Love City

Yesterday I dove with two dolphins. It was my 1,139th dive and the first time I experienced these amazing beings underwater. When I first saw the dolphins, they were at the surface getting some air. Naturally, I screamed and promptly started to shake my underwater maraca as I pointed toward the animals. I didn’t even bother to look back to see if everyone else was paying attention- I was not going to take my eyes off these two dolphins. They rolled around each other and oozed down into the water. They were both about the same size, that is, way bigger than me. Happily, one decided to take a fancy to me and stretched onto her (his?) back and twisted toward me. I was in shock. All I could do was hold my regulator in place so it would not fall out as I continued to scream. As the dolphins began to swim away, I remembered that I was supposed to turn and twist too so they would stay and play, but it was too late. The dolphins glided down the reef slope just as a spotted eagle ray flew past. I screamed some more, then raced back to the boat to tell the Captain what we saw.

Needless to say it has been a good move over to Love City in St John. Everyone has settled in nicely and we even have a wonderful little house. We had looked at a perfect cookie cutter apartment, but then fell in love with a one room cottage. It basically defies description, but here goes… I have never actually been inside a big wooden Spanish galleon ship, but the house feels like you’re in the belly of a big wooden boat. There is one high sloping wall without any windows (the one facing the road). The ceiling also slopes downwards and the other three walls are more or less nothing but tall skinny windows. Sylvia, the owner explained that the shutters on the windows were thoughtfully placed so that no one can see in.

“That way,” she said, “You can come home and walk around naked and not have to worry about anyone looking in.”

Yep, pretty sure she was at Woodstock. Another great thing is that none of the walls are covered in nasty toxic paint. Sylvia and Augie are bee keepers and they use the bee’s wax on all the interior walls and cabinets so that all the main beams are a dark black and all the rest of the wood is a shinny wood color where you can still see the natural wood patterns. The best thing about using bee’s wax (besides being non toxic) for paint is that it smells SO good! Other great things about our home include: beautiful garden with ponds, but the bees eat the mosquito larva so we don’t have to worry about a lot of mosquitos; tons of iguanas lounging in the trees; walking distance to the beach; and a SUNSET WALL on the aforementioned beach! Also, Sylvia put up a sign on the fence facing onto the street: BEWARE OF DOG it says. She did this because of Cleo. So you see, Cleo is my ferocious attack doggie!