The Hash at Cockleshell Bay

This was the first Hash we have done with the St.Kitts group and let me tell you, it was tough! Above is the view we had from the first large hill we had climbed. Our starting point is on the far left part of the picture and we walked along the beach and up the mountain to where you are seeing now.

We invited our friends Craig and Bree and their 3 children along with us so they could partake in the fun as well. There are parts of the day we couldn't tell them, but we did tell them that you cannot wear black shirts and to wear tennis shoes. I said that this was very kid friendly, but this particular walk was quite tough and all the children that were on the hash were struggling with the climb. I know that I will wear my hiking boots next time.

So that you can understand what the hash is all about, check out the link below and it will tell you all about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers

To start the day, we met at Cockleshell Bay at 3:30pm and waited for the rest of the hashers to arrive. Once the briefing was over, the whistle blew and we were off. The kids were excited they had friends from school there and had lots of questions about exactly what was going to happen. One of the things that we couldn't tell them was that since this was their first hash, they were known as "Hash Virgins", that there was a celebration at the end of the walk that would initiate them into the Hash Club. More about that later...

We start the walk by walking around the restaurant called The Spice Mill, and it is located right on the beach with a brick oven for pizza and lots of other goodies. This has been on our list of places to eat, but haven't made it yet. Past the restaurant begins a grassy area around the point and then the long stretch of beach with soft sand that makes it a bit difficult to walk, but what we didn't realize was that this was the easy part. After glancing up at those hashers ahead of us, we realized that they were headed straight up the mountain. This was not going to be easy, but you cannot turn around, because that is very, very naughty to do. The mountain has lots of loose rocks and briars. The kids were real troopers and made us look old because they were able to get to the top of the hill without the heavy breathing and red faces. Once we were at the top, the view was amazing. That is the picture you see at the top of the page.

The terrain gave us a bit of a break and was level for a very short time and then it was time to start up the next mountain. This one seemed to go on forever and ever. Ron has his "Schtick" that Dad made him, so he was able to go up the mountain with a bit more ease. So far his back is holding out, but his toes are giving him fits. I didn't have my shoes tied tight enough, so my shoe would stay where it was and my foot would give way and slide around. We stopped part way up to fix these issues and catch our breath. The crowd was slowly passing us. Once at the top, we sat down for a few seconds and then started back down the mountain. The consensus was that this was harder than the climb up! I turned both my ankles a couple times, Ron slipped on a few rocks, but was able to recover quickly and the kids got a good lesson on how to walk sideways down a hill. The lady behind me thanked me for finding all the loose rocks for her so she wouldn't fall. I was most gracious and told her that if I found them first then that meant she wouldn't be falling on me and that she was most welcome for that.

We can see the bottom of the mountain getting closer and closer, and level ground is fast approaching. Whew! Everyone is glad that part is over. So much for my statement of "Kid Friendly". At this point, everyone is heading straight along a dirt road and around the large pond. We had a chance to cheat and take the road, but again, that would be very, very naughty so we followed the rest of the pack around the big pond.

More than an hour has already passed, so we know we couldn't be to far from our destination. No worries now though because we are on level ground and able to breathe normal and determined to reach our destination. Didn't have a lot of choice but to reach the destination because the bus doesn't run out here and you were not going to get any pity.

I could see the flags in the distance and thought that these were the flags on the beach, but they weren't. These flags marked the entrance road to Cockleshell bay and much to our surprise, this road has an incline. That isn't fair, we had already walked uphill enough for one day. Of course we laughed at the fact nobody realized that this road had an incline until now and persued on.

We reached the finish line with much excitement ready for some cold beverage and food. The sky clouded up and this beautiful rainbow appeared and then another one beside it. You could actually see where the rainbow ended but nobody wanted to walk up the mountain to find the pot of gold.

Now that we have cooled down and hydrated ourselves, we notice the runners haven't arrived. After a few minutes, the runners arrive by boat because thier path had led them to a dead end and many false trails. As a surprise to them, a boat showed up and carried all them back to where we were.

The religious advisor climbs on top of his beer crate to start the celebration. First on the list is to thank the Hares that laid the trails. They were shown appreciation by singing the Down Down song, which we can't remember the words, and had to down a full bottle of beer without stopping and the beer they didn't finish was poured over their head. Next on the agenda were welcoming the Hash Virgins. Craig and Bree were among the virgins who were about to be intiated. They reluctantly but admiringly went forth. They were all summoned to kneal in front of the religious advisor and proceed to be introduced and something sarcastic was mentioned about thier names and some even got a special trickle of beer on top of their head. Once all are introduced and a few laughs had by all, they were given a fresh bottle of beer and told to drink it down. Again, the Down Down song was sung and the drinking began and within seconds a beer soaking broke out and we all had to run for cover. You can see part of this in the photo below.

Craig and Bree were no longer Hash Virgins and I explained afterward that I couldn't tell them what was going to happen or I would have been on my knees in front of the religious advisor with beer being poured on my head. Now they will have to find some virgins to take along next time. There were a few more recognitions and punishments that went on and luckily none of us were called upon to participate.

We hung back and watched the goings on and ate our snacks we had brought, the kids played on the beach and ran around until after dark and then it was time to call it a day. Everyone was ready for a shower. A couple of the kids soon forgot the struggle and decided they were going to do another hash. I believe everyone had a good time.

The next hash will be Valentine weekend and we are all told to wear red, so that is what we will do. Hope you enjoyed coming on the hash with me and as always, there is more to come...

More hash pics on my website.

Market Morning

Yesterday was quite a busy day. I got up and out and was in town at the market by 7:45am. We were quite low on everything since I had not been foraging for food all week. The elections were last Monday, so we stayed far from the city and I missed the boat from Dominca with all the fruit. Here is a picture of the market before vendors and people.

Anyway, I scored some great herbs at the market. While I was parking the car, I spotted flat leaf parsley across the street. Don't ask me how I did that, but I did. That of course was my first stop and I was happy with my find and went about my way down the crowded side walk to find other treasures that the farmers had so graciously brought with them. As I am walking, I feel so much like I am in a movie for some reason. To the left and right of me there are ladies and men with their long dreads tied up in colorful scarfs and hats with all of their goodies scattered on cardboard or cloths ready for someone to take their pick. Some had fresh pigeon peas still in the pods, along with carrots, potatoes and other vegetables that I am not quite sure of the names. Mounds of sorrel, which are a rich ruby red, are stacked on tables along side of sweet potatoes, pineapples, christophene and plantains. The colors are just beautiful. It could be the morning sun hitting them just right, but whatever it is, it is beautiful. I proceed down the walk to the main market, which is an open air building painted in bright colors, and there a so many early risers bargaining and chatting with the vendors and a minister who has his speakers on top of the car, preaching to all those that will listen. Actually, you don't have much choice but to listen, because it is very, very loud. Everyone that passes says, "Good Morning" and I smile and extend the greeting back to them. Once inside the market, there are tables all in rows and the farmers have organized all the fruits and vegetables so you can see them easily. I decide to start at the right side of the market and work my way back because I really don't have a list of items, I am just going to wing it. That will be the adventure for the day, lol. Whatever the market has is what we will eat. On Saturday mornings, and only on Saturday, the butchers are there to sell their meat. Curiosity has the best of me and I decide to venture in and see what they have. It actually wasn't as bad as I expected. The forever burnt memory of the first time I went into the Bridgetown market and saw the head and feet of so many pigs propped up on the shelf for all to see, is something I just can't shake. To my surprise, it was mostly slabs of half frozen meat that they were chopping up for their customers. One thing in particular is an Ox Tail, that is chopped in segments all the way down the tail without going completely thru, so it can be used to flavor soups and stews, only to be picked out later if you decide. Don't get me wrong though, the thought of turning vegetarian is highly likely once you have been in there. There is no refrigeration, the machetes they are cutting with are rusty and who know what was on the countertops before they arrived. Just to confirm your thought, NO, I did not buy any meat.

As I was walking out of the meat market, I saw a table that had alot of herbs on it and I was happy to purchase a huge bunch of fresh basil. I can taste the bruscetta now, yummy. By this time my friend Bree has come and we wonder around for a few minutes to see who has the best items so we can go back and make our purchases. The last time we were at the market, one of the vendors had a bunch of herbs tied together, and if you touched the tip of your index finger to the tip of your thumb, that is about how big around this bunch was. These herbs were used to make Bush Tea. I had bush tea at the cooking class and didn't quite capture the concept of it, and so I had to ask lots of questions about how to make it and all that. Just to make a long story short, the one very important question I didn't ask, was how much to use. To make a long story short, we drank bush tea until I don't want to look at it again for a while. The same vendor was there this morning with the herbs for bush tea, but I didn't buy any. The bunch consists of basil, mint, lemon grass and cinnamon leaf. I have to find out more about the cinnamon leaf, it is commonly used in alot of dishes here on the island.

Bree was a real sport and humored me and walked thru the meat market again. I just had to show her what an island meat market was like. This is her first time living on an island and she just needs to experience some things. We giggled and passed on the offers that the butchers were trying to sell us. Now that she was ready to be a vegetarian, back out into the market we went.

It is funny because I notice now that I have been to the market a few times now, the prices are cheaper. Huh...wonder why that is? We are starting to know some of the vendors and it never fails, someone always asks if we are students at Ross University. At my age, I love being asked if I am a student, lol. Little by little, our bags are getting heavier and heavier and soon we will have to leave or we won't be able to carry the bags. Mine was full of pineapples, mangoes, ortanique oranges, cucumbers, pumpkin, tomatoes, bananas, avacodo, papaya, christophene and herbs. This was the first time that I have seen mangoes at the market, so that means they are coming into season. One thing I didn't see were breadfruit and we love to eat breadfruit. It is a nice alternative to potatoes. There is a breadfruit tree in the middle of town that is bearing breadfruit, so I will have to go check that out and see if any have dropped on the ground or are at least within my reach.

With a smile on my face, I lug the heavy bags down the street to Bree's car, cause she parked closer and she gave me a lift back to my car so I wouldn't have to carry the bags so far. So nice of her to do that.

I will now venture over to the grocery store to see what they have and that will determine what we will be eating for the next week. Should be interesting. This afternoon we are heading to walk with the Hash House Harriers, so I know that I need to make some energy sustaining food to get us thru that. I started a batch of dough for breadsticks before I left the house, so with my gorgeous bouquet of basil, I believe that pesto may be on the menu for today.

Stay tuned for the next post....The Hash

Routines

Routines are wonderful aren't they? There is something comforting about starting your day out the same way, it just makes it feel like your day is going to go as planned.



The routine I have developed since living here, is that I wake up (without an alarm) between 5:30 and 7am every day, even weekends. I wonder into the main area where I see my husband drinking his coffee and watching the news. By this time he has a couple cups of coffee under his belt so he is very awake and sometimes very talkative. After 10 yrs of marriage, he understands that I am not that awake yet and sometimes just cannot comprehend what he is talking about. If I do, I respond and if not, well, I just wonder on past him toward the coffee pot. I pour my coffee in my favorite coffee mug (Army Mom) and head for the porch. When the door opens and that wonderful sea breeze hits my face, I smile and breathe it in. I sit on the couch outside and watch across the street as the construction workers get dropped off to start their day and all of those motivated people who are walking, running and walking their dogs. The ones I admire most are those who are walking the hill beside our house. I have not tackled this yet, but I will. Maybe someday I will know their names or at least wave to them and they will wave back.



Sometimes I am entertained by the family of monkeys that migrate through our yard. It is funny because I never see them on the weekends, only weekdays. Where do they go? There are days that I grab my camera and take pictures of them or video. I have included a video for you today of one morning they were very playful. If you notice, most of them will look before crossing the road, others just trust the monkey in front of them. Rumor has it that if one of the monkeys cross first and the one behind it gets caught by a car or something that makes it turn back, they beat up the successful monkey that made it across. I have yet to see this, but I can't wait.

While all of this is going on, I watch the sailboats on their journey to wherever they may be going, the kite surfers getting in that morning rush and the sun just starting to peek over the mountain. Once the rays of sunshine start coming over, I know that my day has started. Sometimes Ron gets to see the monkeys and sometimes he has to go to work before it starts. He giggles and says, "Don't be to lazy today..."

Lazy is something I am not to much of these days. On my days off in the states, I would sometimes just stay in my pj's all day and lay in bed or on the couch and watch TV all day long, and not even go outside. Now I will stay in my pj's all day, but that is because I am going to be cleaning and sweating, and the pj's are already dirty, so why change into clean clothes, when I can just use the ones I have on. Then I can take a shower and be clean all over. Sometimes on a hot or very busy day, I will have 2 or 3 showers. That was normal on those days that I was unpacking from morning until night. I would work until the clothes I had on were soaked in sweat and I just couldn't stand the smell anymore and would take a very cool shower, change clothes and back at it again. I also realized that my daily perfume was no longer flowery or fruity, it was baby powder and bug spray. Mosquitoes seem to be attracted to perfume, so they win, I don't wear it.

When I go to town, the items in my bag have changed as well. While my bag in the states was like a brief case and I just couldn't do without anything in there, priorities change and my bag now consists of a bottle coozie, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and of course my wallet. I will drop my iPhone in there when I am going to be spending a long time in town because I will head to Sweet Lime for a nice cool drink and some WiFi time.

I also realized this morning that I haven't left the house all week except to walk to the beach with Ron on Tuesday. Monday I cleaned the family room, exercised on the Wii for a couple hours, cooked something, but I don't remember what and crashed early. Tuesday, I cleaned the living room, made something in the kitchen and walked to the beach with Ron. We had leftovers, but I couldn't tell you what they were, isn't that awful? Wednesday, I didn't clean at all, I decided to cook all day. A friend came down and she made a pile of pancakes to freeze for her kids, I tried my hand at tortillas, but that didn't turn out so well, showed them how to make macaroni pie, made a caramelized onion and mushroom quiche, and then we had steak, macaroni pie and salad for dinner. I also made a batch of Biscotti that was the best I have made yet. Yesterday, after making a loaf of bread so Ron could have a sandwich at lunch, I mainly worked in my office all day trying to get things organized. I made hard copies of all the photos we have taken since being in St.Kitts and that took 4 Cd's. A couple friends came by and we shot the breeze for a couple hours and then back to my office. My goal is to be completely organized this time around. There is nothing more frustrating than to know what pic you want and have to go through 20 Cd's to find it, or looking for a document and not know which file it's in. Let's hope I stick to the plan.

Today is Friday and now that the sun has come up, my coffee is gone, it is time to start the day. I believe some yoga is in store for me this morning. I was quite stiff this morning and that is probably from sitting at my desk for so many hours yesterday. We may head to the beach for happy hour this evening, who knows. I will have something out for dinner either way. But what will that be?

I believe I like this blogging thing, because it is like I am talking to each and every one of you like you are here. I hope you feel that way too. Enjoy your day and I will be blogging diligently for you...

My First Blog

This is my first post to my blog. I am very new at this, so please be patient with me.
It has been a while since updating everyone on what we have been doing. Basically, nothing exciting has been happening. Since the last time I sent out an update, our belongings arrived and I have been very busy unpacking and unpacking and unpacking. I did discover a little friend in the house and we played hide and seek. Mainly, he would hide and jump out from a box or something that I moved. He (I have named him Jasper) is a lizard that is about 2 inches long and I swear I heard him giggle a couple of times when I would jump back.

The only time I have been out of the house is to go to the market or the grocery store. I did take a couple friends to the cooking class that I had attended when we first arrived and they had a great time. Afterwards, we went to the market, the hardware store and to the grocery store. We call it "Foraging for Food" here, not grocery shopping. Seems appropriate to me.

On January 20, we celebrated our 10th anniversary.Ron took me to this quaint little French restaurant down from our house and it was great. On Friday, January 22, the last box was unpacked and on Saturday morning, we went to Nevis for the night. Now, that was a real trip. There is a car ferry that takes you from St.Kitts to Nevis and it arrives and leaves at different times of the day. We decided to take the first trip over (9am) so we could get in as much time as possible. Normally you would drive the car on and then drive the car off when you get to your destination, however, not here. It is one way on and one way off. First thing that happens is all the cars have to get into a line (facing the opposite direction of the boat), and then someone comes around and chooses who goes on first. We were second in line to be told to put the car on the boat. All cars have to back up onto the boat and there is someone to guide you on where you need to be and also move the pieces of wood around so that your car doesn't get stuck on the ramp when the water rises and falls. I decided that I would rather watch this event from the outside of the car rather than from the inside, so I waited in a covered shelter until all was done. The depth perception of the locals here is phenominal! I realized that all of these people put their full trust in these guys to make sure the cars get on safe and sound. There wasn't more than 2 inches between the cars. The ride over to the sister island only took about 20 minutes or so and it was time to drive all the cars off. This went much faster and I got in the car for this. It was quite bumpy, but successful.

Once we were on land you could see just how beautiful the island was. Luckily, I remembered to bring a map of Nevis so we would know which way to go to the resort. Even if we turned the wrong way, there is only one road around the island, so we would have found it eventually. The resort was Oaulie Beach Hotel and it is a charming, tucked away gem on the Caribbean Sea. Since we arrived so early, our room wasn't ready, but that was ok with us because we would change into our swim suits and settle down into one of the many lounge chairs under a palm umbrella or a nice shady almond tree. Both are abundant on the resort. We went to the bar and had our welcome drink and then off we went. The lounge chairs were nestled under a palm umbrella with a light breeze and the ocean was at our feet. Heaven is the only way to describe it. I could feel all of the tension of the past couple of weeks just start melting away. AAAhhhhh.....that is until a father decided to ignore his child until she felt the need to scream DAAAAAADYYYYY over and over and over as loud as she could until he answered her. I was very close to yelling for him myself to answer her. Then a gentleman behind us answered his cell phone and was doing business with someone from New York. I think working while laying on the beach should be outlawed. I mean really, you are there to relax, right? I know that is what I was there for. Thank goodness for my iPod. I plugged myself in and started to relax once again. I made sure I didn't play Soca music because people would have thought that I was having an epileptic fit. I just can't seem to keep my hips still when that music is on, so I closed my eyes and let Jack Johnson drown out the kid and the workaholic.

Ron wasn't quite ready to relax, so he grabbed the snorkel gear from the car and went for a swim. Once he was back, he was ready for lunch. The restaurant was behind us, so we grabbed a quick lunch and then our room was ready. Our room was at the end of the resort tucked away just waiting for us. It was called Paradise Cove and as soon as we walked in, we knew why. Inside the room was a king size four poster bed with a canopy and one side of the room as all glass that had a door that opened up to a screened in patio that faced the beach. We were only yards from the beach. Oh, this is going to be great! I see two hammocks right outside that are under palm trees and I can't wait to get out there. We drop our stuff in the room and outside we went. I got one hammock and he got the other one. The pelicans came in to feed and that was so entertaining. We must have layed there for a couple of hours watching them and dozing in and out.

At one point, I could hear someone yelling my name over my music and when I looked up, I saw Ron pretty much hanging upside down in the hammock sideways. He is yelling "Help!" and once I realized it was him who was yelling for me, I looked at him and said, "Do you really need help or are you just fooling around?" He chuckled and let me know that he really needed help. He must be out of practice relaxing, we must work on this some more. Afer a while, we moved to the lounge chairs and were chatting, when I looked up and a monkey was eating the almonds under the tree right beside of us. They were so cute! They entertained us for a while longer and we layed out there for a couple more hours until the sun was about to set and we went to our room to get showered and ready for dinner. On our way to our room though, something had left us 4 large piles of surprises. I looked at Ron and said,"Monkeys don't poop that big, do they?" We hadn't seen anything big enough to make this mess, until I looked up and a big bull walked right behind Ron. I pointed and said,"There is your culprit!" Of course, we couldn't just walk away. We had to take pictures of the poop beside Ron's shoe so you could see how big and also follow the bull to the rest of the herd and take pics of them too. We couldn't be the only ones to see this, right? Once the novelty of this had worn off, we were ready for our showers and something to eat.



While Ron was taking his shower, I watched the last of the sun go down and to my amazement, I saw the green flash. That is something I have never seen before and may never see again. Ron was very jealous and he will not rest until he sees the green flash too. We had a great dinner and settled into our lounge seats on the patio and watched the stars until we just couldn't hold our eyes open anymore.

We hopped up early so we could go for an early morning snorkel and more lounge time before we had to check out at 12. What a great place to snorkel! That is once we got past the gasp coming from our mouth as we got in the cold water. It was worth it though. We must have seen 40 lobters, no joke! I wanted to grab a couple, take them back to the kitchen and see if they would cook them up for free. Ron wouldn't go for it. He wants to keep this place a secret I think so the lobster will grow really big and we can get them later on.

Check out time came and our next adventure was driving around the island. Now, if you remember, there is only one road and this island is significantly smaller than St.Kitts. Total time for the ride was less than an hour. We found ourselves turning onto a dirt road to a place called Coconut Grove and it was this enormous Tiki Hut! There was a huge social area with large couches and oversized coffee tables and a wine bar. The roof was a real thatched roof that took a team of men from Dominica 6 weeks to complete and it was absolutely amazing. We had a great lunch and then it was time to catch the ferry back to St.Kitts. I still didn't stay in the car for the this, I waited and walked on. The trip back was just as pleasant as the first one. Calm waters and great views of both islands.

Once back on St.Kitts, we headed home and dropped our suitcases off and headed toward this little beach I had found that I thought would be great for snorkeling and diving. It has a small beach, a bar, a dive shop, a restaurant and a roped off snorkel area. Ron really didn't want to go in because it was about 4pm by this time and it would be dark soon, but I made him go anyway and he was really glad he did. It is going to be a great place to go for us. I can see this becoming a hang out for us on the weekend with other dive friends. We stayed to watch the sunset, but no green flash this time.

You can see more pics of our weekend on my website under the heading of St.Kitts.

That is all for our anniversary celebration weekend. I will write more later.