Hurricane Isaac

Reading my Lonely Planet guide before coming down here, i found out that August is peak hurricane season around here. The weather has been pretty good though - sometimes it rains at night and in the early morning, but it's otherwise sunny, and of course very warm and humid. All that until a few days ago, when we heard that tropical depression #9 had formed not very far away from us.. We watched as it developed from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, and waited to see it if it would go on to become hurricane Isaac (there's an alphabetical list of hurricane names until 2017, and tropical storms take the next name in line as they become hurricanes - so Isaac was the 9th depression this year to become a hurricane, even though - spoiler alert - it did get downgraded into a simple tropical storm again somewhere along the way...)

The storm/hurricane would not actually go through the Virgin Islands, but was expected to pass quite close to us on Aug. 22 (my birthday!) and 23rd, so we were told that we'd have to evacuate the campsite for its passage - so this turned out to be quite an adventurous birthday! After a pre-birthday/pre-hurricane surprise party organised by m. in our tent (i had such a good time! m. even got the chef to make me a little cake, and the girls from the art department made a pretty pretty happy birthday garland), we all started getting ready to evacuate. 

Before leaving the campsite, we had to make sure all tents were prepared for the storm, so as to minimize the damages - so we all went around the camp helping "hurricane" everything.

All glass windows were boarded up:

                        

our windows at the front desk!

In the tents, everything had to be safely stacked as far away from the windows as possible. All blinds had to be rolled up so as not to get torn by the strong winds, and doors had to be tied with zip-ties so as to prevent them from banging:

All the mattresses had to be propped up on the bed frames (to allow the water to drip down to the floor in case they get wet), and everything had to be bagged or stored in plastic containers (in order to prevent things flying around in the wind) and stored as far away from the front windows as possible:

It was a very interesting process, and kind of exciting! By that time i was becoming really curious to see what a tropical storm/hurricane would be like.... 

We left the camp on the morning of my birthday (four day weekend, woohoo!). A couple of friends are currently house-sitting for a gorgeous villa on the other side of the island, and we were lucky enough to be able to stay with them while waiting for the storm to pass - we had a couple of very nice dinners (we tried our first sloppy joes, and m. made his famous Yorkshire pudding), and the guys even made some awesome funfetti cupcakes for my birthday (we ate about five each and now cannot move anymore...). We also enjoyed the hot showers (no warm water at Maho, not that you need it, but still...), learned how to play a card game called yuker (lots of fun), watched movies and Louis Theroux documentaries, and, most importantly, got to catch up on the blog (the connection at Maho is so slow that it's practically impossible).

As for the storm, it was much less intimidating than i expected it to be (then again, it never became a hurricane after all). It became very windy and it rained a lot at around 8.30 in the morning of the 23rd, which was actually the time it was closest to us: 

That lasted about an hour - as soon as the storm moved on on its way to Haiti, Cuba and Florida (where it is likely to cause trouble for the republicans!) it all calmed down. The whole thing was much less exciting than expected, but it was still fun to get a couple of days off work and spend them in a nice villa, and get to hang out with nice new people. I have to say it was a pretty cool birthday! 

Sailing!

Last Saturday we went sailing with a few friends from work! Our captain was such a character – he paints his toenails blue, wears an earring shaped like a pirate sword and tells the craziest stories.  

His boat is called Windsong, and we sailed it all the way – didn’t turn on the engine once. The boys got very excited because they got to help out, and we all got a little introduction to the principles of sailing, which was fascinating.

We went to a small island nearby called Lavongo (island next to it is called Congo, quite funny). 

We went snorkeling 

that's me on the right!

and saw some pretty impressive coral: 

We also swam to a small cave on the side of the island, which was awesome and also a little scary..

Peter's Cave is right in the middle - there's a tiny little pebble beach inside!

The sail back was a little adventure – the wind dropped, and after waiting for a bit for it to pick up again, we had to push the boat with the dinghy…

...a task that m. performed very enthusiastically!!

 We made it home just in time for dinner, tired and sunburnt but very excited (it made me want to learn how to sail!).

(not particularly wild) wildlife....

I've mentioned the frequent visits we get in our tent from the animal kingdom - lots of bugs but mainly lizards... They are such funny little things! For example, this little guy likes to pop his head in from time to time to see what's happening: 

What they usually do is hunt bugs (which i'm really thankful for...) and also try to establish our tent as their territory by doing the funniest thing: they do push-ups, which i find hilarious (keep trying to upload a video of the push ups but it's taking forever so i'll just leave it for now.. but i did find this youtube link - that really does happen all the time!). Oh, also, occasionally they like to get freaky in our kitchen (get a room, guys!!!): 

And that is about as wild as wildlife gets around here. Though there are a couple of iguanas hanging out in  the trees around the campgrounds….

Other than that, the animals you mostly see around the island are feral, descended from previously domesticated household and farm animals. There are a lot of feral cats (though no dogs), but also chickens, goats, pigs(!),

and even cows and bulls (!!!):

My favorites however are definitely the donkeys: 

Yesterday we even saw a little baby donkey hanging out by his mama, walking a bit wobbly still and looking unbelievably cute:

 Main reason why i like them: they're so friendly and curious - like our roommate the lizard, they like to pop their head in to see what's happening :-)

America Hill

Since we usually work mornings, we try to go on hikes after work – the Virgin Islands national park, that covers most of the island of Saint John, is full of lovely trails, most of them not too long nor too intense – an average trail around here takes about a couple of hours. Some of them can be quite steep, but the most important problem seems to be the speed at which nature takes over.  Most of the less popular trails seem to be overgrown, so whenever you take one of those, there’s usually a certain amount of bushwhacking and also a certain amount of guessing as to where the trail actually goes… Being on a such a small island is kind of reassuring though – you can’t really get too lost, since at any given time you’re no more than a couple of hours from one of the two main roads or from the sea! So one can afford to be a little bit more adventurous than, say, in the black forest…..

So, back to our adventures…. A few days ago we went on the America Hill trail, which heads off into the hills near a lovely beach called Cinnamon Bay. Cinnamon bay is a lovely beach, not very far from Maho bay, where our campsite is. It’s national park territory, and there is a pretty cool National park campsite by the beach (apparently, that’s how the Maho Bay campsite got started – this campsite was overflowing with guests, so Maho was created to accommodate those who could not get into Cinnamon Bay). It’s got big canvas tent units, little bungalows, an open air cinema, and access to a gorgeous beach: 

The trail-head is across the street  from the campsite entrance. The trail was kind of steep and so overgrown that after some point we just started guessing – but we made it in the end, and it was definitely worth it!

At the end of the America Hill trail there are the remains of a red villa, with one of the most spectacular views on the island. 

I've been trying to find out something about the history of the place but nobody seems to know who it belonged to (the only interesting piece of info i managed to find is that one of it's last tenants is rumored to have been Trujillo, former dictator of the Dominican Republic). Now it basically belongs to the forest! The whole place is covered in beautiful flowers and trees. 

We admired the view for a bit, got stung by nettles, saw some millipedes cuddling on a tree, 

and then tried to find our way back through the bushes...

After we got down to the road, we went for a walk around the Cinnamon bay ruins – another abandoned plantation. You can walk around the old factory,

 and past the plantation cemetery, where the owner, his wife and children are buried

Apparently, the plantation house below was inhabited until 1968 (which goes to show how quickly nature takes over, since the place looks like it’s been abandoned for 200 years!).

Both the America Hill and the Cinnamon Bay Ruins Loop trails were a lot of fun, and relaxing at the beach at Cinnamon after a nice hike made it all even better! 

A small taste of the island

Hey everyone!

First update from the tropics today – everything is slightly primitive here (in a good way!) so going online is very difficult business… also, there is so much to do and to see that I really haven’t had any time to sit down and write what it’s like…. 

After a very long trip,

me and my bags...

i arrived in St Thomas about a week ago, and was greeted by a complimentary shot of rum!! Cruzan rum is almost some kind of island sponsor – it’s everywhere, and comes in many fruity flavors like coconut and mango.

After a taxi-ferry-taxi ride we arrived at Maho Bay, where the camp is  – the place is amazing! It’s made up of elevated wooden boardwalks 

and cabins that make you feel like you’re sleeping in a treehouse! Our tent is small but it is perfect. There’s a small kitchen/ lounge,

 a bedroom, 

and a small private deck with a bit of a view of the ocean! We get lots of visitors of the insect variety, and there are little lizards everywhere (I dropped some granola on the floor and then watched this little dude try to chew on the raisins for about half an hour)!

They’re friendly and harmless, and they’re more than welcome in this tent – they feast on mosquitoes and other very annoying bugs.

As soon as I arrived, we headed to the beach to do some snorkeling.. It’s like a natural history museum down there! There is amazing brain coral (it really looks like brains!), all sorts of funky looking fish, lots of huge sea urchins (spikes about thirty cm long!) – we got to swim with sea turtles (even a baby one!), sting rays (apparently there has also been some manta ray sightings but we haven’t seen any.,), we’ve seen squid, an octopus, lots of jellyfish (apparently these don’t sting – not that I’m willing to risk it!)

We spent the first couple of days hiking and exploring the island.  The island used to live off sugar – there were sugarcane plantations everywhere, and you can still visit the ruins of sugar production factories. The trail that takes you to Reef bay, were the most famous sugar mill ruins are, is fascinating: after walking for some time in what looked like an enchanted forest, 

populated by white tail deer 

and hermit crabs (they live in abandoned shells that they carry around with them, exchanging them for bigger ones as they grow bigger – funny little creatures!), you pass by a secret  waterfall in the mountains that used to be a sacred place for the Arawak (i think..)  tribe that inhabited the island. There, around a small pond in the rocks,  they have carved strange symbols on the walls, and pictures of birds and monkeys. 

                              (can you spot me in the picture?)

The sugar mill ruins at the end of the trail were fascinating – it’s so strange to think about all the slaves that worked and died here.  The place is completely abandoned except for the hundreds of hermit crabs crawling about, and also a colony of a different kind:

A couple of days ago we went to a beautiful beach called “Oppenheimer's” – apparently, Oppenheimer himself, increasingly worried about the effect the advances of science would have on mankind, decided to withdraw from civilization and bought himself a small property by the beach

Oppenheimer's beach

As you can see, he knew how to live! He lived here until his death, and his daughter committed suicide there a few years after his death. Made me think of this book (Kurt Vonnegut is brilliant). Sad story aside, this has probably been the most beautiful beach I’ve seen so far on this island…

Hmmm… re-reading this, it seems like all we do is go to the beach or to beach bars… we actually do work, and love it! I was lucky enough to have been assigned to the front desk. I work with some very nice people, there is a lot to do and to learn, I get to interact with guests and meet a lot of pretty cool people.

Ok - this is it for now! I wanted to post so many pictures but the connection is incredibly slow... so this is just a first taste - i promise to update this with lots more pictures as soon as possible! 

Big hug from the Caribbean! 

v.