Escape to Pinel!

Another day off - time for Pinel Island! With the rearranging of my schedule I finally got one of the other guides off on the same day and so it was that rasta guide I took me to the French side. Well, I met him there, he lives there.

Was a minor mission getting to where the boat goes to Pinel, considering the size of the island (the best beaches here are often the hardest to get to), but I was rewarded by a lovely 2-cheek kiss from a pretty Barbadian-looking lady with big, bright flowers tucked behind her ears at the bar I wait for I at. Kinda willed the time to pass quickly as my greeting and polite courtesies in French were about all I could remember of the language so I didn't want her to try and engage in full conversation. Embarrassing!

At first I was going to change plans with I to go somewhere closer, as I was still at Seaside waiting for A to come online at 11am, but I ended up getting there just an hour later and we were on the 5 min boat ride in no time at all.

Pinel is a tiny island that opens 9-5 every day, and closes down at night. It is framed by lovely, clear water, clean sand and a few bar restaurants. At I's shout, I opted for a rum punch then pina colada then rack of ribs. Oops! Might've gone a bit overboard there. Especially since I's a vegetarian and doesn't drink! haha...

Was a beautiful day, though, marred only by the fact I forgot to change my underwear into swimmer bottoms and therefore had to make the decision about whether to go to the private side of the island to swim (and flash my ass to I) or just stay on land. I know what A is wanting me to say here, but damn the water was too tempting and so we walked the couple of minutes to the other, slightly seaweed-logged beach with no one on it, and I stripped down and jumped in.

A little drowsy after a smoke, we wandered back to the main area and had another drink (I felt daring and ordered a Bushwacker, which actually turned out to be quite nice). Got the second last boat back over - I hesitate to call it a ferry because it is so small. The guy on the way over gave us a cheaper ride too, since he realised he lived here. And no one at all asked for money for the way back so all in all, $5 return trip! Value for money.

All full of sunshine and happiness, I bounced back home and got changed for my weekly horseriding lesson. Got down to Seaside and no one had put aside my horse before letting them out for the night - no worries, he wasn't hard to find and put up no fight to being caught at 6pm. It's all a trick, you see. He doesn't become a pain until you get on him!

He took a bit to get relaxed, was bobbing his head around and chewing on his bit a lot, and rushed about in his trot and canter. Was a bit difficult trying to slow him with my seat and hands, as when I released the rein a little to get his head down, he sped up. And he still favours one side to work on, especially with half-pass etc. All boring technical stuf that he and I both still have a long way to go on. But there will be no more lessons for 2 weeks as the boss is on holidays with his family. That will be an interesting time at the ranch.

Noticed my legs have become quite brown, and it's possible I have never seen them quite so brown. Almost the colour of my arms, and they are always the darkest part of my body. So that's awesome. What's not awesome is the fact that the brownness does not extend all the way, and I have a nice tradey short mark. Gross. Maybe I will have to start riding in bikini bottoms at work. My history with bikini bottoms is not that great, though, evidently...

I'm on tomorrow solo with D, my least favourite guide. He's been given a warning and stern talking-to in front of everyone, so we're all to be on watch that he's behaving himself, being nice to guests and staff, and treating the animals right. Or he's cut back to weekends only and no horse rides. Let's see how this goes. Am not particularly looking forward to this but it's gotta be done. We have a few rides so hopefully we'll just keep out of each other's way.