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Published: July 27th 2008
HEY ALL!!
Tuesday through Thursday I was at Sabazan, the other site on the island. This site is headed by a UW phd student that is doing a project about faunal (animal) remains there. The set up is a lot different than Grand Bay. We only have 5-6 people so it is a lot less crowded/chaotic. We also have much smaller and deeper trenches...instead of one big 5X5, we have 4 small 1X1s scattered throughout the site. They are dug straight down, so they get pretty deep. The ones I was working in were over a meter! That means that you basically have to get down in the trench, trowel a little bit, turn around, and do it again. Good thing I'm not clostrophobic! We also wet screen EVERYTHING at Sabazan, so it gets a little tedious. The site is absolutely gorgeous, though, so it makes up for the extra effort.
This Friday, we took a day trip to the big island of Grenada. We rode the ferry in, then got on a tour bus and began our tour. We visited a fort and learned a lot about the island's history, including the American "intervention" period in the early 80's.
Our tour guide was really good I never knew there was so much to see...I swear we went about 100 mi on a 13 mi long island!! We saw a lot of old hurricane damage from the last hurricane in 04 or 03...its sad that a lot of the structures aren't repaired yet. A lot of the big houses and churches were semi-demolished and abandoned, but ironically, the cheapest looking tiny houses were from the 1960's--aid from Hurricane Jenny--that weathered the storm just fine. We also got to go to Belmont Estate, a plantation from the 1700s, where they grow cocoa beans to make Grenada Chocolate Company chocolate! AND I got to taste some and buy some. We had this tour guide named Ward who told us all about making chocolate which was really cool. I had no idea it was so complex. For lunch, we went to a local restaurant where we had the national dish of Grenada--oil down. Its a kind of stew with breadfruit, callaloo, bananas, crab, chicken, coconut milk and a lot of spices. It was soooooo good. They didn't have any claw crackers, so we asked one of the guys how they cracked they crab
claws and they said they did it with their teeth, so thats what we did!! Its actually easier than you would think. We finished off the day by seeing some local dancing and drumming, which was pretty interesting. All of the people involved were drunk (there was a half full overproof rum bottle to testify) and most of the dancing was rediculously sexual. It was nearly impossible to keep a straight face when there are two middle aged people practically grinding on the floor....hahha.
well, I'm going to the beach now, so I'll catch up later!
--ALR
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Marion
non-member comment
Looks wonderful!
Hey there...seems like you are having a great time. I'm glad that you are getting a chance to travel about a bit....do you notice a major differnece in the cultures from island to island? We think of you as we watch the "Weather Channel". Your Dad wonders if you are getting blown off the map from the weather patterns they show. Hopefully it's just a brief tropical storm or two.-the skies look pretty good in your pictures. Enjoy your last 2 weeks! Marion