Exploring our new home

This week after work our main goal was to get settled in our place and to get familiar with the town.  Each day after work we had to rush downtown because the market and most of the grocery stores close at 5 so you have to hurry if you want to get fresh foods. Nicole had already had a little experience with the local markets and finding her way around town so we relied on her to be our guide for the first few days but by now Silan and I are pretty good at pretending to be locals.

We stand out fairly easily here though as we are still very pale and have yet to meet other tourists. Apparently there is a rumour going around St Vincent that all white people have a ton of money so we find ourselves having to constantly barter to get prices that locals would normally be charged! Someone should really let them know we are students and that the rumour is not true!

Thursday after work we were invited to join the students on their bus ride home to see where everyone lives and to check out the island. The driver promised to drop us off at Indian bay beach when we were done the tour so we were practically racing to get on that bus! The bus was an interesting experience as it did not have wheelchairs on the bus or custom seating so the children had to be propped or buckled in place but they all did surprisingly well on the drive. We saw a ton of the countryside and I had my head out the window snapping pictures every 10 seconds.

 The beach was a welcome treat! The water here is delightfully warm and the salt content is so high that you float very easily. Our landlord came to join us for a swim and give us a ride home. I , in turn was able to give him some swimming pointers and now I am going to teach him and his wife to do proper front crawl. Good thing Silan is a swim instructor to, I may need back up!
(These pictures were taken after our swim as the sun was setting.)

The locals seem fascinated by Silan, I guess they don’t meet a lot of Asian people here. One older man we were introduced to opened his conversation with Silan with the line “nice to meet you, you are looking a little Chinese”. He followed that by making a racist Asian joke: “Is it true that when chinese babies are born their parents throw a tin can down stairs and what ever name the can makes is the babies name?” Another guy just pointed at her eyes and said “I like this”. Silan doesn’t seem phased by the attention but Nicole and I have been kept amused!

 

Can you blame them for being amused by this!?!?!?

Friday night we went out to Heritage Square to “lime” with the newest American Peace Corp volunteers.(Lime is a local term that means a whole lot of things but most commonly it us used equivalent to Canada’s Hanging out or relaxing) We tried our first street food lovingly called “chunks and peas” sold by a rasta out of a basket, and tried the local beer sold by our 13 yea old bar tender at "Eli Bar".

Nicole is convinced the people of St Vincent are the 

most fashionable people she's ever seen, but after snapping

this shot of a leotard over white jeans, Im just not convinced!

Saturday we got up and had our first attempt at riding the buses. Here the buses are 15 passenger vans (at my highest count we actually had 22 people in ours) that drive at break neck speed (no speed limits here) and pick up and drop off where ever people are standing along the road. We managed to survive the bus, get to Georgetown and find ourselves a guide to help us hike to the top of La Soufriere The largest of St Vincent’s Volcanoes.

This hike was a 3 hour trek that was like the Grouse Grind, multiple trips up the wrek beach stairs and a jungle safari combined. Needless to say we were very sweaty and very tired by the top but the view was totally worth it. 

It started off downhill, not a good sign when you know how high you have to climb!

Some of the steepest stairs I have ever seen

And then the uphill started.....

Beautiful exotic flowers all the way up.

View from 1/4 mark

View from 3/4 mark.

We made it!

Looking down into the crater.

Sulphur still rising from the dome.

View from the highest point in St Vincent.

Nicole and our guide peeking over the edge.

Its a long way down!

After this hike we spent Sunday relaxing on the beach and letting our bodies recover!!!!