The ride back over the mountain was breathtaking and harrowing once again and we stopped and took some pictures along the way. We drove all the way to the Southwestern tip of the island to see the famous Baths. This is a beach where dozens of house-sized boulders were strewn out into the ocean by an ancient volcanic explosion. The giant rocks pile up to form caves and grottos and the basis for some pretty scenic coral growths. Before taking the twenty-minute hot as hell hike down to the Baths, we lunched at The Top of the Baths restaurant and grill. I was somewhat distracted by the heat (that side of the island is NOT blessed with the constant trade winds and is significantly less pleasant than our Pink House). The waitress was also hot and grouchy and when she came over to our table to get our order, for some reason I asked what was the difference between the fish and chips and the chicken fingers and chips. She just stared, trying to think of a way to politely tell me one was fish and the other chicken, until finally Kathy saved us both by saying exactly that, punctuated with that look that says, "Have you lost it?" Eventually, Kathy had a hamburger and I had fish and chips (which was made with fish, not chicken), and both meals were pretty forgettable.

The Baths were like swimming in a giant aquarium -- beautiful, but it seemed like everything was put there on purpose to amuse the tourists. And there were dozens of tourists, mostly from yachts anchored offshore. We saw more white people that day than we had in the previous week. After a couple hours snorkeling, we collected our stuff and hiked back up the hill, twenty minutes running from shade to shade. Upon arriving back at the jeep, I discovered I had left my sunglasses hanging in a tree down at the beach. The obvious solution, buy a new pair of cheap sunglasses at the shop by the restaurant.

Another visit to the three-of-everything wholesale store revealed some new rules we hadn't known about. Apparently, if they have just a few of some item, it's okay to buy just one or two. On our first visit, we had bought just one dozen eggs. This time, however, they had plenty of eggs, so the rule was three-dozen or no eggs for you! Presumably, if they were really overstocked in some item, you might have to buy five or six of them. Weird rules, but they were doing a bang up business with the locals, so we bought our three-dozen eggs, six cans of tuna, and five pounds of frozen shrimp and moved on. Kathy used the pay phone to call Lydia the maid to try to get her to bug the Cable & Wireless folks about our phone service, but by then it was Friday afternoon and nobody had much hope it would be fixed before Monday sometime.

With all our new groceries, it was hard to decide what to have for dinner that night, but we settled on a roasted red pepper stuffed with rice and corn with little grilled shrimps hanging off the side.