Day 3: Rum Point or How I Was the Only Student Not to Get Burned

Wednesday was our first full day off.  It was also the first day that the sun appeared!  Great timing, Mother Nature!  We rented a van and drove on the LEFT side of the road to Rum Point on the other end of the island.  And by “we” I mean my friend Ryan, brave soul that he is.  There were about 9 of us in the van and it ended up being $13/ piece after filling up with gas.  Now, this SOUNDS like a good deal until you multiply it out--it cost us $117 to have a minivan for less than a full day to drive 1 hour to the other side of a 22 mile long island!  I’ve noticed that cab drivers (and other services) just charge a per person price that seems reasonable because you think “sure, I’ll pay $4 to drive 3 miles from downtown to our hotel.”  But in actuality, there are 8 of you in the cab and you just paid $10/ mile to get home after dinner.

Just a few notes about our trip.  I get carsick and, of course, forgot to bring Dramamine.  Quick point of digression: I brought pretty much the REST of the medicine cabinet.  I brought Imodium, aleve cold & sinus, benadryl, bug spray, Neosporin, bandaids, aloe, sunblock, aleve, vitamins, Claratin, etc.  But no Dramamine or tums, for that matter.  Tums would have been a good one as well.  At any rate, the carsickness ended up being very beneficial.  As a small person, I would have been relegated to a middle seat in the back but as a potential vomiter I got clearance to ride in the roomy front seat near the window and AC.  It worked out well also because Ryan was a bit of a crazy driver and was passing people on turns and everything—having a front row seat helped me by allowing me time to prepare myself for the impact.  I heard other people in the back were a bit afraid.  I was just impressed he was able to stay on the left side of the road!

Anyway, the scary, nauseating and long drive notwithstanding, Rum Point was totally worth it and I had a fabulous time.  Also, I was positively neurotic about sunblock application (I used a ½ bottle of spf 55) and ended up being the only white person on the trip without a nasty sunburn.  I’d done too much work on my tan to get burned and have it all peeled off! Nevermind that whole skin cancer thing—been there, done that.  I got teased about my sunblock neurosis but totally take pride in my awesome tan but no burn. :)

Here are some pics from the day, which was uneventful but for the photos, it being a day at the beach and all:

 Ben looking like a real tourist

 Law school folks gettin' some chow

 Study Buddies definitely NOT studying!

 Showing off my hard work from the last few months...  I did pick a far away pick on purpose.

Beach, 'nuff said.

 Some cool sea creatures

 My current computer desktop

Ben diving in the "no dive" zone... I'm reporting this to the Bar... j/k

Beach where we were hanging

This sign was cool because it showed all the hurricanes that have come through.  Thanks to the random tourist for pointing it out.

Funny!

Part of the group.

One final note about the beach that the photos won’t capture: The water was about waist high out very far.  That shallow water was really great and quite peaceful.  And, obviously, crystal clear like other Caribbean waters.  This shallow water also allowed waterlife to come visit us while we were chilling out, which was SOOO cool.  We were all standing around talking and whatnot and we see this dark black shape coming relatively quickly towards us.  It was actually quite scary at first—thoughts of Crocodile Hunter and Jaws ran through all our heads.  But as the shape came closer, we saw that it was a large stingray with its stinger missing (hence being safe!).  I got to touch it—the top was surprising rough and the bottom was smooth like I expected.  Now that I’ve done that, I feel little need to pay $35+ to go to Stingray City to do the same thing on a large scale.  I’m satisfied to just sit around our beach (Seven Mile Beach).