A visit to Shell beach

All went like clockwork this morning. The taxi was waiting for us at 7:45 and we got to the the Red Cross tent just before opening at 8am. We were not the first, with about 10 people in front of us and soon a queue behind us. The young girls standing right behind us were clearly ignoring the 'safe distance' signs, they were sneezing and coughing, Rowan asked them to observe the rules and move back a bit, which did nothing for English/French relations (know how Boris feels with the French fisherman in Jersey)! The clinic could only do our PCR. It was the most sophisticated testing operation we have experienced, all computerised and very efficient. We walked to the pharmacy near the airport and got our antigen test done on the other nostril, also extremely efficient. We went and had a coffee while we waited for the antigen results, back in 15 mins. We are assured by the airline that this will allow us into Peurto Rico as we have missed the PCR deadline.

We headed back to PolePole finishing off a few chores and got some much needed loads of laundry done. In the afternoon we went to the little bay just south of us in Jeldi Jeldi to Shell beach. Appropriately named beach as it is just covered in shells. It a very pretty beach and very close to town. We went for a snorkel, there were some small fish about but not much coral about. Strangely we couldn't even see where all the shells on the beach were coming from. Dramatic cliffs straight down into the sea. We ventured further to the next bay along, but as soon as we turned the headland we were into howling wind and big waves which was a bit too scary for me!

Shell Beach

The area we snorkelled around.

Amazing rock formations.

Heading back to the boats in Gustavia harbour.

Steep steps and roads everywhere.

Sun setting right behind the rocks.

After showering we decided to go out for dinner. We had a walk around the town first which is very quaint with a few old buildings and then some modern developments on the cliff edge. The roads go straight up and down the hills, which feels a bit like San Francisco. Rowan found a wonderful Japanese Restaurant, things are humming here as we got the last table on a Wednesday night. We had the set menu, all 5 courses were amazing. Our main course was a deboned quail (sorry Hannie!!) with edamame gnocchi which was really delicious, ending with a chocolate egg filled with passionfruit, praline and coconut ice cream. What a treat, all washed down with a few bottles of Sake. Rowan had been selling it to me as not very alcoholic, he said maybe 5%. I verified with the Sake sommelier and it was 15%! Too late, we had finished our second half bottle! I'm not complaining, it was a great night out.

Our delicious Japanese meal, deboned quail with edamame gnocchi.

The chocolate egg was amazing!