wasn't happening, so we went back to the restaurant where the cabbie and his pal had gone. the upside is that they had said it was good and they themselves went (they obviously weren't shilling for the place). the bad news is it is the closest restaurant to the cruise ships (read: expensive and maybe dumb).
my accomplice and i split an order of rockfish bermuda style (dark rum sauce, bananas and almonds). it was okay. the fish was flavorful enough, but the rum sauce was lacking ... it tasted like a very basic fish braising sauce.
for dessert we split a rum cake and that was grab you by the tonsils good. consistency of a heavy coffee cake, very mild ginger overtone, with a strong rum sauce. yum.
we had an hour to kill before the last bus of the night so we wandered and i shot some pix.
on the walk home the tree frogs were nearly deafening. there are at least three species, one that whistles downward, one that sounds like radar blips and another that's fairly shrill. they are so great.
as you walk along in the bermudan dark, no cars, very little light, the constant beeping of electric frogs, humidity just raising a sweat on your brow, the air deep and rich in your lungs, you wonder how you could ever have lost your temper, how you can have anything but love for all of your fellow man, how great it is to be awed by the world around you and why every single thing in the past seemed so complicated.
(nearly dark, this is actually a 15 second exposure)
shot this one by accident, but loved it
