Monday April 7: Still at the West End!

We are still docked at the West End .... for a couple of days more! There is a cold front traveling across the southern states that will impact the weather here tomorrow and Wednesday. North winds again - those pesky north winds!

If we left here Sunday (a nice day to travel as would today) we would have no where to go - either at anchor or to a marina - that would protect us from the predicted high 20 mph (gusts in the 30's) that are due in Wednesday night - like at midnight. Dealing with shifting winds at midnight just isn't our thing.

So we went for a bike ride instead! The guys are already around the corner. How can they go so fast when there is so much to see along the road?

The West End (also called Settlement Point) has many building that we assumed were damaged as the result of the hurricanes that come through the Bahamas - the most recent was Wilma in 2005. It hit the western end of this island particularly hard .. and the buildings still stand abandoned and half destroyed.

Still there are quite a few bar/restaurants along the main highway (which eventually would lead to Freeport) concentrated on about a half mile along this highway.

We passed a half dozen churches as well.

Peter of course was drawn to this church's bus ....

In search of "some lady who sells ice cream out of her home" we continued riding, riding, riding ... until I said that's it. No more riding for me so I just pulled over. No problem. They would be back eventually.

It wasn't actually too long before they turned around also as it seemed the town sort of ended. Before their arrival I looked up and thought perhaps I didn't choose a very good place to stop as I peered up at a dozen coconuts hanging in the tree above me! So we rested a few minutes and headed back.

Not wanting to miss lunch, we decided to stop at the conch salad stand. What a find!

Talk about fresh.

One guy was outside the stand cleaning the conch. Quite interesting to watch. First pound a small hole in the end, cut the conch with a knife and then pull it out.

Now clean the conch of it's outside "skin" so what you have left is just the meat of the conch. Wonder how much saturated fat is in conch meat?

Actually very little (amazing the information you can find on the internet).

So once the conch is cleaned, the other man in the stand chopped it up, added not sure what all - but lots of lime juice. Voila - super fresh conch salad!









Of course we still had to find the lady who sold ice cream for Peter and Cheryl.

After asking a few times, we finally found her!

The kids LOVED Cheryl's bike! Guess they hadn't seen a clown bike before :-)

Anyway, Cheryl gave them the ok to try it and it was definitely a hit. Both the girl and the boy just had to try it out!

Everyone here is very friendly and the kids super polite. Some of the newer homes are quite nice. Others are sufficient but small. The school we rode by was functional but nothing like the schools in the states.

This is the beach on the north side of the resort by our marina. What's not to like ......