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Published: March 26th 2009
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Phagwa!
Some said I came out well, others the opposite. My money ended up being pink, so when I bought Roti for lunch the next day I got a big smile from the Indian at the register March 16, 2009
Hello all,
Thought it was about due time to update my blog. I’ve got three weekends of excitement comin right up. For starters, the weekend after Carnival a group of us set sail for Tobago, a small island off the north east coast of Trinidad. It’s part of the country of Trinidad. Very friendly. One of the girls on hall is from there and she used a hookup to secure a couple villas for us, real cheap, as in hostile prices. We had a couple small pools, a dog named Shiloh, and a peacock on the grounds. The beaches on Tobago were amazing. Small waves lapping the shores, big waves breaking on the reef a few 100 metres out, locals giving ‘deals’ on glass bottom boat tours and jet ski rentals, and the sun was intense. Much hotter than Trinidad, less cloud cover maybe…I have no idea. They’ve got a lot of cool vendors as well, lots of artwork made from coconut, calabash (it’s kind of like a gourd, but grows on a tree), leather and random things that wash up on the beach.
Apparently the thing to eat while in Tobago is Crab and
The Ferry
Leaving Port of Spain on the catamaran style ferry. Dumplings, so I did. It was all right, real messy…who wants to eat crab with a spork. I improvised, cut corners and ended up satisfied. Another highlight was getting out windsurfing in the Caribbean, good times. Skimming across the water, you can look down and see the reef flying by. The water was pretty shallow in most places and I was lucky enough to pass a sea turtle limin with some plankton. We ran into a guy who hooked us up with an actual deal on boat tours, 50 TTD instead of 90…the normal ‘sale’ price is about 70. So that was nice, we took a nice cruise out to the reef, saw some interesting fish, went snorkeling and spent some time at ‘Nylon Pools,’ which was just some shallow water in the middle of a bay, surprisingly cold to be honest. The reef was actually really damaged, it looked sick. Apparently, guides use to encourage tourist to swim down and break off pieces of coral for souvenirs. Laws have been passed, enforcing them doesn’t always happen and the damage has been done. I hear there are much better reefs to visit on the north east side. Next time. The
Safety First
As I said, quite inspiring. Crooked sign and upside down flag. fairy ride was real rough out to Tobago, but the ride how was smooth seeing how we were going with the waves. I missed my first class Monday because the fairy left an hour and a half late…caught up on sleep though. Sorry for only having one photo, my camera started acting up upon reaching Tobago.
The next weekend turned out to be a little too exciting. A group of us from Milner, my dorm, went to the ‘Staff Social Club,’ which is just down the street about two blocks. On the way home, about eight of us passed a group of sketch guys that started to give us trouble. Everybody in the front of the group got away, but two of us got caught. Somebody turned around for her while the rest went back for help for me. I had five or six guys on me, I told them to just take my stuff hoping that’s all they wanted. Apparently kidnapping is pretty common here, but I’ve been told they don’t like Americans because things get too complicated. I hope that’s true. They ended up jacking my phone and empty wallet, save for my student ID. Hopefully that’s
Up Stream
The majority of the hike to the waterfall was spent going up this little crick, good thing it was a short way. This was not easy to navigate. the extent of the trouble that I’ll end up in while here. I took the next night nice and easy, caught up on sleep. Please, DO NOT WORRY about me. I am OK.
Back to fun stuff, the weekend after I felt like I should shed some stress. Saturday, I went to Rampanalgas Falls with the UWI Hiking Club. We stopped at the local Police Station to let them know we had a group going out. It was a pretty run down station and they didn’t even have the wits about them to hang their national flag right side up. Oh well, we let them know and it was fixed on our way home. Back to the falls, it was about a 15-minute walk in, mostly up a stream. The jungle is kind of thick. The waterfalls were gorgeous; it had three levels with each level 10 – 15 feet in height. The lowest pool was deep enough to jump into so everybody was having fun cliff jumping and swinging on a rope. And there were barely any bugs, it was great. On the way home we stopped at a beach, the name escapes me. Nice little fishing bay
Rampanalgas Falls
The lower level of the falls, Travis and I are stoked to see the cliffs and rope swing. Cowabunga! with some surf on the opposite side of the point. They even had homemade ice cream, coconut flavored. All in all a good day, when we got back I found out the graduate students were throwing a party on hall so it turned out to be a full day.
Sunday also turned out to be an adventure. One of the girls from the UW got a hook up with the Hindi Society on campus and five of us joined them in celebrating Phagwa, which is also known as Holi or the Festival of Colours. There is story behind the celebration, check it out if you’re interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phagwa. I was told it is also the celebration of spring and the new year, of which is 2066…I believe anyway. The festival entailed the singing of a few different prayers in Hindi and then throwing abir over everyone. Abir can be a powder or liquid dye. All in all, it was pretty awesome. The little kids were a blast, even adults had fun with the abir. My hands and hair ended up getting dyed too, so I’ve been walking around with pink hands and multicolored hair. I’ve been getting a mixture of
Bakanal White Boy
"Crazy" white boy flipping into water, wha d hell? Made the locals a little nervous. He survived. stairs and smiles around campus and town. It’s been a good conversation starter, but I’m looking forward to non-pink hands.
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Joelle
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wooow!
Wow, awesome pics evan.. you know how jealous i am :)