A difficulty of living far from grandparents

It took us two and a half weeks to secure babysitting so we could go out for our anniversary.

It was sorely tempting to just let it go, but with last year's history of no birthday, anniversary, or special day celebration accomplished because of sickness, we were more tenacious.  Well worth it.  We had a nearly-all-day-date that we spent at the National Park nearby.  We hiked to the farther beach, checked out the turtle conservation center there, took a boat back to the near beach for lunch, and had time for a quiet swing in a hammock together before the boat came to take us back to the start.  Not terribly romantic, but a much needed, well appreciated kid-free day out in the green and blues of this fantastic place.












It was not quiet!  The hike through the jungle was constantly alive with insect, frog, and bird noise - in a way, it was a relief to arrive at the beach for some relative quiet.  We didn't see any wildlife except a few lizards and one really long bright green snake we had to chase off the trail.

The turtle information center was small, but held my interest as we recently just studied a number of the mentioned turtles in science with the girls, and there was mention of open volunteering positions when the turtles come to lay their eggs (the center actually moves the eggs to safer locations, keeps watch over them, and guards the hatchlings' journey to the sea.)  Unfortunately, the staff were on lunch break so we couldn't ask more details right then.








On our way home, we caught this flabbergasting sight:

This is the driver holding the bike.  And there is a kid on the motorbike in front of him.  Not particularly noteworthy really, until you know that this is a snaking narrow road winding around the steep hills of the island - and he passed us!