Monday, March 3 — After being in the jungle at Shelter Bay marina for over a month, we were used to waking up to a cacophony of chirping birds. This morning, there were chirping birds, but they were overshadowed by crowing roosters and car traffic. The air smelled distinctly of smoke. Yup, we were back in a city. 

We were sad to report that it never rained. At 0900, Eric was at the marina office to request that the water be turned on so we could rinse the boat. While rinsing the boat had certainly helped with the salt accumulation, in order to eliminate it, we needed to hand scrub. We did some scrubbing in easily accessible spots, but we’d have to go back to scrub the rest of the boat later. We also noted that the marina’s pipes have a significant leak — no wonder they only turn them water on upon request.

This morning, we found out what the warning that the locals were too nice meant. At several different points in time, we were greeted by locals offering assorted services. And when we said no to one service, they had another and another and another service that they offered. They each kept pushing until they found something we’d buy. One roped us into buying locally grown coffee, another a jerk spice mix and jerk sauce. Both promised to procure “the best” and return later with their respective products. And in all fairness, both products were indeed great, though we suspect the markup for the delivery was huge.