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Trip Report Part 2 - Cliffs
Once at Tensing Pen, our immediate impression was “WOW, how could we have not stayed up here before.” My wife is a definite beach person, I don’t even consider planning a vacation with her that doesn’t include a beach. However, she was totally sold on staying on the cliffs and absolutely loved everything about TP. It took her maybe 30 minutes from check until she was jumping off the bridge. It took me considerably longer to make that jump, but I got it done.
The little thatch roof cottage was super comfortable and jumping into the clear aqua water was sooooo much better than wading into the shallow water on the beach. I loved climbing out on a ladder and returning to my chair without a crust of sand on my feet. We also really liked how free it felt to jump in and not have a rope line limiting how far we could go in any direction. For swimmers, the West end is definitely the best end.
Another thing nice about TP was at check in they offered to have a case of Red Stripe delivered to the room for a price less than half what it would be to get them individually at their bar. So we headed straight to the water and came back to find a case at the cottage waiting for us. I also wanted some rum later, so a quick walk over to Wise Choice took care of that and a search for munchies introduced me to Rough Top Biscuits Coconut Drops. I can’t tell you how hard I fell in love with the coconut drops. Never had a munchie hook me like that. I was even eating them when I get up in the middle of the night to use the rest room. I only saw them in small bags, but would have bought them in a garage bag sized container if I could. Ting was another discovery for me this year. I had always ignored it, but this year I found it to be the perfect mixer for everything during the day.
Walking across the street to get lunch from Ras Rody’s and bringing it back to eat at our cottage was easily as convenient and probably just as quick as getting lunch at CSA. With a longer stay we surely would have stepped out further for lunch, but for 3 days I never got close to tired of what Ras Rody was serving. Friday night we ate at Tensing Pen and it was by far the best meal on this trip. Not sure if they are open to non-guests for dinner, but that meal completely rocked. Sunday night we went to Ivan’s and that was very good as well, pretty much equal to what we’re used to at CSA and a notch below our meal at TP.
We walked down past the light house to Whoopies one morning and then down to Push Cart the next. Easy walking in the morning, not thinking I want to do it late and/or drinking due to the narrow road and zooming cars. Before eating at Ivan’s on Sunday we decided to go to Ricks for sunset, have a few drinks, enjoy the divers and see the live music like we had done on previous trips. I’ve always defended Ricks as not being a rip off because you get live music without a cover charge and the divers work on voluntary donations. However, this night there was no band, the usual divers seemed to be mostly absent and the bill before tip was $21US for two beers and a plate of chips & dip consisting of maybe 14 chips. The service was very good and friendly, but add me to the “Ricks is a Ripoff” list if this is the new norm. I liked the youngsters working the crowd for diving tips from the rocks along the wall toward Banana Shout. Got a picture I really like of one of them leaping.
Overall, trip #8 might have been the best yet. With more time at Tensing Pen calling and an addiction to the coconut drops, I’m pretty certain this wasn’t the last trip and #9 will be in the works rather soon.
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