Living La Vida Local - Part 1

Ok, so Saturday we had a slow start to the day and then decided to do two things. Hike and go to the beach. When I walk/jog some mornings, I pass a Nature Preserve. There are two entrances and both are hemmed in by condo buildings. I haven't stopped because I've been too tired after my workouts. Side note: I discovered that trek I took around most of the island a couple of weeks ago was just over 10 miles - no wonder I was so sore afterwards! My more regular routines are just over 6 miles. Anyway, Saturday seemed like a good day to actually walk inside the park and see what it had to offer.

There are two entrances and since this one had all kinds of warning signs daring us to enter at our own risk because of the "many" obstacles on the trail, we started there. It certainly didn't look too scary. We bravely trudged on. In about a minute, we came to a jut to the right that took us to what looked like the Everglades. Mangroves...white birds...water...mosquitoes. Were there alligators? That would be exciting and dangerous!  No - but there were fish.  Well ok. Once back on the main trail, we started noticing the large crab holes and realized that they were our obstacles. I think we could handle them.

This wasn't too pretty.

But this was pleasant.


Until you got up close. Yuck. A write-up from someone who visited the preserve in 2009 has pictures of a clean beach and waters, but it's sure not inviting these days. I don't doubt everyone here and throughout the Caribbean are wishing this never-ending sargassum seaweed invasion would booger off. Us too.

We headed over to the other trail, which is basically just a boardwalk to the beach and found more of the same. Those people in the water had gotten to their spot by boat. That sandbar was so shallow that the water didn't even come to their child's knees.



Alrighty then. We've seen it. Now let's head for the beach. A clean beach. Uh oh - the skies weren't looking too pretty.

We'd heard that the best beach here was Fort Zachary Taylor, which you have to pay for, so we decided to wait another day. We kind of just rode around for a bit, still trying to figure out where everything was and ran across Dante's. Michael thought one of his co-workers was there (he was), so we decided to check it out. It's basically a big pool party. Very South Beach, except with a wide mix of people from kids to a more senior clientele; women with pasties to some a bit more covered up. Anything went basically.



There was a dj playing good music and we had a nice time. Even in the rain.



During Fantasy Fest, which is 10 days away now, Dante's has a pool party that is so full of debauchery (like most Fantasy Fest events) that they have to put up privacy screens. Topless is the norm and women have to put shirts on in order to participate in the wet t-shirt contest. People sit in the pool for hours - no one gets out.....eeeeeew. We will not be doing that.

As I mentioned in a prior post, Sunday meant lots off freebies for locals. We took advantage of them all. I'll include them in tomorrow's installment so you have something to look forward to.