I've Got the Best!

Girlfriends, that is. Truth is, until I came to Culebra, I usually hung around with guys. Part of that was what I did, part of it was just because guys did more stuff and had more fun than most girls and women I knew. Oh, I've had some excellent girlfriends in my life, starting with Patty Posey in the 3rd grade (where oh where is she now?), and Robin and Dickie and a few others who I'm still in touch with from junior high days. In adulthood, I have been lucky to meet a small number of women I am glad to call friends. But overall, it was guys who were more my 'hang out with' buds. Until Culebra. Where the women are as or more interesting, strong, funny and do as much or more than the men. I don't know why, it's just like that. And I'm blessed to know them.

Because we rarely have days that induce cabin-fever, routines with it come easy. When Linda was here, before the last drops fell, we'd hop in the car to do an island drive-about, usually ending up at Dinghy Dock with a few other people who were tired of their four walls or hull sides. now that she is in Michigan, that's changed. I wondered what would happen next. Yesterday, I found out.

Francie: I've got to get up and do something. I'm heading out toward Zoni, want to come for a ride?
Me: YES, thank you!!!

So off we went, in the finally not raining day, to check out one of the homes she manages. here is some of what we saw...

Deep cut from the off running water at Zoni

 Sometimes there's a great blue heron here, 

but this day, it was a great white egret

I love this spot after a big rain

I'd been home a few hours when the phone rang.

Susie: I've got to get out of the house! I'm heading out with a bottle of wine to sit by the water, want to come along?
Me: YES, thank you!

So off we went, the sun out a wee bit more (or less), to sit by a bay and catch up on our lives, at this almost-end-of-her-restaurant-closed time. Something here, that the women I call friends all have a drawing to the water as strong as I do, whether they live on boats or on shore. A fine foundation of a shared passion.

So we sat by the water, and sometimes talked and sometimes listened. And drank some wine. And hiked a hill. And got stuck in the mud. And got out of the mud. Here is some of what I saw (no photos of me splattered with mud from the spinning tire, doing the triumphant dance).

On both trips, we marveled over the new road out to Zoni, especially the part where the road was falling away for years and is now banked up and safe. Amazing! Done, and done right!

And the brilliant line of bougainvilleas gone wild. This photo, does not do justice to the color and impact of this riot of reds. But hopefully, you get the idea.

Now, if we could just get underground lines...(sort of like waiting for the Rapture, but different).

Yes, I know some wonderful men here too, but this is not that.

The sun is out. A swoop of weather (that's the technical term) is making it's way across the islands that may or may not get us wet again today, but that's for later. I think I still have a cart to open...

Thanks, women in my world. And thanks for always being willing to stop for me to take photos, in just the right places. You rock!

Have a so-glad-I-know-you Sunday! Do something with a sidekick.

p.s. The osprey is gone. I hardly knew ye...