Today was another great day, although it didn't start out
that way. George had wanted to go to a service at the Catholic Cathedral for
the cultural experience, and although Irnice wasn't interested I said I'd go
along. We were woken up by Wayne at 6:30 because he thought we wanted to go to
the 7:00 service. We were just getting up because we were aiming for the 9:00.
So we sat, relaxed and had breakfast. Jane phoned and asked if we would forgo
the service so we could get underway for today's journey asap. We agreed that
they'd pick us up at 10, so we decided we would wake Irnice up at 9:00.
However, Jimmy apparently told Wayne (who brought Velma) to pick us up at 9:00,
so we had to scramble around and rush Irnice while I made her a sandwich and a
coffee.
Anyway, away we went. On the way we picked up Gloria, Jane
and Jay, Kent and Jimmy. I was jammed in the back seat beside Gloria and Jimmy
who talked nonstop. They were loud and impossible to understand. We stopped at
a sorry little state park with a tiny waterfall and after a short stop we
continued. The roads today were even more windy with lots of switchbacks
through the beautiful scenery along the coast. We stopped at Dark View Falls.
This is a lovely tall waterfalls. Jane told me that around the corner there
were a set up stairs to the top of the falls where there was another waterfall.
So Irnice, Jay and I headed up. It was a steep climb and really hot but luckily
only about forty stairs. When we got there we had to walk up the river over
stones to get to it. The easiest way was to take your shoes off and wade up the
river. When we got to the base of the falls I found there was a pool of water
there. I waded in and walked right under the falls. It was lovely and cool but
pretty hard on the head. Jay joined me too. George came up too, but couldn't do
the whole river wade. We sat up there for a while before descending. When I got
down I went under the other falls too.
The last stop was on the way back at an authentic Vincie
beach. There were lots of local people, a couple of gazebos selling food,
people playing cricket and two booths of loud music. Jimmy told us to come and
get some food. It was a local stew that frankly wasn't appealing. It contained
a few root vegetables, a bit of beef, pig skin and goose parts. I ate the
veggies and the broth and discarded the rest. After that I went swimming. The
beach was black volcanic sand and the water was calm and warm. I swam some
crawl and snorkeled around. I saw two small eels, two small lobsters under a
rock, several lion-fish and hundreds of other small reef fish hanging around
small piles of rock just off the beach.
The van on the ride back was even more crowed us they brought
back two more women that they knew from the beach. After we dropped them off it
became quieter as Jimmy fell asleep. We dropped everyone off and arrived home by
6:00. George boiled some corn and I made a sardine sandwich and had a beer.
Brief chat and then we all went to bed by 9 to get a good night's sleep before
we start work.
We've been talking about why so many of the union people come
with us each day. Other than Jane none of them talk to us and just talk to each
other. There is no talk about education either. We've concluded that they
probably don't have their own vehicles and this is a way for them to get out
and see their own island. It's just fun for them. They don't seem to want to
interact with us and are clearly not interested in us either. Too bad. George
thinks that because the Project Overseas program has been going in St Vincent
for so long they just take it for granted.
No comments:
Post a Comment