Today we had big plans to it the western parishes again for some snorkeling and pick up some gifts. We caught the #10 to Hamilton earlier than usual but were unaware that it was on a school run. This means that it winded its way through several small neighborhoods we’d not seen yet. It extended the ride by at least 20 minutes, but I’m really glad we happened upon the bus. The interaction between the pedestrians and the bus drivers, and even the interaction between all motorists is very friendly. There seems to be a custom where you honk at people you know, and they honk back. All the car horns are the “meep” type found on Japanese cars. Even the busses had benign horns.
Most of the honking was a single sounding, though sometimes people would honk twice, or even three times on a rare occasion. I never figured out what the differences were. The seemed to relate to traffic issues like right of way and such, but I’m not sure. The honking was both annoying and cute at the same time.
Anyway, we got to Hamilton, and then took the Ferry across the great sound to the Dockyard again, did some shopping, then took the #7 down to Somerset Village. There’s not much there, but we were looking for snorkeling. We ended up doing some walking to get to the Somerset Long Beach, which turned out to be a lame snorkeling site. However, the walk, like the bus ride, was very enjoyable. We got to see some out of the way houses and the “impoverished” part of the island. Considering the mean per capita income is $68k, (among the highest in the world) poverty has a very different face in Bermuda than in less fortunate countries like the Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti, and the United States.
The two places we had looked at snorkeling were a bust, so we headed back to grab some lunch then try some spots on St. David’s Island (including a shipwreck). Sadly, while we were on the boat for lunch, it had to change its mooring, which took nearly 2 hours, and we missed our bus rides to St. Davids. We watched some shore hands struggle with the lines for so long that it was painful. They appeared so inept that it really made us wonder where the extra $200 in port fees that every cruise ship docking in Bermuda was going.
We looked around St. George for a while, winded through some alleyways, and spent some time at Tobacco Bay. While there, we watched an entourage of around 60 cars and scooters packed with teens tooled around looking for a party.
Since the boat was leaving Bermuda in the morning, we went to bed a little early so we could fit some more snorkeling in before leaving.