I am alone on the boat, doing some minor repairs and cleaning before my next crew arrives. She is flying in from Denver and took the red eye to get here. She does not arrive until 9:00 pm so I have plenty of time to get the boat presentable. She sailed with me last year and we had a wonderful time together so I am looking forward to her visit.
The cruiser's net, a local information program comes on at 7:30 on the VHF radio. They are talking about a bus to go to the local supermarket, a hike the next day, live music in the evening and a number of other things. It goes on for over 30 minutes and I decide to take advantage of the super market shuttle. 12 of us pack into the van and off we go. With the grocery shopping done, now it is time to do other things. I talk to the person organizing the hike to find more about it. He says it is a moderate hike and that he has a friend arriving on a flight arriving after my friend so he just wanted to do a moderate hike to allow her to recover from travel lag.
My crew arrives safely, 21 hours since she left Denver. She is tired but extremely happy to be here. I tell her about the hike and she is interested. The weather is looking very windy for sailing with small craft warnings out for Friday so I think it is a good time to explore the island. We join 20 other cruisers for the hike, pile into two vans and off we go to the “city of Concord.” Anyplace with more than 5 homes is considered a city.
This is the first time that a second van is required and some price negotiations are taking place with our hike leader and the van drivers. The price is confirmed and we start piling into the vans. Introductions are made with fellow hikers and we find some very fun people that we will be sharing our day with. As a cruiser, I am finding that Americans are really a minority. The women sitting in front of us grew up in Portugal and has traveled all over the world. She is here by herself since here boyfriend had recently gone back to the United States to do some work. Most of the others are from various parts in Canada. Some of the other hikers are there while their spouses are busy doing projects on the boat or just getting some space time from each other.
Our goal is to hike to the top of a mountain, but we start hiking downhill to the ocean instead. When we arrive at the ocean, The leader says” I think I missed the turn since we were not suppose to reach the ocean.”
What goes down must come up, so back up we go. The intersection is much easier to see going back in this direction. The trail goes straight up this small hill and ends up in someone’s back yard. Literally in their back yard with the owner hanging out the window looking at 22 people walk across her yard. She acts like this is a normal occurrence for her and we say our hellos and thank you’s as she smiles down upon us.
This is turning out to be a very interesting hike. We hike thru a small town. A hairdresser is busy doing her magic on a women’s hair, adding color and braids. There is an entire row of colored braid extensions that she can work with. I always wondered how they did that. We do not get to see the final result but what she is doing so far is amazing. Past the local bakery with the fresh baked bread smell floating in the breeze causes some of our group to detour to get a sample. The hike takes us thru many other people back yards. Beautiful manicured gardens with ripe tomatoes surround the two or three room homes. One home we saw had it’s foundation make of boulders. Boulder and rocks piled upon each other that could easily be added to or removed from depending on how the house needed to be leveled.
A lot of the homes do not have any plumbing so we are surprised to see a brand new washing machine sitting on someones front porch. This is not where you would expect to find a washing machine. The day before I had seen a group of people doing their laundry in the stream and a little girl getting her bath from the community faucet. The washing machine seemed very out of place.
As we start to gain elevation, it is suddenly apparent that switchbacks are not in their trail planning. In fact trails in general are not in their trail system. The “hike Leaders” are holding their phones in the air trying to get a signal to find where we are and if this is really a trail or a goat trail. It is hot and getting hotter. At least we have some breeze blowing. My crew mate does not enjoy the heat but is an avid hiker and cross-country skier so the fitness part is no problem. It does seem to be for others. The trail leaders friend who has hiked the El Camino trail in northern Spain is not very happy with this moderate hike that goes straight up and never seems to end. Her face is as red as her baseball cap. Right now I do not think she even wants to talk with him and I am sure any fringe benefits that he had planned for the evening are long gone. I am sure she is thinking, “This is moderate? You have to be kidding.”
You add that to missing intersections on a regular basis and some of us are getting slightly frustrated. But we are on island time and we are getting to see some the island that we would not see otherwise. A cow grazing on the lush gras next to a lake let’s us know we are getting close to civilization and a road.
We finally reach our destination. We converge on the tiny grocery store like a hoard of locusts and buy the small market out of all their cold drinks. Then we wait for the vans to come pick us up.
We make another quick stop for cold beers. The entire economy seems to be based on who you know or who your relatives are. This was certainly a stop that these bus drivers made on a regular basis. They soon join us in having a beer. The drinking area is defined by painted lines on concrete with a picket fence separating it from the next business. The top of the pickets were adorned with empty danish meat cans. It was an Andy Warol moment looking at the cans. We arrive home, tired, dirty and ready to jump off the boat in the cool water. It has been a fun day and a great way to see the island.