Rude Awakening, Pleasant Parting

No, not the rooster.  We don’t mind him so far.  This was rather a silent invasion of our morning.  When I walked groggily to my yoga mat to complete my first sun salutation of the day, as I bent, a small white inchworm-type being crept across my mat, and then another.  As I spun around on the spot and scanned the dim floor, more creepy crawlers seemed to be making a random journey across the tile.  I needed some light to see where they were coming from.  I informed Greg, still sleeping, that I was going to turn on the lights because some insects had come to visit, he was up in a flash. 

Spreading out in a fan, seemingly from the kitchen the larvae crawled toward the glass slider, into the bathroom, but not yet the bedroom.  We methodically plucked them up disposing of the apparently newly hatched visitors.  We couldn’t find the source, except perhaps a crack under the kitchen counter. They weren’t coming from the garbage, or behind the fridge or stove.  When only a few loaners remained, we let the manager know we had been combating a bug issue and she called for the grounds keeper.  He came a while later and unscrewed the cabinet, looking for the source, he found some crumbs but no nest or hive.  We still don’t know who these wriggly white visitors were, but other than being a bit gross, they were harmless and we don’t see any more.  None-the-less an exterminator will visit tomorrow, just to be sure we don’t have anymore unexpected visitors in the early morning. 

The other event for today was returning the car.  Before we could do so we had to stock up.  We went to the Times Market and made sure we had plenty of water, wine and rum.  Just the essentials, you know.  We dropped the car at the Budget location about a mile away and walked to the beach path to make our journey home.  The midday sun made it a sweaty journey so we stopped into the fish market to get the daily catch for dinner and to cool off a bit.  No cooler, but with dinner in hand we headed home to drink mass quantities of ice water. We spent a lazy afternoon reading, sometimes peeking a wary eye over the page to make sure no buggies were creeping toward us, luckily the floor remained clean. 

Our creepy crawly morning had given us little appetite throughout the day, we subsisted on kefir, granola, fruit and some eggs and toast at midday.  So by dinnertime, I knew we needed a real meal.  Greg and I worked together to pull this off.  I prepped in the kitchen and he tended the grill outside following my timing instructions to a T.  We had some farmer’s market Yukon gold potatoes, quartered, with roasted garlic, rosemary, and cultured butter, spicy garlic green beans, and miso marinated Yellow-spot Papio. We ate our meal on the lanai.  New neighbors snapped photos of the sunset.  We brought our dishes inside and met new friends at the sea wall. 

Then a phenomenon ensued which I can only compare to what happens in high school when news of a fight travels.  At my high school, as stupid as it may seems, when a fight started, you only knew because students randomly started running at top speed across campus to see it.  We were fairly certain a fight was not starting at the north side of the condo complex, so why were so many inhabitants rushing out of their rooms toward the north beach?  It turns out a sea turtle was coming ashore and everyone was perching on the sea wall to take photos.  Sadly the turtle was put off by the crowd and headed back to sea.  Only 5 minutes later another neighbor let us know the turtle had come ashore just south of us.  She had found a quieter place with more sand and thankfully less attention and those who gathered around kept a much more respectful distance.  Seeing the girth of this creature, as she hauled herself up the onto the sand and left a ruddered trail from her fins behind, was utterly impressive.  We bonded with yet another set of neighbors over the event but in the dim light and from a safe distance we didn’t manage to capture any photos.  We left this lumbering giant on the shore to rest and headed back to our home to do the same.

We capped the evening with locally made vanilla ice cream topped with grilled pineapple, chopped coconut candy and crushed macadamia nuts. This was certainly a unique day on the island. Sometimes strange beginnings make for sweet endings.