The lack of tumbleweeds are really the only thing that distinguishes this town that I live in from the wild west. The streets have random crabs, feral dogs, and wild horses walking around though. The buildings have seen better days, and by that I mean most of them got pretty damaged in the 2008 hurricane and a lot of them haven't been repaired. So there are a lot of boarded up windows and such. The shops and bars are just very reminiscent of an old west town. There really is no government present here on the island, there are about four police officers that don't really do anything. Violence isn't a huge problem here, but there have been a couple bar fights since I have been here, people pretty much just deal with their own problems. If we are trying to find someone in town, we basically just wander the streets and check the bars until we find them. I don't use a cell phone or carry anything but cash really. Shops are open at very irregular hours, but if we can generally just ask whoever runs the store to come open it up if we need something and it isn't open for some reason.
Our "gym" is a drained swimming pool. It is built on the side of the island and has an amazing view of the ocean. The pullup bar is a tree branch, and for everything else all we really have to use are cinder blocks and tires. This is probably the best place I have ever worked out at though, I will miss this for sure. Besides, as the post title says, it makes GTL super easy because I do all three at the same place. Gym pictures:
Friday night we went camping at long beach. We took vans as far as we could on the one road that runs up that part of the island and then walked down the hills to the beach. The spot where we parked the van was actually not very far away from the highest point on the island, so I went up there and took a 360 video, and threw it up on youtube, take a look:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzHz7FuwZZc
I got some good pictures there too, and then went down to the beach to help with the campsite. Almost everyone from the program went camping, so there were a good amount of tents on the beach. Me and some friends pitched ours at the end of the line and made a secondary fire pit. We ate dinner on the beach, watched the sun set from high point, and then chilled at our fire pit. By this point, some members of the group were having a rougher time then others, the bugs were pretty bad, there were lots of sand flies and mosquitoes of course. The beautiful white sand got everywhere too, an inevitability of beach camping. I changed into jeans and a long sleeved, lightweight shirt once the sun went down and ended up being very comfortable. The temperature was wonderful the whole night actually. The fire helped a lot with the bugs, and we had a great time just chilling there, listening to good music, talking, and watching the stars, such a good view of the stars. On the horizon we could see a patch of light coming from Grand Turk, an island too far away to see during the day, it being a good 30 miles away. I feel asleep outside by the fire, but sought shelter in my tent once it died down, the bugs were rather vicious. I have around 10 sand fly bites on every square inch of my feet, but that's just an estimate. I woke up and watched the sun rise the next morning, and it was really peaceful. Then it got hot.
I was in the last van out of the beach, so I got back to the center just in time to participate in our weekly site cleanup that we have on saturdays. I was not looking forward to it at all, seeing as I really didn't sleep that much and was covered in sand and bug bites. Then I found out that my room was on waterfront duty, and my day got so much better. I helped one of the interns clean the zodiac, one of our boats with bouncy rubber sides. We keep it anchored away from the dock so people dont mess with it. It was basically go grab my mask, then swim out there and hold my breath while I scrub the bottom of the boat, and it was a lot of fun actually. The water was super refreshing, just what I needed, and I felt awake enough to go on a snorkel when I finished. We took a boat out to the far side of long cay and drifted in with the tide, swimming around it and back through shark alley, and getting back on the boat there. On the way we saw a lot of really cool things, including this one little patch that was probably the most intense square foot of reef I have seen. It was a patch of bladed fire coral, with a long spined sea urchin inside, all surround by fire sponge, with a spotted moray eel in residence inside it all. The best was the eagle rays. I'm used to seeing them, one or three at a time, and they are still amazing and worth following as long as possible. But yesterday I found myself swimming with a group of TWENTY spotted eagle rays. So crazy. There were also big schools of jacks and other fish, the tide coming in must have been very nutrient rich because everything was out feeding. It was a great snorkel.
Stayed in and watched the Giants game with a Phillies fan from the room next to me before we joined everyone out at the bars last night, since american baseball doesnt get played much here, and by much I mean at all. Go Giants though! Figured I would make this a long post since I probably won't be posting much until after I come back from break.
No comments:
Post a Comment