I read a person’s post the other day about expectations. This person had planned a beach camping weekend with her children and had so many visions/expectations of how idyllic it would be. It wasn’t and she became miserable. However when she let go of those expectations and just let things happen, she enjoyed those moments and had a great time, despite it not being what she expected or dreamed of at first.
Why am I telling you this? Because today we had the expectation of seeing flamingos and Mike kept telling me last night don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen. My thoughts rearranged themselves and I let go of expecting to see flamingos, to instead just seeing some new piece of the island and maybe a bird or two we hadn’t seen before and feeling really grateful for that experience.
We were up early waiting the call to see if the flamingos were at the spot, the call would be between 6 and 6:30. By 6:45 no call came so we made breakfast of ricotta pancakes topped with starfruit jam and fresh papaya.
Around 7:20 the call came the flamingos were at the spot. Our host gathered us and off we went, learning some things about the birds and how to stealthy approach the flock.
No flamingos, they have flown off by the time we arrived, but we did see a Yellow Crowned Night Heron and we know the way to the special spot so we can go around 6 a.m. to see if they are there. I wasn’t disappointed, I let the expectations go and really enjoyed the small time birding with our host.
At the house we packed up for the day. Our plan was to go down North and check out “Poseidon” Beach in Burnt Ground to snorkel. There is no beach access but rocks would provide entry. It was one of the best paved and beach roads we’ve encountered so far. Once we arrived we knew snorkeling was not happening, the seas were to active for us to safely snorkel, so we walked around instead.
Our next stop was to revisit Columbus Monument. They are widening and working on the access road. Even though it had road closed sign, we were told on weekends we could go. Word of advice, don’t go, the road is island type closed further in, no way to safely get to the the monument.
Where to next? Stop at the beach and reef at Cape Santa Maria or rather Calabash Bay. We set up our gear and went for a snorkel.
Again our timing was off with the tide, it was going out and an after lunch snorkel was not possible. Instead we walked to the end of the beach were we found our dream house if we win the powerball and another reef to explore in higher tide.
We returned back to the apartment and keeping with our Sunday afternoon tradition, of having a beer in a brewery, we had to substitute a beer at the bar here on the property. We are usually parked at our local brewery at noon on a Sunday, so this had to suffice.
We then lazed about till dinner time, again having leftovers for dinner and discussing thoughts of where to stay next summer.
Mike’s sunset float followed dinner.
So today we could have been disappointed if we held tightly to what our expectations of the day should be, but instead we went with the changing plans and had a great day.
CTHikergal Travels 
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