A loud crash of thunder followed by the blue illumination of lightning woke me from my sleep at 2:30am. The heavy rain and wind shook the tree house and I woke Mike so he could enjoy the tropical storm with me. We fell back to sleep and by morning the storm was over, the sun was shining and we enjoyed another fruity breakfast.
As you’re probably sick of hearing, the food here is unbelievable. Because of this, several days ago we asked if we could please go into the kitchen and learn the art of flour and corn tortilla making. The staff here says no to nothing and Jessica kindly obliged our request and set it up for this morning. We joined Sharaden at 9:00am in her hot and tiny kitchen where we made the different doughs, pressed the flour tortillas out with our hands and used a tortilla press for the corn ones. Mike applied so much pressure to the tortilla press that it snapped and pieces went flying. We asked if we could replace it and they said that they would have to go to the other side of the country for a new one and that they would just try to fix this one. They didn’t make a deal over it and said it was okay, but I still felt terrible about it. The one and only time they have let people into their kitchen and we break their valued tools!
We cooked our tortillas on a well seasoned, worn and warped Kamal, a cast iron plate, until they were toasted and smelled good. Shariaden was so kind and gave us a ton of pointers that we are grateful to have learned and will apply in our own kitchen when we get home. We laughed and tried to offer her money which she refused. The fact that she came in to work an hour earlier than she normally would have to just to accommodate our strange request, took the time to print out her recipes and methods for us and stayed to clean up our mess was exceptional service and I felt bad that she would not accept a tip for it. But this resort, while it allows tipping, has tips built into the price and trains their staff on a very high level of service delivery. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with every single person.
After our lesson, Mike and I had huge smiles on our faces. We just love being in the kitchen! We grabbed a couple bikes and set off once again to Hopkins Village where we purchased our limit of One Barrel rum, Coconut Rum and hot sauces. We bought gifts for a few people and ourselves and leisurely peddled back to Hamanasi for a couple of Belikin beers and to begin packing our bags before lunch for our departure tomorrow.
For lunch I decided to cave in and have the burger and fries. The burger was really spiced up with flavor, it was so good and the fries were fries, but being dipped in Marie Sharps made them special. Mike had the chicken taco salad served in a tortilla bowl in honour of our lesson this morning. We chatted with Peggy about her birding experiences thus far and a conversation about herbal medicines and then we took the sea kayaks out for a tour of the coast line.
We set an ambitious goal, to see Hopkins village from the shore instead of the road, but biking it is far easier than paddling against the wind and waves. Even though the sea was relatively calm compared to most other days we’ve seen, it was still tiring and we gave up about half way and turned around. Sitting around doing nothing seemed much more appealing.
So that’s what we did until dinner time. We looked out at the water and watched the palms wave in the wind, feeling sentimental that we might never have this view again. We’ve been here longer than most people stay. The average stay is a week, so we have seen many people come and go and aside from Peggy and the staff we are the loners that we arrived as. We have enjoyed our stay here so much but feel as though we’ve done everything that we needed to do and experience and now we’re ready to go home to our dog, our own bed, our kitchen, our friends, family and our regular habits. Besides I am craving a caesar!
Dinner was our first repeat. We sat at the table we sat at on our first night, looking over the glow of the pool and the illuminated pier. We both ordered the broccoli soup and shrimp kabobs. Mike had the key lime pie for dessert and I had a sweet potato pudding with vanilla ice cream that was unique in flavor and to die for! If only we could have learned this recipe in the kitchen as well. MMmmmm. We posed for a few sad-faced photos, reflecting our mood about having to leave.
After dinner we took the remainder of our bottle of wine to the end of the pier. While it was beautiful and calm where we were, we watched several storms off in the distance over the sea. There was impressive lighting that reminded us we’ll be headed home to Canada Day shortly and get to watch the fireworks with our dog Abbey again. Maybe she won’t be as scared this year.
After some romantic moments at the end of the pier, we proceeded to the bar where we chatted with King, passed him a hefty tip for taking such good care of us during our stay and we played a competitive game of Uno with a newly arrived teenager named Graham, who just couldn’t catch a break in the game and after getting pummeled by both Mike and I (you can’t help it, you have to play what’s dealt man!) retreated to his room.
We finished the night off with a couple more drinks, a few more mosquito bites (did I mention we went through 2.5 cans of bug spray here?) and more reggae tunes. Leon, the front desk guy that we have come to really like since he’s into mixing music, did several magic tricks for me that blew my mind and semi-impressed Mike who used to do some magic himself. Then after hugs, handshakes and sincere salutations to King and Leon we retreated to bed for our final sleep in the jungle.
As you’re probably sick of hearing, the food here is unbelievable. Because of this, several days ago we asked if we could please go into the kitchen and learn the art of flour and corn tortilla making. The staff here says no to nothing and Jessica kindly obliged our request and set it up for this morning. We joined Sharaden at 9:00am in her hot and tiny kitchen where we made the different doughs, pressed the flour tortillas out with our hands and used a tortilla press for the corn ones. Mike applied so much pressure to the tortilla press that it snapped and pieces went flying. We asked if we could replace it and they said that they would have to go to the other side of the country for a new one and that they would just try to fix this one. They didn’t make a deal over it and said it was okay, but I still felt terrible about it. The one and only time they have let people into their kitchen and we break their valued tools!
We cooked our tortillas on a well seasoned, worn and warped Kamal, a cast iron plate, until they were toasted and smelled good. Shariaden was so kind and gave us a ton of pointers that we are grateful to have learned and will apply in our own kitchen when we get home. We laughed and tried to offer her money which she refused. The fact that she came in to work an hour earlier than she normally would have to just to accommodate our strange request, took the time to print out her recipes and methods for us and stayed to clean up our mess was exceptional service and I felt bad that she would not accept a tip for it. But this resort, while it allows tipping, has tips built into the price and trains their staff on a very high level of service delivery. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with every single person.
After our lesson, Mike and I had huge smiles on our faces. We just love being in the kitchen! We grabbed a couple bikes and set off once again to Hopkins Village where we purchased our limit of One Barrel rum, Coconut Rum and hot sauces. We bought gifts for a few people and ourselves and leisurely peddled back to Hamanasi for a couple of Belikin beers and to begin packing our bags before lunch for our departure tomorrow.
For lunch I decided to cave in and have the burger and fries. The burger was really spiced up with flavor, it was so good and the fries were fries, but being dipped in Marie Sharps made them special. Mike had the chicken taco salad served in a tortilla bowl in honour of our lesson this morning. We chatted with Peggy about her birding experiences thus far and a conversation about herbal medicines and then we took the sea kayaks out for a tour of the coast line.
We set an ambitious goal, to see Hopkins village from the shore instead of the road, but biking it is far easier than paddling against the wind and waves. Even though the sea was relatively calm compared to most other days we’ve seen, it was still tiring and we gave up about half way and turned around. Sitting around doing nothing seemed much more appealing.
So that’s what we did until dinner time. We looked out at the water and watched the palms wave in the wind, feeling sentimental that we might never have this view again. We’ve been here longer than most people stay. The average stay is a week, so we have seen many people come and go and aside from Peggy and the staff we are the loners that we arrived as. We have enjoyed our stay here so much but feel as though we’ve done everything that we needed to do and experience and now we’re ready to go home to our dog, our own bed, our kitchen, our friends, family and our regular habits. Besides I am craving a caesar!
Dinner was our first repeat. We sat at the table we sat at on our first night, looking over the glow of the pool and the illuminated pier. We both ordered the broccoli soup and shrimp kabobs. Mike had the key lime pie for dessert and I had a sweet potato pudding with vanilla ice cream that was unique in flavor and to die for! If only we could have learned this recipe in the kitchen as well. MMmmmm. We posed for a few sad-faced photos, reflecting our mood about having to leave.
After dinner we took the remainder of our bottle of wine to the end of the pier. While it was beautiful and calm where we were, we watched several storms off in the distance over the sea. There was impressive lighting that reminded us we’ll be headed home to Canada Day shortly and get to watch the fireworks with our dog Abbey again. Maybe she won’t be as scared this year.
After some romantic moments at the end of the pier, we proceeded to the bar where we chatted with King, passed him a hefty tip for taking such good care of us during our stay and we played a competitive game of Uno with a newly arrived teenager named Graham, who just couldn’t catch a break in the game and after getting pummeled by both Mike and I (you can’t help it, you have to play what’s dealt man!) retreated to his room.
We finished the night off with a couple more drinks, a few more mosquito bites (did I mention we went through 2.5 cans of bug spray here?) and more reggae tunes. Leon, the front desk guy that we have come to really like since he’s into mixing music, did several magic tricks for me that blew my mind and semi-impressed Mike who used to do some magic himself. Then after hugs, handshakes and sincere salutations to King and Leon we retreated to bed for our final sleep in the jungle.
No comments:
Post a Comment