Island Moosie ... Snorkeling, Eating, and Drinking her way through the islands

Sept 28, 2019

Saturday wake up call consisted of rain… rain… and more rain. Oh well, whatcha gonna do? I was still tired from not having slept much the past few nights. I love to travel but all the prep work before traveling and the actual traveling is very stressful and hectic. Couple that with my inability to sleep well in unfamiliar places and it’s a sure fire way of my being exhausted the first few days of our vacation.

Oh and guess what? The internet at the villa is down and no amount of rebooting the router was going to do the trick. I tried. Believe me I tried everything I could remember from my emergency work assignment during the last telco strike as a POTS/DSL Tech to no avail.

Moosie’s Priority List of Must Have in order to not drive Hook crazy:

1. Internet
2. Coffee
3. Bread

Ok, breathe and go with the flow. I decided to read the new book that I had downloaded while curled up on the sofa.

Soon I was grabbing my travel blanket and Hook’s travel blanket. Meanwhile Hook is wishing he had brought another long sleeve shirt. The villa’s a/c is set to 73 degrees and not adjustable. While a welcome reprieve from the heat and humidity of the outside, staying cooped up indoors in that temp left us feeling very chilled, and not in a relaxed way. We kept commenting how odd it was that here we were, in a tropical island, bundled up in blankets! 🥶

The weather finally cleared up somewhat after lunch. At least there was a break in the clouds, so Hook and I decided to grab our snacks and have some lunch at the gazebo. With the gorgeous scenery and a breeze to ward of the mozzies, it’s a win!

After a while we are antsy to get out and about. Little Exuma or bust! All roads lead to Santana’s and Mom’s Bakery. Our mouths were watering with anticipation.

Happy Eating! 😁

Sept 27, 2019

This vacay is off to a dandy start…

Our plan was to hit the duty free shop at the MIA airport to pick up a bottle of tequila for our Paloma cocktails. But whoa! We didn’t need THAT big of a bottle of tequila for just a week, despite it being only 20 bucks. 😮 So I said, hey, let’s just get some small bottles.

Hook wanted to make sure the purchase was getting stamped with my name, not his. He wanted nothing to do with getting a shopping bag delivered to the plane, name called out, and the bag containing nothing other than a couple of itty-bitty bottles of booze. 😝

Happy happy!

After our shopping foray, we headed to the Admiral’s Club to kill some time before our flight. Creatures of habit we are.

Soon it was time to mosey on to our gate. We were pleasantly surprised that the flight to Exuma was on a bigger plane than the usual cramped American Eagle. Even more pleasantly surprised that we didn’t have to get bused to the plane, instead the jet bridge actually connected directly to the plane.

We quickly settled into our seats. Hook was in the row ahead of me while I sat behind him, both of us having window seats. I’m not a chatty seatmate, I admit, preferring to be in my own world. Even more so when the person who has the next seat comes, puts their bags down, says “Hi”, and proceeds to ask “Are you looking for an outer seat? My husband is in one and can trade.”

Say what now?? My eyebrows go up and my forehead starts to frown. All I could manage to reply with was, “No, I’m good” and turn away.

I had, in my head, all sorts of come backs. Like, Lady, why in the hell would I want to trade my window seat with views to wow me for a seat with no view!! I specifically always pick a window seat, and on a certain side of the plane each trip for a reason! Duh! 🙄 Good thing I have self-control of what comes out of my mouth 😬. Hook later said he heard her question and thought, Ooooh boy, here it comes! Lol.

A quick 50 minute flight and we landed at GGT. Aaaah Exuma. It’s good to be back!

Welcome to Exuma

Immigration was quick and so was Customs. They asked if we had any alcohol, tobacco, or a drone. I smiled and held up my itty-bitty trio bottles of liquor 😂 and soon we were outside to meet up Charlie, our host at Bay View Villas.

A quick warm welcome back from Charlie and we were soon chatting away and catching up on our way to our first stop at Prime Island Meats and Deli to get some provisions.

$95 and one grocery bag later 🤑 (it’s like shopping at Whole Paycheck errr Foods before Amazon took over) we were on the way to our home away from home.

Vacation has officially started! 😎

Sept 26, 2019

We overnighted in Miami as I have been wanting to check out Calle Ocho ever since I’ve seen it on food and travel shows on tv. I had visions of walking the famous street, sampling the Cuban cafes along the way. I left the actual planning to Hook on where to have the Lyft driver drop us off. The plan was to walk around and then dine at Versailles.

Wait, that’s not how the Calle Ocho on the foodie shows look like 🤔. It’s supposed to be a walking type of neighborhood, not a super busy boulevard… devoid of cute cafes along the street. Gasp! Are we on a fake Calle Ocho?!

Well whatcha gonna do? Of course we had to try what is supposed to be the “World’s most famous Cuban restaurant”. I don’t know if that’s actually true, but we went with the flow.

Palomilla Steak

Black beans for the rice

Roasted pork

Moros y Christianos rice, and Yucca

Salud!