Saturday

Hey, ya'll. I posted in the wrong order so please read the third one first. i know it's 2 long posts, but it's all about my trip.

S

I didn’t know what I wanted to do today Some of the members of the production crew I met the night before brought spouses with them who hung out at the hotel all day long. Some of them mentioned hanging out a bit, but when I got up, I had the urge to be adventurous. I decided to go to St. Martin. When I went to the office to have them call a cab for me, a very nice older man offered to give me a ride. He knew the front office staff, so I figured why not. In our car ride over, I come to find out he OWNS the hotel. This is the guy from last night’s father. He was very sweet and told me about his other children and where to go in St. Martin. So, I go to the ferry and I am thinking ferry, big boat traveling slowly, right? Oh no! it’s this little boat packed with people. This man was moving like he was on fire! He was driving so fast, I though he stole something. I think we made it there in maybe 15 minute. And that seemed a bit long. The way we were rocking and hitting those waves, I though I was going to be sick. I was thinking in my head how there was no way I could go back on this ferry! I’m going to have to stay in St. Martin. A very nice older woman distraced me a bit. She was really sweet and reminded me of my Maw Maw (Surrogate grandma in Kentucky.) She started yelling at me for being a single woman going to St. Martin. “It’s so dangerous. You gotta be careful. You don’t know how these men are, they’re slick.” Her daughter was nice too. She invited me to join them for the day. They had some errands to run, but afterwards, they would show me all around. They live here in Anguilla, but go over to visit family and shop in St. Martin. Plus, the mother was born and raised over there. So, I decided to go with them. The errands consisted of visiting family members and dropping off ripe papayas as long as my forearm and as thick as my thigh and fresh pigeon peas. Everyone was so sweet. The ferry lands on the French side of the island. They took me to the Dutch side of the island as well and drove me up into the mountains. The view from the top was breathtaking. I’ve never seen water soooo blue! They told me a lot of history and stories about the island. Once back in Anguilla, they even offered to drive me back to my hotel. I had a great day. We are supposed to be going out to dinner later in the week as a way of me thanking them.

Once back at the hotel, I saw some of my new found friends from last night. We started chatting by the pool when the sun was still up and ended with drinks at midnight. They were so nice. We had some drinks at the bar, and then decided to sit at a table and eat dinner. They told me about the shoot today and a big one they are doing tomorrow. There is this small island just about 3 miles offshore. It has no electricity and is privately owned. A guy set up a restaurant on it. You go out there on a small boat. They catch lobster and other seafood right off shore then cook it on the beach. It’s supposedly the thing the locals do on Sundays. Half of the people are usually in their bathing suits and the other half just came from church, in their Sunday best with the big hats and all. It’s an all day kind of lounge around and swim and eat and hang out thing. The director and one of the producers spent quite some time telling me I had to go out with them. Hmm, lets see, umm, heck yeah I’m coming! I’m excited to be going to this beach party and I get to see one of my favorite food network shows being taped! They mentioned something about me being an extra, but I don’t know about all that. We’ll have to see how the day goes. The crew is leaving at 7:30 in the morning, and I know I’m not up for that. This woman from New Jersey who has been coming here for years has been assisting them by introducing them to a lot of locals and becoming their unofficial tour guide. She has a house here and spends 1 month her and 2 back in the states. I’m so jealous! She was nice enough to offer to bring me and a couple of the spouses over at noon or so. Can’t wait!