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Friday July 5 - I woke up early today, as I do every day. It would have been nice to sleep in, but alas. I thought about leaving for an early ferry to Anguilla, but it was quite cloudy and windy, and I wasn’t sure if it would be the right choice for the day. It was actually so windy last night it sounded like a hurricane, more than on the nights before. I decided to stay in for the morning, or possibly for the whole day, depending on the weather. All sun would be bad, since it is so hot, but mostly because I am starting to burn, even with sunscreen. But cloudy and windy is not a good beach day either, so what’s a girl to do?
I skyped with Jeroen and my mom, watched some tv, and then decided I may as well head out and do something. I almost stayed and tried another beach here on the island, but in the end, I went for the public ferry to Anguilla. I got a bus to Marigot and found the check-in area for the ferry. I had to register for the boat, pay $5 as a tax
for leaving, and have my passport stamped out before sitting in the waiting room. I arrived around 11:00 and the boat was supposed to leave at 11:15. Of course, it left about 15 minutes later, but it was no big deal. The boat was small, with a maximum of 34 passengers, and I sat in the back. The fee for the boat was $20, collected on board. Due to the wind, the seas were quite rough, and it felt a little bad. I was glad I had taken a pill for seasickness. Water was also occasionally splashing me from a closed window, but I scooted down further closer to the people next to me and it was ok. The ride was only about 20 minutes long, and in Anguilla they had to stamp my passport in. Anguilla is a British territory, meaning I left Europe for Europe, but in the Caribbean. Weird.
The next step was to get a taxi. The taxis have a flat rate depending on how many zones you cross, or you can hire them for a tour of the island. I think it is $55 for a two-hour tour. It would have been nice to
see more beaches, but with only a half day I decided to go to Rendezvous Beach instead of spending time driving around. From google, it looked like it might have trees to sit under and it was pretty close to the ferry, so it was “only” $14 in the taxi to get there. Two dollars/minute is not really cheap, but it is what it is. I asked the taxi to pick me up again at 4pm, so I could take the 4:30pm ferry home.
I started walking on the beach, looking for a place to sit. All I wanted was a place out of the sun, and ideally out of the wind. It was beautiful, but it was really windy there with lots of waves in the ocean. I walked for about 30 minutes, past the tourist restaurants and beach loungers to a point with private property until I couldn’t go any further. I was starting to worry I wouldn’t find a good spot when I looked up, away from the water, and saw a small opening in a dune. I walked up there and found my spot. It was on the back of a golf club, and there
was a perfect place that was protected from the sun and the wind and I could still see the water, even when lying down to read. I wasn’t sure if it was allowed, because it must have been on golf property, but I didn’t see anyone, so I took the chance and spread out my sarong to lay on. I stayed in the same place until 3:30pm, when I took another seasickness tablet and pack up my stuff for the walk back to the taxi. It was really relaxing and I never saw one person the whole time, not golfing and not on the beach near me. It was great. I'm sure the other 32 beaches in Anguilla are lovely, but I'm really glad I stayed put for such a short time.
The taxi picked me up just before 4pm and we headed back to the ferry. I had to register, pay $20 for the ticket and $8 for departure tax. The ferry left a little late, as expected, but I was back in Marigot by 5pm. The bus was slow going, due to traffic, which I was well acquainted with by now. Like yesterday, I got off the
bus at the grocery store, bought more tuna and an ice cream and a yogurt for breakfast tomorrow, and walked back to my place. I said hi to Ken, the security guard and went through my nightly routine - wash some clothes, shower, cook tuna and pasta (5 nights in a row), write the blog, skype, watch tv, etc. I even washed my hair tonight, for the first time(!) on this trip. It was well needed. Somehow there’s barely enough time to do these things, let alone the planning I still need to do.
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