Eagle Bay

Our trip to the end of the world started on a Friday afternoon and after driving 3 hours we hunted for a place to stay. If only people here could understand that if you have a telephone, webpage or some way of getting a hold of you that their business would be sooooo much better. But, alas, it was not to be. We searched and searched and finally ended up at our hotel in bed by 9:00. By that time we were all done and especially NOT wanting to keep the children awake one second longer. I thought we would die of paint fumes, but we survived our hotel and started bright and early the next morning out to Eagle Bay. It is right next to the Haitian border so we had to drive another 2 hours to get to the National Park only to have them tell us that one of the cars in our group could not make the drive and we would have to stuff them into our cars or take a 150 dollar boat trip. We decided on the boat trip which just added to the entire adventure. Getting in the boat was probably the biggest part of the adventure since there was no stable dock and we just had to jump for it and hope the waves didn't knock us over. Our stuff was mostly dry and we made it out into the open ocean while Mikaela was stuck on land to come with the rest of our party and Tobias and I were busily scooping water out of the boat. Needless to say I was very grateful to be alive at the end and reunited with our youngest--Tobias was in hog heaven. For those of you who know this it will come as no surprise to you. The water, like I said, was amazing, but I could have done just fine with a half-hour ride to the beach close to town and not had 500 mosquito bites the next day nor the trauma that it is to drive in the back of a Ford Explorer with a 5 year old and a 2 year old for about 20 hours in 3 days.
We saw pelicans flying very close, gorgeous blue water, and were pretty much by ourselves (with our friends of course). It was a nice day at the beach and even nicer to arrive home safe and get cleaned up in a proper shower with shampoo and conditioner. I have been there once, I don't need to go again. Just like eating the iguana Tobias made and the lamb his friend butchured and we ate 1 hour later...I have tried them once and have no need to do it again. Tobias, I am sure, will crave these same experiences for years to come--oh wait! We are in the foreign service and are moving to Mozambique, Africa!!! I think it won't be too hard to come by more of these kinds of nerve racking, bug biting, back killing, mom-torturing adventures :)