It was overcast and rainy this morning, what with us being in a rainforest, in the rainy season, so we slept in and relaxed on the veranda for a few hours, researching options for the next few days. We dipped into our snack supply for a light breakfast.
Around 11 AM, a real storm blew through, and we were suddenly in a cloud during a downpour.
Thankfully, we had the foresight to rent on the lower level, so our balcony is covered.
In 20 or 30 minutes, it had cleared up enough for us to venture forth and explore.
We loaded up the Suzuki, aimed down the hill, navigated the narrow streets of Soufrière, and climbed up the hill on the other side. Our first stop was the Zaka Art Cafe, in its new location; Google Maps was up to date (not to be taken for granted, here), even though the guidebook published only 2 months ago wasn't.
The fresh, local coffee was excellent, but they didn't have any food.
Just down the road from the cafe, we stopped to reconnoiter the sulfur hot springs, as a potential future activity.
As we hadn't really eaten today, we opted to prioritize food over further exploration, and headed back down the mountain a mile or so, to investigate a resort restaurant that we had passed on the way up.
After negotiating terms and a passing a temperature screening, we were permitted in and found our way to the Mango Tree restaurant.
The view was incredible, and the food was excellent.
There were small squirt guns on the deck railing, presumably to deal with the winged scavengers who made themselves at home. One of them perched on my water glass, when we didn't scare it off the table edge quickly enough.
After spending nearly 2 hours at the Mango Tree, we continued exploring the area around the Pitons.
After leaving the Stonefield resort / Mango Tree, we stopped at Chocolat, where one of the gentlemen at the gatehouse called the restaurant and acted as a go-between to secure us a dinner reservation for tomorrow night at the Rabot restaurant.
Next, we headed down a side road, following some random signs for "Piton Falls". The place that seemed to be the office/gatehouse for the falls didn't appear to be open, so we continued down that road, headed for Sugar Beach resort and/or... beach.
The guy at the gatehouse for Sugar Beach regretfully informed us that the resort was closed for renovations, probably until November, so we turned around and headed back up hill.
Google Maps showed what looked like a shortcut back to Soufriere, so we crawled down what-I-repeatedly-assured-Sabrina-was-a-road for a half mile or so, splashing through mud puddles and scraping under tree branches.
The petite Suzuki has part-time 4WD, which came in handy.
Eventually, we came to a part of the road that looked potentially problematic, so I got out to investigate the path ahead, on foot.
While I was on the other side of this pile of fallen rocks, seeing how close we were to the end of the shortcut, a few dozen of rocks fell down the hill and landed in the road. That was enough to convince us (perhaps only one of us needed convincing) to go back, even though it involved driving in reverse for maybe 100 yards.
Once we made it back to town, we drove down to the waterfront and found the other end of the shortcut; it turned out to be impassible anyway, as the locals had parked cars across the end of it (probably because the of the rock slides?).
It was some time after 4 PM, and we hadn't yet made it to the grocery store (which was the only real plan for today), so we made that our new priority.
The grocery story was crowded and somewhat hectic, but we managed to acquire sufficient provisions to have a few breakfasts at the condo.
Side note: Last night, and throughout the day today, we gleaned bits of information that would really have been helpful to know upon arrival, such as the government-mandated (COVID-19) curfew on businesses, every night.
I believe it was 8 PM (maybe 9?) to 4 AM during the week, but 7 PM (to 4 AM) on Friday and Saturday. And allegedly it's 4 PM (to 4 AM) on Sunday night. (Many/most places are apparently closed on Sunday, anyway.) More on this later.
Anyway. The conventional route from the grocery store back to the condo involved going back down to the waterfront, which was narrow and busy, but thankfully Google Maps (once again) showed us a shortcut!
The photos don't quite do it justice, but it was steep enough (and not-a-road enough) to cause me to stop and look for another route on the map. Not liking the alternatives, I put it into 4WD again and we ascended the hillside.
Sabrina was a huge fan of this shortcut, as you can imagine if you know her well. There was a woman in front of one of the houses, who seemed surprised to see anyone coming up this road.
It was after 5 PM by the time we made it home and unloaded the car, during which a nice man tried to sell us limes from a bag that he was carrying down the street. The machete in his other hand suggested he had just harvested them from somewhere up the road. He assured us that they were good to have with rum. We thanked him for offering, but declined, as we didn't need any limes at this time.
Due to having lunch after 2 PM ("island time" doesn't come with speedy service... what's the rush?), and not doing much other than driving around today, we weren't particularly hungry this evening. Also we would have had to order takeout from somewhere before they closed at 7, and then drive back into town to fetch it, due to the curfew.
Instead, we cobbled together a late and light dinner of leftover (unknown root vegetable, possibly cassava?) fries, generic Rice Krispies, and brownies (thanks, Lauren!).
It felt a little bit like camping, especially when lighting the propane stove with a match. The French whole milk should make some nice scrambled eggs, in the morning.
It cooled down as the sun was setting, so we enjoyed some more time on the porch while we made tentative plans for tomorrow. The weather is allegedly going to be slightly better, so we're thinking about
driving up the western coast and seeing what's north of here... maybe even see a beach or two.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that there was a brief power outage, right when we got home. Other than it being confusing for a minute or two, the only serious problem is that it also somehow took the internet service down. We called our local contact (the guy who met us with the keys and such, yesterday); his answer was "yes, my internet is out too."
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