Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011:

Went riding around again today.  We drove down a couple roads just north of the condo looking for some complexes that I’ve seen condos for sale in.  As I’ve said before, finding a marked street is rare...and most of them have multiple names. But since the iPhone GPS isn’t working for some reason, we are just guessing where we are and driving blind. The good thing about that is when you do that…you can look around more.  And when you look around more, you see more things. Like goats. We saw some goats in the road just north of us. Plus a million chickens – roosters, hens and baby chicks! AAAACCCCKKK!!  I’m surprised we haven’t seen more dead animals on the road! 

… and if Gerald would drive a little slower, I could get some better pictures of the goats other than of their rear ends.  At home he drives 10mph…here he drives 45mph.  Which for here is FAST! Especially around curvy, narrow, unfamiliar roads! Plus he can’t drive and pay attention at the same time (just ask him), hence the “Nagagator” (me) has to give him directions.  And inevitably if and when I point out a road, he conveniently passes it … then says “did you want to go there?”!  So the pictures you see (unless we are at a stationary place) are generally “on the go” pictures!  =)

Anyway, back to exploring.  Initially we were trying to find how to get to the Salt River Bay National Park. Unfortunately… my iPhone GPS failed to indicate that the road to get there went through a gated community.  We never found how to get to that. But we did find the Columbus Landing historical site.  It’s kind of in the same area, but the map shows the landing on one side of the Bay and the Salt River Park on the other side.  We first stopped at the exact site where Columbus allegedly first landed during this second trip to the new world.  Not much there but a few signs.  The sign says you can still see parts of the “earthen fort” they built (after they decimated all the villagers) but it is so overgrown with weeds and trees, you can’t really see anything unless you go digging in the bushes. There is a long stretch of beach there (not real pretty) but it’s windy and cloudy so it doesn’t look so nice today.  

    

We spotted a small sign that said guest information.  Even though we weren’t sure if it was meant for residents or guests of the houses we followed the sign’s arrow up the dirt road. Guess what we found?  The Salt River Park Information Center! Up at the top of the hill, off a dirt road, with no signage…until you get to the gate itself.  The area said it was monitored by surveillance cameras, so we were just hoping not to get arrested for trespassing…then we find out it’s the public park! I assume its for both the historical site and the Park. Unfortunately it closed at 4, and it was about 7 minutes till…but the Ranger said we could get some pictures - quickly. Would be better if it was sunny!

It was a great view…and would probably be gorgeous if it was not cloudy and windy! The Information center itself looked pretty empty.  He said they had just restored it a couple months ago…but it looked like the still had lots more work to do (but that’s just me!).

We left the park and I made Gerald head back to a road that I saw that said East End Scenic Road.  (The West End Scenic Road is for 4WD only!)  We headed up the road and boy what views.  Can’t imagine the view on a beautiful clear day!  And if Gerald would slow down or stop…I could get a picture.  You can bet when Evonne and John get here…he will stop for her!

I’m trying to figure out where we are on these roads, but again (more like still) the GPS is not working on my iPhone. Some of these roads go nowhere, and turn to dirt quickly, and without a 4WD vehicle…I don’t want to go there.  We got honked at a couple times, but hey…they’ll get over it! (They clearly are not as friendly here as they are in Belize)  We ended up coming out on a familiar road.  A car that had been following us pulled up next to us (clearly we did not live there) and they were giving us some direction.  Back on familiar roads, we headed back towards home.

On the way we stopped in the grocery store (again).  This time I went in with Gerald.  As anyone knows who has shopped with him, it’s painful. So we got what we could, came home and Gerald made a salad for dinner.  It was pretty good too.

Well, I’ve had enough for today. Gonna take some ibuprophen, prop my foot up and get some rest.