Shhhhh....It's A Secret Beach

Phew! I once again survived another Mini! Although it seemed a little harder than the first two (probably because most of the material covered on it was no longer review), I felt like I did pretty well and should find out my exact result later on this week. With the anticipation of my potential grade looming over my head (when you study so hard for something, you are kind of anxious to find out how you did), I had all of Friday (after the Mini of course), Saturday, and Sunday to participate in all types of shenanigans that were unrelated to school. This weekend was the first time us First Semesters really had a break from school to just relax, celebrate, and not feel guilty that we weren't studying.

Most of my time off, as you can probably guess, was spent at the beach. Now, during the days of our previous two Minis, it had rained and been cloudy. But this weekend, it was clear blue skies! You know what the means...sky's out, thighs out! That's what us really pale-skinned fellas like to call tanning and spending time in the sun. And we couldn't have had better weather for it.

Waves crashing against the retaining wall just outside of my room.
The soothing sounds put me out like a baby every night. 

So with a little extra time on my hands this weekend, I wanted to enhance the beach experience by doing something a little different. I wanted to explore a place that I had been hearing about called Secret Beach. From what I had heard, before I actually went there, was that Secret Beach was this small beach/bay that could only be reached by water transportation. People told me that it was just a beautiful, serene place to go when you have nothing else to do that gives you an idea of the true natural beauty of Dominica. So that's what I did. 

To get there, a friend and I rented a two-person kayak from the local water-sports man that rents equipment to students and other tourists. He urged us to leave all of our valuable items with him for safe-keeping just in case we happened to tip over the kayak or something crazy like that. So we did, minus a bag with my wallet, water-proof camera, a couple of waters, sunscreen, and the sunglasses that each of us were wearing. After convincing the rental guy that we had indeed kayaked before and that we were good enough swimmers not to need life-jackets, we set off on our journey to Secret Beach. This was the first time that I had seen the Portsmouth/Picard area from several hundred yards out from the shore and, honestly, the scenery was breathtaking. The mountains, the green forests, the crystal clear water, and the boats anchored in the harbor...astonishing.

To get to Secret Beach, you basically need to head south a little less than a mile from where I live, but, once again, you can't get there any other way than by water. When you're on an adventure like this, it always makes working-out a lot easier...paddling about a mile through wavy water is actually pretty tough, especially when the Caribbean sun is baking down on you. Despite the physical exertion it took just to get there, the anticipation of seeing this "secret" beach was pretty motivating and the sight of it was very rewarding.

I don't remember exactly where it's from, but I feel like I have seen this arch in a movie before.

The Secret Beach Resort is located to the left of this picture just on top of the cliff. 

Most people think that the reason Secret Beach is called "secret" is because of the means of travel that you need to take to get there. I agree, but I also think that it's called "secret" for an additional reason. A reason that neither my friend nor I were not told about...and that reason would be how the heck you are supposed to land a kayak on this beach with 5 foot waves thrashing you about every which way (the pictures above do not do those waves justice!). Long story short...we flipped. A huge wave turned our kayak sideways and both of us had to bail as our kayak flipped over, along with all of our belongings and paddles. After initially making sure both of us weren't hurt, we had to gather up all of our stuff that was diffused throughout the water and finally set foot on Secret Beach. Mission accomplished. A little unorthodox on the landing, but it got us there. It only took about twenty minutes before both of us finally realized that we were each wearing sunglasses when we flipped. Oops...I guess they are buried treasure now! Before we left the beach, I thought to myself, "If it was that difficult riding the waves into shore, how the heck were we supposed to get out of there?" It wasn't pretty, but I am writing this blog, so it is safe to say that we survived.

Tomorrow marks the first day of Block 3 (Circulation and Respiration) of my first semester. Man, the days are going by quickly and before I know it, I'll be back in the U.S. on break.

I hope everyone back in Minnesota is enjoying the snow! It doesn't snow here...obviously. Until next week.