and the moral of the story is that i will NEVER throw a rock at a mongoose again

So greetings again from ST J!!!

Here's a lovely picture to get you started on our journey!

This is the lovely view from the side of Little Lameshur Bay at the beginning of sunset.

So here are some things I've been up to recently: going to the beach. kayaking. snorkeling. hiking. oh yeah, and office work (I do have a job down here, it turns out).

I've been enjoying it all. INCLUDING the office work. It's been really interesting to talk to different people from the island. Turns out I'm SUPER white. But I'm acclimating.

Because it's not very exciting to take pictures of people doing office work, I decided to post pics of me doing the other things I referred to.

I went out for dinner with the other VIERS folks and some researchers for one of the researchers' birthdays. It was super fun, we went to this restaurant called Island Blues. Usually they have karaoke on Wednesdays but it turns out they're discontinuing that this summer. But it's pretty much in the ocean it's so close:

Elle, Shannon, and I really blurry at Island Blues. I had fried Mahi and a Red Stripe. GREAT!

When we got back, Shannon and I decided to investigate our bathroom. Lately we've had an invasive Cuban tree frog living in there. Well don't worry, he still was when we got there, but he was going NUTS. Definitely jumping all over EVERYTHING.

Nice leg extension, dontcha think?

We were a little frightened he would jump AT us.

The next next day it was ANOTHER researcher's birthday. So we went on a celebratory hike. The hike that we went on was out to this point right on the tip of our Bay (Greater Lameshur Bay). Super gorgeous hike with lots of examples of local plant life.

Oh this? This is just where I'm living this summer. NO big deal.

Found this wicked crevice on the way there.
Unfortunately there was a giant cactus blocking the way down.

This hike led out to this cool rock where you could jump off into the ocean.

Um this is me being as awkward as possible while jumping into the ocean.
Notice the nose hold.

Made it in safely. NO WORRIES!

That day ended in an EPIC potluck dinner with all of the people at camp at the time. We had some amazing West Indian food, some curry, some steak, some sweet potatoes, and some red velvet cake for desert. I had to roll around on the ground for awhile after that. I promptly went into a food coma and got tons of sleep.


NEXT day. Shannon and I had to clean out the gutters (which sucked and we smelled bad). But then we went down to the dock for a sunset kayak ride.

We found this amazing little hermit crab on the way!

I LOVE KAYAKING. And our bay is super great for it, bc it's pretty well protected from the current. So we got out an about pretty well!

I'm a professional.

The sunset started to get really interesting, but the water was also so clear that we could see all the way down to the bottom!

Sunset photo op! AND SOO happy to be here!

The light was really cool on the walk back from the dock. And unfortunately it is almost impossible to catch cool light on your camera. Except for this time.


I think that's a pretty great parting note, yes? More to come. Miss everyone, and wish you were here!