Our Adventure

After a long 24 hours from LA to Miami to Puerto Rico, this is the airport we arrived at in Nevis. It is so small...we actually only had four other people on the plane with us. We tried taking a picture as we were getting off the airplane and walking across the runway to the airport, but they yelled at us that we were not allowed. We have a term now that we say all the time, "Only In Nevis." Going through their customs is really fun, they opened all of our 6 bags (which were stuffed full of mostly food) so of course they couldn't shut them so John had to practically sit on the suitcases to get them to close again. (customs has a deal with the school allowing students to bring food into the country) They took our passports a million times and would pretend they were doing something with them. We finally were released, thankfully, and the school picked us up and took us to our new home. It was a lot to take in on our 10 minute drive of curvy roads and driving on the opposite side of the road. It was nice to pull up and see a familiar face...Jake from back home. John and Jake both served their missions in Nicaragua, but only met each other once. What a small world. He was definitely a huge help in getting us started on what to bring and what to expect. Well kind of; the first night I looked at John and said we don't have to do this! But he is so devoted and wants to achieve his goals he looked past everything about the island.

Yep it is very GREEN!!

Back Porch

Ocean View





Our second day began with violent honking from the school driver for us to come out and go with them downtown, even when John waived he heard them, they waited about one minute and began with the honking again. We were taken downtown to go grocery shopping. Yep that's it...can't overload island people and do too much in one day. That was an adventure, having american money they take advantage of the conversion and rip you off. We bought boxed milk...which actually isn't bad, cheese, crackers, chicken, eggs ect... everything is about triple the price. And lots of cleaning supplies!!! Come to find out the grocery store they took us to turns off their coolers/freezers at night so everything thaws out, then they re-freeze the next morning. Awesome!! Some of the food we had already eaten, but some we threw out, bummer when it was so expensive. You live and learn! The best part of the day is we got to ride in the car with our groceries melting while they did all their errands for the day! To boot they stopped at another grocery store on the way home to pick up some things they needed.
Downtown Nevis




Monday they took us to the school to start paperwork, school passes ect. But it was too much for a gym pass that day..so we had to come back another day for that. Here's the amazing school...






Balcony view from John's classroom


After the school we proceeded downtown again to go to the bank. We set up a bank account for John with only his name! Crazy! They don't have addresses here and he didn't even have a cell phone yet to give them. It was a little scary to have a guard at the entrance door of the bank. Don't know what he would actually do?? The best part about the bank is if you go inside to make any transactions they charge you a large fee, so we stick to the ATM which is only $5 a month for unlimited transactions. We sat outside cooking in the sun for quite some time before our ride finally came back to get us. Then they took us to get a cell phone after we repeatedly kept asking for one. But of course they were all out of phones, lucky us. They discussed picking us up the next day, but thankfully they decided to take care of it and just bring it to us. Everyday we would bug them about completing Johns paperwork for his scooter that was stuck at the port. They continued to say these things take time especially with Easter and the whole town shutting down for four days. Only in Nevis!
The Bank

Chrishi beach



Without a car we were pretty sick of not going anywhere; so we decided to venture out on foot. This is the closest beach to the house about a half hour walk. And boy was it hot. We did this a couple times and then decided we needed a car!! We rented a jeep or more like "borrowed" one from a local. John asked what happened like if the seats were stolen out of it and Don said, it won't be a problem, no one will steal anything from this car. It had no side windows, The front window was shattered, it leaked gas and the fumes where really stong, the tires were bald, sometimes it wouldn't start and the battery had to be jiggled, and if it got too hot then water had to be poured into the engine. It's a beauty. (the picture doesn't do it justice)

Our first adventure with the car we went to go play tennis at the school. So we had to stop on the way for gas. As we try to leave the car won't start. Yay! We just sat there thinking it was going to be a long walk home. John opened the hood and if you know him well he knows nothing about cars. He just started moving stuff around and then tells me to try to start it. After a couple of times it actually worked.

Tennis courts, swing set and a patio...that use to be a pool, it got a crack so they filled it with cement.

Trash beach, we actually hiked down this mountain of trash so Jake and John could boogie board on the rough waves. :)





Old Sugar Mill





Old British Fort, there were yucky bats and donkeys everywhere.







Golden Rock Hotel was beautiful! It's tucked away deep into the jungle area, you would never know it was plopped there. Each room is like seperate little cottages. Dinner here would roughly cost $150. The source hike actually begins in the parking lot of this hotel.




The Source, it's called this because it is a main source of their water. This hike took us close to 5 hours. It was a very difficult hike with ropes and stairs and even at then end a GIANT ladder that didn't look safe. Of course Jake and John had to explore, but when they got to the top there wasn't much there. In April it wasn't quite the rainy season yet so there was only a small waterfall trickling down next to the ladder. On the way home from our long day we got a flat tire, thankfully we were able to drive really slow and made it back home.







Owalie Beach is a locals beach. It's nice because it is really shallow for quite a ways out, so lots of kids go there. No the picture wasn't taken sideways, the pier is crooked. :) John went snokeling here with Jake for a couple hours while I stayed at the beach with some of the girl students and while he was gone the locals tried to get me to go on a boat with them over to St. Kitts. Now John doesn't leave me long at Owalie.





This is the Undertaker of Love or Lovers Beach. Here some of the sand is black from the nearby volcano and the rocks are really smooth across the beach where the water crashes in and out. It is a secluded beach except for the airplanes that land at the end of it. It was nice to walk from one end to the other all alone.


Mount Nevis hotel looks over Lovers Beach. It has the most amazing view! Lots of the students live here for a whopping $2100 a month plus electicity which is around $200 a month if you use it limitedly.

My MONKEY would find his sign in Nevis!! He has actually seen a monkey cross here too!

Sunshines is the "it" place to eat. You don't sit at a normal table but it's like outdoor lounge sofas that you could practically lay down. I was a little freaked out walking in because there was a beach party going on with lots of drinking, and I guess you could say people I am not use to being around. When we walked up the waitress asked if I was ok. Dang it, thought I was hiding my fear inside, guess not. I denied being scared even though I wanted to run the other direction. There were no menus but the food actually turned out to be good. I guess it's a big celebrity spot...john travolta, britney spears, george bush, oprah, paris hilton ect. have eaten there. They collect flags and license plates from all over. John was excited to find a Utah license plate. On our way out Sunshine himself took our picture, and almost cut his sign off. Ha! Ha!



A day of fun in the sun at Nisbet beach.



We visited the Botanical Gardens here on the island it was beautiful but I guess I just thought it would be spectacular. Good thing we have fun together wherever we go!






After the botanical gardens we went to a near by hotel that is talked about on the island. We should have done some pool hopping but the Nevisian people are very observant.



We did this hike with lots of the students that stayed behind during the break and it was really fun. It is called saddle hill because it literally looks like a saddle. The british used it as a look out. As we got to the very top of the hill a giant rain cloud came rolling in and in a matter of seconds it was a downpour. I'm talking bucket of water over your head can't breath amount of water. It was unreal, something I have never experienced in my life. It was fun to hike all the way back with giant mud shoes. The picture doesn't do it justice we were scary high!


Following our hike we all went into Gingerland for lunch at the grocery store. We all got turkey sandwiches from the deli...which later that night turned out to be a mistake :( Then off to the horse racing. It was definitely sketchy!! There would be horses running the opposite direction on the track or they would start at random times. Who knows? At least we all had fun laughing.





Night out for pizza. Well we thought it would be nice to sit outside and eat but we were acompanied by bats so I ended the night quickly. It tasted like petter piper cardboard pizza. Oh you have to love Nevis, especially the next day when you feel rotten.

Thursday before I left we dropped by the school and found out that the paper work waiving some of the tax fees was finished and the scooter was ready to be picked up. We rushed down to the the police station to pick up the paperwork and pay some money. Then off to the port, payed lots more money, and then broke down the crate protecting the scooter. John and Jake were working hard prying the wood apart and I look over and the guys at the port are just watching, sitting in their chairs. Heaven forbid that they would do their job or even help. To my astonishment they won't let us take the scooter. The broker said we now had to get his licence down at the DMV, get auto insurance, and go to the police station to register it. So we rush hoping to finish all this since our scooter is now unprotected. It was scary outside and inside the police station so I decided to stay with the guys, origionally I told them I would stay in the car. It's sad when you don't feel safe around those in authority. He looks over the paperwork I completed in the car. After forever he says I made mistakes and rips it up, he hands us a new one and we start over. The next one was satisfactory but we were there sitting for 45 minutes while he just looked at the paper work. Then it was off to the the DMV, we wait, fill out the paperwork and then she said we had to go to the auto insurance first so we ran down the street like crazy people to National Caribbean Insurance Company. We were here for like an hour and a half. The poor lady finished and her computer shut off so she had to start over. She was funny, she told John this would give him good insurance even if he were to run people over with his scooter. While here the broker called and told me how much money we owed her and of course the ATM wouldn't allow us to pull that much money in one day. We dished out more money for the insurance and back to the DMV. We made it ten minutes prior to closing which was three. To our dismay she said sorry I'm closed I shut down my till so she let us pay but would not give us our paper work back till she could give us a reciept. We were sad. We headed back to the port and picked up our I.D.'s. Our last day before I caught my flight home we woke up early to head down to the port to finally pick up John's scooter. We went to the bank, DMV and then finally payed the broker and got our scooter!! Now I had to drive the jeep while John rode the scooter. He then tells me I have to test drive the jeep because you had to brake 15 feet before it would actually stop, he never mentioned this before. Also I had to remember what side to drive on :) We drove to the license plate store and John filled out more paper work and payed more money...just put it in the bag!!! We made it home in one piece. Thank Heavens!!!
To end the trip and squeeze some more beach time in before my flight we went down to Chrishi beach. We walked up and down the beach and talked, laughed and cried. Then John went snorkeling to find me some seashells, he would dive deep down and bring them up to me. He even got bit by a crab, he was thrashing around in the water and it was really scary. Thankfully he came up on the beach and his foot was ok. He even made me a seashell bouquet. It was a great way to end the trip.


We didn't know what this was, it was almost rubbery...


The sunsets were beautiful. So long Nevis take care of my Bubba...