A Walk up the Hill (Mountain) : Brought to you by Sally

Ok, so we had a temporary moment of insanity today.  At midday (1:00) we decide to hike up the road by Josephine’s Greens.  We have walked as far as Josephine’s many times to buy delicious, flavorful salad greens and tomatoes, among various other healthy home grown food items that she grows and sells.  We had talked to her about whether the road continued and if there were any wild dogs that may attack us.  She assured us that it was a fine walk – mostly uphill and the sights to be seen from it were spectacular.  She told us that her daughter and son used it all the time to get exercise.  We started off just fine; we passed Josephine’s and waved our greeting to her as we walked by.  Now the walk to Josephine's is mostly flat, but once you pass Josephine’s it is all uphill and I mean straight uphill.  Richard was in front and I followed behind because I was taking in all the gorgeous sights. 

I actually stopped a few times to listen to the buzzing coming from the woods.  The sound put me off just a bit because I know that my hubby is allergic to bees, so I am forever mindful of that.  In fact, when we started off this afternoon we were at the top of the driveway when I asked “Did you bring your EpiPen?”   Back to the house he trudged to get it!   So, back to the buzzing ……. I called out to him to stop and listen.  He wasn’t real impressed and continued on up the mountain.  Notice how that hill has now become a mountain!  We walked on further and once again I stopped to listen to the buzzing – either bees, flies, or ……. who knows.  It was so blazing hot that we had to stop under the trees to grab a bit of shade before continuing on.  I noticed that when I did stop to catch my breath, I would immediately be surrounded by mosquitos …. hence the buzzing sound!  Ugh!!  I had to keep moving because I did not want to have any mosquito bites.  By the way, I had on black Capri pants and it turns out black is a mosquito magnet.   

It was hot, my head was throbbing and I could not stop to catch my breath because of going straight up and those darn mosquitos.  Now we should have known better from many vantage points.  Walking midday in the hot sun – not good, being in the woods days after a killer rain – not good, being chased off the beach at Maho at 2:30 the day before because of Mosquitos – not good, taking trip advise from Josephine based on what her daughter and son like (given that her daughter is an Olympic athlete and her son is just out of the Naval academy) well, you get the picture.  I was miserable and Richard had left me in the dust!  He just kept a slow and steady pace and was able to dodge the mosquitos as he made his way to the top where it comes out on Centerline Road by the Smoothie Stand.  Not too very far from the finish line (Centerline Road), we meet a jeep coming down the mountain with three occupants.  They were concerned when they saw us trudging up the grade and they offered bug spray and water.  The driver told me that I wasn’t that far from the top.  He lied … it was pretty far, but I finally made it.  I was praying all the way because each time I would stop or even look down at my pants – I was covered with mosquitos!!  The mosquitos here now are terrible which is just another benefit of the recent heavy rains!!!  (Note the sarcasm) 

Our original plan was to walk to the Smoothie Stand and have a smoothie with rum as a reward for walking all the way there.  Well, needless to say when I got there I was ready to go home and not by walking back down!!  Richard was all ready to walk back the way we had come up and it would have been a nice walk down with the exception of the mosquitos.  

So there was an island man talking to his girlfriend who was running the stand when we arrived.  He had an electric fly swatter and I swear that fly swatter was going off every ½ second or so with the zap of a mosquito.  He even said to us “these mosquitos are vicious”.  I couldn’t believe how many zaps he was getting just standing there.   Meanwhile I was still covered in mosquitos and I just wanted to get home.  I saw a car parked on the side of the road and asked him if it was his and he said it was.  When I offered to give him 10.00 to drive us to Aqua Bistro he just laughed at me (he was much more interested in talking to his girl).  I thought to myself this is not going to work so I am going to hitch a ride.  I stuck my finger out to the first person I saw driving down the road and thankfully she picked us up.  She was a little distressed that we had a ton of mosquitos around us and now they were all in her car!!  I told her thanks for the ride and we were sorry about the mosquitos.  She drove us down to Island Blues and dropped us off.  She was super nice and we thanked her profusely.  She truly was a life saver!!!  She then drove down to Aqua Bistro and jumped out of her car and opened all four doors.  When we saw this, she said she was trying to rid her car of all the mosquitos!!!!  Oh my God!!!!  Tomorrow on the water kayaking, hopefully without mosquitos!!!              

 

This was the start of our stroll (flat until you hit that hill in the distance)
 

We probably should have paid more attention to this

Near the Top (you can see Coral Bay in the background)



Coral Bay from Center Line Road