over the water and under the water

HELLO!!!!!!!



i have been on many adventures lately.

FIRST of all, the menard brothers (dale and shawn) have arrived. i like them a whole lot and we have gone on many adventures together.

shannon, my former adventure partner has departed, which is sad, but here is a shot from one of our last adventures.




i had been working a lot in the past couple weeks and hadn't been able to go on many adventures. jamie, my boss, went home to visit his family for like 5 days or something so i was holding down the fort. this couple came who were kayaking around the island. they were so nice and i got to make them all sorts of good food! but when the menard brothers got here we had some more time to adventure.

i'm not sure how many times i can say adventure in this post, but i bet it's a lot.

one of the first adventures we went on was to a spot called the petroglyphs. the reason that it's called the petroglyphs is because the Taino indians carved petroglyphs into the stone of the mountain in this one spot at the base of a waterfall.

menards by the gazing pool!

the petroglyphs are supposed to bring fresh water and fertility to the area. to learn more about the Taino indians, please click here!

last year when i was here the petroglyphs had water in the pond but with all the rain we've been having there was a killer waterfall this time when we went.

oh and i climbed it.

so that was neat! above the petroglyphs up on a hill is something called the estate house. for every sugar cane refinery or mill or whatever, there was a lord or something that owned it. usually this lord (or something) had a really nice house above the mill to oversee it. the estate house is one of those formerly nice houses.

the estate house's only occupants as of right now are bats.

we are now training for bordeaux mountain, the highest peak in st john. it kicked my ass last year. this year it's ON!

we have also been on a plethora of snorkelling adventures, mostly around lameshur bay, but a couple other places too.

i am posting a lot of pictures to make me look like a badass. as you know. i am NOT. but underwater pictures make everyone look cool.

(dale says this looks like i'm doing dance moves here.)

(probably discovering a new species or something)

we have seen some neat things including but not limited too: sea turtles,

(this little guy is a hawksbill turtle. he was letting us check him out!)

(and he didn't even mind when i touched him!)

sting rays,

(i believe this was a southern sting ray)

big fish,

(this was probably the biggest barracuda i've EVER seen)

small fish,

(can you see the jawfish in this picture?)

crabs,

(found this hermit crab lurking in a conch shell!)

and various other underwater creatures.




sarah is getting here on monday, and we are going diving, so i hope to regale all of you with thrilling stories from that.

until then, i'm not sunburned, just tan! miss you all!