Guest Blog: Heather Patterson

Hello from Trinidad, everyone!

The Moira contingent of visitors arrived to visit Gayle and Paul this week (mission: Make sure they're coming back!).  We were warmly greeted (in more ways than one) after our overnight flight by Gayle and Paul at 6:00 am.  We drove (yes, us Trini newbies drove!) back to the apartment and caught a few zzzs, then headed out to the beach.  Getting to the beach involves a long winding drive up the mountains, with some gorgeous views.  We played a little in the waves, then went back to the apartment and headed out again for a hash.  I'm sure you know what a hash is by now, but just in case you're a new follower, it is essentially a pile of people running through the bush looking for a trail.  But it's lots of fun, with lots of great people, and it was a good end to Day 1.  And then we went to bed -- at 8:00 pm.

Gayle and Paul then headed back to the airport to pick up Jane, Dave and Grace (I'm sure you'll hear from them in a few days).  We slept through their return, and didn't get up until 8 the next morning.  Elephants could have walked through our room, and we would have missed it.  Sunday, we started early again, and got up to go visit some caves, and even got to go swimming in the caves.  Incredible!  Next on the agenda was a swamp tour.  I was a little doubtful, as Paul pointed out the dump we could see from the highway, and explained about its proximity to the swamp, but this turned out to be a very cool tour.  We saw the national bird, the red ibis, coming back by the hundreds after a day out of eating.

 

 

Monday saw us out on a hike through the forest with our new friends and Gayle-Paul squatters.  We played in a waterfall, and floated on our backs looking up at the forest canopy.  Beautiful!

This country is pretty amazing, whether you're in forest, in the water or visiting a swamp.  One of the benefits of visiting Gayle and Paul later in their year in Trinidad is that they've had time to vet out the tourist attractions that simply aren't worth it, and do find the hidden gems.  One of those was the hummingbird house, Yerette.  Upon arrival, we could see hundreds of hummingbirds, all zipping around, feasting on nectar and generally hanging out.  As I stood taking pictures, it sounded like bees near my head as the hummingbirds were so close, and I could hear their wings moving.  What an amazing site.  And since we promised to spread the word... Did you know that hummingbirds are pollinators, just like bees?  Those little guys are not just cute, amazing little birds, but they are essential to our ecosystem.

Probably the best part of the whole trip, however, was the chance to catch up with Gayle and Paul.  They are doing great here, making friends everywhere, and staying very busy.  You're not going to rest if you go on vacation chez Miller-Pickard.  A visit to their school proved to us that they are right at home there, and are learning lots to bring home with them.  Yes, yes, we checked it all out and it meets with the high standards that we expect for these two.

And now, we head off to Tobago!

Not Just Another Moonlit Walk On The Beach

Sometime in March each year, the Leather Back sea turtles begin their annual migration to the warm waters and course sand beaches in Caribbean Islands to lay their eggs. The unspoiled northwest beaches of Trinidad are among the favorite landing sites.  Before we left Canada, the Nature of Things showed a documentary about Trinidad's sea turtles. We've been looking forward to "Turtle Season" ever since.

One of our teacher colleagues emailed in February that she was organizing a turtle trip so we jumped at it. Upon further consideration, we realized that March 6th was very early in the season and that we'd be very lucky to see turtles.  Despite being less than optimistic, we loaded up the car with another teacher and her mom on Friday after school and started the trek to Grand Riviere.

Trinidad is about 80 km wide if you can draw a straight line.  The road from Maple Leaf International School to Grand Riviere skirts the bottom of the northern mountain range, goes around the eastern end and about 18 km back west.  The total trip is 110 km each way.  In Canada, we'd allow about an hour and half including a stop a Timmy's!  Here, the mountain roads twist and turn. There are lots of pot holes and wash outs.  The trip took over 31/2 hours!  Needless to say, we were very happy to have reached our destination! 

Upon arrival, the owner of the guest house greeted us. She was helping to organize the turtle viewing permits and told us that the sightings that week were quite late and rare. The rest of the teachers and guests arrived, we ate, and settled in after dinner. I was just about to organize a game of cards when our turtle guide showed up at the door.

There was a turtle on the beach!  It was only 8:30!  The chaotic buzz of excitement was palpable as we put on our shoes and grabbed the cameras.

The nearly full moon guided our way to the nearby beach.  Five minutes on the sand and we found her!  Her shell was about 1.5 m long. She was amazing! 

We watched closely as she used her rear flippers to methodically dig a 60cm hole for her eggs.  Within about 10 minutes she was done and entered her trance.  During this time she lays about 50-80 eggs.  After the guide help to measure, insert an RFID chip and clip flipper tags, he showed us the egg chamber as it filled with slippery white orbs that were slightly smaller than tennis balls. Once that was done we were thrilled to learn that we could touch her! Cool!

 

After about 20 minutes, she started to cover the eggs and camouflage the area.  When she was almost ready to enter the water,  we noticed another turtle coming ashore!

What a treat!  We are hoping to go back in a few weeks to see the hatchlings!

Of course there are more pictures in the gallery!

A Crazy Week - March 1 to 6

Last week was a busy week, and it reminded us of our former Canadian lives. Here is a recap:

Saturday: 

- Up at 6 am and off on a full day hike near Braso Seco. 

- Home by 6 pm and squeezed in a bit of school work

Sunday: 

- Up at 6 am for our weekly bike/roller blade on the highway. 

- Home by 7:30 so that Paul could go and volunteer with I Can Adventures for the morning.

- Pick up frisbee at 5 pm and to celebrate Diana's departure, ice cream at Hagen Daaz.

- Home at 7:30, just in time to finish the weekend with some prep for school.

- Paul continued to fix hacked Maple Leaf website

Monday:

- To school by 6:40 to teach for the day.

- Paul kicked off the deer hunt for elementary students.

- Gayle ran a Science Fair workshop for grade 4.

- After school volleyball "training" for elementary kids by Gayle

- Paul continued to fix hacked Maple Leaf website

Tuesday:

- Regular teaching duties

- Deer hunt continued

- Gayle ran a Science Fair workshop for grade 5.

- Paul coached elementary soccer after school

- Frisbee at 7pm

Wednesday:

- Regular classes

- Gayle coordinated University of Waterloo Math workshops

- Gayle ran a Science Fair workshop for grade 6

- Deer hunt continued

- Paul had his math class test the new laptops which was not glitch free :(

- Paul led PD at after school staff meeting

Thursday:

- Regular classes

- Deer hunt round 2

- Gayle ran a Science Fair workshop for grade 5

- Paul attended the PTA meeting after school to inform them of the Sports Day plan

Friday:

- Regular classes

- Left school at 2:20 to go and see turtles on the north coast

Needless to say, the week flew by!!!

Macajuel Pond and Many Smiles

When a hike in Trinidad starts with caution tape, "Police Line Do Not Cross", you know you are in for an exciting day!

Without any major plans for the weekend (grading tests, planning lessons, recreating the school's hacked website and volunteering at an obstacle course event don't count) we decided to join Emile on yet another Saturday hike. To be honest, I wasn't overly excited about venturing to Macajuel Pond at 6:30 am and I became less excited as we were still driving deep into the Northern Range at 8:30am.

As soon as we hit the trail at 9 am, the beauty of the mountains, the fresh clean air and the luscious green rainforest vegetation put a smile on my face. Well, that smile grew as the wore on. In driving to the trailhead, we drove through Braso Seco, and well know hamlet for thugs and murders. No joke. So when we walked past the police tape, it wasn't overly shocking. Yes, it was a bit disconcerting, but not shocking.

Soon the sights took over our thoughts, as we stumbled upon fresh nutmeg, grapefruits, oranges and coffee plants. Some nutmeg managed to make the journey home. I'll let you know how the cookies turn out! We arrived to a nice, simple waterfall after about 2 hours of hiking - the Madamas waterfall. We snacked, swam and chatted with our fellow 7 hikers. With a fast river walking pace, we left Madamas and we soon found ourselves upon a gorgious gorge. It was SO fun manoevering through the gorge, plunging into the water, skirting across logs, jumping off of rocks and swimming through caverns. Did I mention it was super fun? This trek brought us to Macajuel Pond. Now you might be wondering what macajuel is? It is the Trini name for a boa constrictor that is often found in fairly large numbers at this pond.

As luck (if you like LARGE snakes) would have it, we later almost stepped on this monster boa in the river. It must have been about 8 feet long, and thankfully it looked like it had just eaten. I think it is one of the coolest things we've seen so far in Trinidad.

Anyway, the rest of the hike was relaxing, and we managed to stop for buss up shut (a favourite Indian food of curried meat, dhal bread, pumpkin and sweet mango) on the way home. It was a great day. Oh - there was one more thing that made us smile, and perhaps shake our heads. As we were driving through Port of Spain, they were painting the lines of the road - BY HAND...WITH BRUSHES.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures!