I woke up this morning, sick about my missing pictures and videos from yesterday. The wifi signal was actually decent (maybe 4:30am is prime wifi signal time in Hell No, Roseau?), so I googled how to recover deleted files from an SD card- with low expectations of it actually being a possibility. Came across a program that said it would recover up to 2GB of files for free!! After that, it would be $69. I didn’t think I had that much data. Hmmmm. You had to download it on to your computer, which always makes me nervous, so I researched the program and found that it was highly recommended! With nothing to lose, I downloaded it, followed the steps, and damn if all of my pics and videos magically appeared!! I saved them all to the folder on the PC again, double checked they were there, and wa-la! Crisis averted! I hereby declared to Brian that today was going to be recovery day- not just for my files, but for this trip in general!
After recovering the files, I finished almost all of the work I needed to do- at least enough of it that I wasn’t freaking out. The signal died right when I was doing the very last set of tasks, but I can live without those for now. We drove out of town at 9am, hoping to keep the gestapo car rental place from seeing that we were here and making another demand that we waste our time by coming into the office. We drove up a road called Valley road toward Middleham and Trafalgar falls. Oh man, was the scenery FANTASTIC! Just a few miles out of Hell No, Roseau and it was like being in a different world! It’s this amazing valley, with towering green mountain walls on either side. So lush and primitive looking that I told Brian I expected a dinosaur to be standing around the next blind curve (which would have been more welcome than a car in the middle of the road barreling toward us!). After about 45 minutes we reached a fork in the road. Left was Middleham Falls, right was Trafalgar falls. We decided to go left. Found the parking lot, and headed down the trail. Let me preface this with we had done zero research on this. Well, enough to put it on our “to do” map, but there were no notes or anything about it. We figured it couldn’t be too far down. So with just the camera, we headed down the trail. Just the camera. No water, no snacks. The trail turned into rainforest stairs. Around every curve was another huge set of steps, carved into the side of the mountain and held into place with a piece of a log. Up and up and up we went. It was pretty damn hard core, especially for couch potato me who never works out. The only saving grace was that it was overcast. Had the sun been out, we wouldn’t have made it. It would flatten out a bit, we’d get excited, and then more stairs. We checked the gps to see if we were even getting close to the damn thing. Who knows since we were doing more “up” than “over”. We had no clue how far away it was. It could be 10 miles one way for all we knew. I was getting a lot tired and a little bitchy- about ready to turn around. We then came to an intersection where there was a sign that said Middleham Falls! About that time, something on the opposite trail jumped out of the bush, on to the trail, and back into the bush on the other side! I excitedly declared it to be an agouti rabbit! It had the size and body shape of an agouti, but a back end like a rabbit. Brian said it was an agoutibit. Research after the fact says it was in fact just an agouti, no rabbit hybrid. (Side note: I’ve eaten agouti in Belize. We should have caught the damn thing and saved it for later. #thefoodstruggleisreal) Other than that, the only wildlife we saw were 2 black snakes that crossed our path, which I thought was a rare treat!
This is the face of someone who is not interested in climbing yet another huge, endless line of rainforest stairs….
We had to go down to this bridge. And then right back up…. Had it not been for Brian, I would have turned back.
Finally! A sign indicating we are on the right path! Little did I know there was a long, long climb down (which meant a return trip UP!)
Black snake. Research says most likely Alsophis antillensis- harmless.
We followed the sign toward the falls. And the trail went down. Down, down, down a zillion stairs. I knew that meant we’d have to come back up them. The stairs turned to slippery boulders. I was sure we were going to break an ankle and I’d be testing my trip insurance’s medical evacuation rider… I considered turning around several times, because again- we had no idea how much further the falls were. Brian is the only thing that kept me going. Finally we saw a glimpse of it through the trees! I said, “There it is! Now let’s turn around!”. No such luck. We forged ahead over damp roots and logs and boulders and finally made it to the end. It was MASSIVE- pouring off a huge cliff. We reached it at 11am. So a little over an hour in. Probably about 2.5 miles or so, which felt like 20. It was another climb down another trail to get to the pools. No thanks. This was beautiful and it was enough! We headed back, and my knees were dreading the back up to the intersection, then all of that down, down, down. Honestly, it went a lot faster than the going up seemed. We made it- about 5 miles total I’d say! Hot, sweaty, a bit dehydrated because we didn’t bring water like idiots, but satisfied with our accomplishment!
Brian’s gorgeous vertical panorama shot of the 200 foot waterfall
Drove back down the road to the fork, and went the other way to Trafalgar, eating a little jerky and some pistachios along the way. I declared that if it was more than 2.5 miles round trip, it was not happening! And that we had to get more water!! Along the way, a man put his hand out. We stopped to give him a ride. His name was Anthony. He asked how we liked driving here. I asked if he wanted us to be polite or tell him the truth. He laughed. He said the tourists here don’t know how to drive on the left. They mess up and drive on the right sometimes. And that the left side is the right side and the right side is the suicide! Ha!! There were lots of big, gorgeous houses up here. I asked him if this is where all the rich people live. He said no. That every house is owned by the bank, and if you don’t pay them back within 25 years, you lose the house. That’s not rich. He’s right. We told him we needed water. The market on the main road was closed, but he said he knew another that was in town down some narrow streets. Sure enough, there it was! Brian got out and got water- we never would have found it without Anthony! A bit further up the road and he said this was his stop. We bid him farewell and headed toward the falls. $5 US each to get in. I asked how long was the walk. 10 minutes there. PERFECT! Paid our money and headed….up. Ugh, more stairs! I told Brian these people need to put their waterfalls on flat land. He said they do, they’re called rivers. Smart ass.
Who is richer? He who has a big, fancy house owned by the bank, or he who owns his small, simple house outright?
A short hike up led us to a MAGNIFICENT set of twin waterfalls! Oh my god, it was gorgeous!! Huge canyon walls around us. Wow. Just WOW! We scrambled up some boulders and found a secluded little pool about 12 feet wide with a mini waterfall pouring into it. Normally, river water is COLD. This water was literally perfect! Brian went in first. There were spots where he couldn’t even touch the bottom! I really wanted in, but had left my swimming shorts at the car. I’ve swam in my bra (which looks like a swimsuit top anyway) and panties before. What the hell. Went to pull off my dress and realized I hadn’t worn a bra! I sat there, sulking, lamenting a society that lets Brian run around with his tits out but frowns upon me doing so. Fuck it. I’m going in. I had Brian do a quick check for incoming people, peeled off my dress, and slipped into the water. It was so nice. Like to die for so nice!! Especially after that long, sweaty hike! So far, this is my most favorite place in Dominica! I want it in my backyard! Dominica Waterfall Tips:
If you want to do one waterfall, pick Trafalgar. If you want to do both, do Middleham first, then Trafalgar where it’s easy to swim and cool off after the massive hike to Middleham!
Puerto Rico Crested Anole (Anolis cristatellus). Introduced species.
WOW!! Stunning falls!! We went up the one on the left.
Our gorgeous pool with perfect water temperature (and that’s saying a lot coming from perpetually cold me!) that we want to buy and never leave!!
I’m sure I’m breaking multiple Dominican laws. After what I’ve been through though, it’s worth it!
Our view looking out from the pool…
After we swam, we walked back to the car and headed back toward Hell No, Roseau- this time on a different back road than we came in on. It’s lovely back here. Lovely and peaceful with a great vibe! Got to town, and headed south toward our next stop of the day- Champagne Beach. This was a big tourist spot, so there were bound to be some restaurants! Um, nope. Not a one. We parked on the side of the road, grabbed our snorkel gear, and headed to the beach. A man was down there renting snorkel gear and such, and told us it was $5ecd per person to snorkel here (I was a little suspect about that….). We hadn’t brought money down, so he said we could pay after. He told us where to go- between the rocks for squid, and out to the white log for the bubbles. We walked down toward the big rocks, put our stuff on the beach, got our gear, and headed into the water. Oh my gosh!! There were so many little fish!! Tangs and damsels and butterflies and wrasses and huge schools of snapper and puffers and filefish!! And squid! We saw 8 baby squid!! A few corals, not many. Some beautiful sea fans. The water got deep fast, probably 15-20 feet, but the visibility was AMAZING, the water was warm and calm, and I wasn’t scared one bit! We got to the white log area, and bubbles were flowing up through the rocks. It was literally magical! Brian was using the GoPro for the first time, and got some decent shots for being a newbie! We learned how to better position the camera for next time, as it wasn’t seeing what Brian was seeing most of the time, so we missed capturing so many things. Snorkeled for over an hour and hated to get out. I highly recommend this beach for a wonderful snorkling adventure, perfect even for scardey cats like me! #yesiamamarinebiologist
It was a short drive up the road to our final destination of the day- Soufriere. We turned a corner, and there it was- wonderfully bright colored houses tucked into the side of the mountain! So charming! What wasn’t so charming was google maps, leading us down not one, not two, but THREE dead end windy narrow roads with no place to turn around, all while insisting it was not a dead end and was the way to our airbnb… Love-hate relationship with google maps, always.
Gorgeous Soufriere- Our favorite area of Dominica!
Finally got the right road (thanks to the property manager, not google maps), and pulled into our Airbnb. We have been SO looking forward to this one!! I found it back in February and it was so gorgeous, so perfect, and so US, that I had to have it! But it was a 2 night minimum and we could only stay one. I asked the kind owner, Kathleen, to please accommodate us and she did! Never hurts to ask! And from the second we set foot inside, I didn’t want to ever leave. The gardens, the surrounding mountain walls, and the HOUSE! My god, this house! And only $68 a night! No wifi, but who cares!! I’ll let the pictures do the talking, because I’m at a loss for words…
View from the main room to the garden. There is one main room with a kitchen on one side and bedroom on the other. Bathroom is a separate little building a few steps away.
View from the main room to the bathroom
The lovely outdoor garden shower
As is par for the course in Dominica, we hadn’t had a meal in over 24 hours. We asked Ralf, the property manager, where a good place to eat was. He suggested Pinky’s Street Food, within walking distance of the house. We headed down there and met Pinky (I assume!), who had a little building with a counter, some shelves, and a bbq pit. It was literally a part of her house- no sign. We had passed it on the way and not even noticed it. We got two chicken, mac and cheese, scalloped potatoes, and salad dinners for $20ecd!! That’s $7.50US!! Walked back to our heaven house and O.M.G. Best meal we’ve had in Dominica, best meal I’ve had in the Caribbean period!! We both said we could have eaten another!
Best meal in the best house in the best part of Dominica after the best day!!
It was dark, out and a flash of light from outside caught my eye. Then another. FIREFLIES!! Magnificent, HUGE, neon green ones! Not the puny ones I’m used to seeing! These were so big they were like laser pointers, and the light even shined (shone? I dunno, I’m a science teacher, not English!) through the glass bottles! Again….just magical! It was the perfect ending to an absolutely perfect day. So yesterday, we were done with Dominica. We were ready to cut our trip short and just get the hell out of here before something else went wrong. Apparently, Dominica heard our despair…and her reply? “Sit down, bitch, and hold my beer.” Well played, Dominica. Well played indeed.
We are in love with this little house! Brian is not in love with the mattress, but he rarely is with his craptastic back. It was cool all night from the breeze and the fan, and the best part? NO MOSQUITOES!! We got up and did a little hike from the house. Came back and promptly took a short nap. It’s that peaceful and relaxing here! After we woke up, we decided to drive down to a little area called Scott’s Head, which is basically the bottom of the island and just a mile or so down the road. Along the way, we picked up Manuel. Manuel speaks English. We do not speak the same English as Manuel, and caught about 10-15% of what he was saying! Dropped him off, turned around, and headed to Hell No, Roseau to drop off the car.
The little town of Soufriere with its church and colorful boats!
Beautiful, colorful Soufriere from the hill above town. If we had to move to Dominica, we’d move here (and bring our own FOOD!)
On the way, I read a message from my neighbor who was going to take Annie. Her daughter was baby sitting someone’s dog, and their dogs literally freaked out having another dog in the house- cowering and crying non stop. Her dogs were traumatized as puppies, and apparently still have some PPTSD (puppy post traumatic stress disorder). I can’t risk taking Annie back and Tina’s dogs not accepting her. I can’t keep Annie. So I had to make the decision to let her go to Canada. I’ll never see her again. I’m heartbroken.
This was the day we had to pay for the damages done to the car on day 1. They took us around to see the vehicle, and I got Brian’s picture with it.
Ok, not really. But the running joke for every vehicle like this we saw along the road (and there were LOTS of them), was, “Seriously, Brian?”! He finally started getting out ahead of me by saying, “I didn’t do it!!” every time we passed one! I have to say, the car rental people couldn’t have been lovelier while processing Brian’s card for $5800!! They were kind enough to waive the relocation charge (we picked up and dropped off in different towns), and another fee as well. They said over and over it was ok and they were just happy we were alright- I didn’t mention my still super painful tailbone. After we settled up, they drove us to the ferry landing. I lamented the fact that there is NO food in this country and we were starving (as per usual, it had been about 20 hours since our last meal.). The driver said there is food, you just have to know where to find it! Um, I’m not a hunter and gatherer- more of a drive thru-er and gatherer… Dear Dominica, Tourists like to eat a couple of times a day at least. We have money. Please take it in exchange for food. And make it easy. Love, Mary. Anyway, he showed us where a street food vendor was setting up, introduced us, and told us it would be ready in about 20 minutes. We thanked him and walked to the Dominican Central Intelligence Agency Fresh Market- home of the previous day’s Dr. Pepper photo infraction. Got a few Dr. Peppers for the road and managed to escape without setting off any high level alert sirens.
Went back to the street food vendor. There was a big crowd of about a dozen people! Great sign! Must be good. Brian got in line, and I sat at a folding table with all of our stuff. I watched for almost 20 minutes while he was completely ignored by the guy running the stand. Over and over. He wouldn’t even make eye contact with Brian. Finally, people in the line actually started speaking up and saying that Brian had been there a long time and to wait on him. Fucking ridiculous. And definitely not adding to my “favorite things about Dominica” list. We got our food, sat down and ate. It was good, but not Pinky’s good. And the treatment we received definitely left a taste in our mouth as well.
Time to board the ferry! They said to be there 2 hours early, and they weren’t kidding. I have never seen such a painfully slow process. First, you check in and get your ticket. Then, you go through immigration- first, paying a $33 exit tax each for the pleasure of leaving Dominica. I would have paid triple at this point… The woman handed Brian back his passport and said he needed to fill out the departure slip. I asked did I need to do one as well. Actual quote out of her mouth, “No.” So I figured it was like a “family form”. Brian finished, handed her his passport. She stamped him, then handed me mine and with an attitude of utter disgust informed me that I needed to fill one out, too! I asked Brian, “Didn’t she just say I didn’t have to do that?”, he nodded. Our final interactions with Dominicans are not going very well… Then customs- one or two people were let into the room at a time, and it was so slow. But the guy was nice. Then, sit and wait. Ferry got there at 4:30 for the 2 hour ride to Martinique. Really, it was an entire day wasted since the ferry changed schedule (some people in line had actually showed up at 9am based on the earlier ferry schedule and then had to wait around until 4:30! Thank god we waited to book, or I would have swam to Martinique #nolie). The ride over was fairly smooth, but my tailbone was not pleased. The seat was extremely uncomfortable, it was impossible to walk around because of the rocking of the boat, so I ended up in some weird contorted position for 2 hours.
Those green shirts? The entire Dominican women’s soccer team was traveling on our ferry!
From the upstairs waiting area for the ferry.
Our carriage awaits!
Looking north along the gorgeous coastline.
Looking south- that little rock off the end is Scott’s Head where we had driven to earlier this morning
As we approached Martinique, we could easily see that it was only 60 miles, but a world away from Dominica. From the water you could see modern buildings, the likes of which are no where in Dominica or Antigua that I saw. Got off the ferry, quickly whisked through friendly immigration and customs just waved us through. Exited the ferry terminal and needed to find a taxi. There was a whole line of taxis, and a woman approached us. As soon as she did, a guy came up and motioned us to go with him, and started arguing with her quite loudly in French. Brian and I literally stood there for 2 minutes listening to them fight and having no idea what was going on. I’d had enough and walked right past them to a man sitting in a taxi and asked if he could take us to the airport. No problem, and he spoke English! He explained that the woman was from another town and wasn’t supposed to be hawking for passengers in Fort de France. He dropped us off, we walked over to Jumbo Rent a Car where the friendliest ladies had fun speaking English with us and explaining everything. Took a shuttle to the offsite place for the car which literally arrived like a minute after we were done with our contract. Got the car. All of that in less than 45 minutes from when we exited the ferry. Efficiency. I like it. Vive la France!
Something else I like here are the roads!! Viva la (le? damn genders) Infrastructure! No potholes, everything clearly marked, people driving like they understood they weren’t the only ones on the road. Oh, my tailbone was so much happier! And then……we saw……..FOOD!!! We went through the drive through at McDonalds (because sometimes you need something familiar!). Ordering was um, interesting with the language barrier. But we figured it out and only ended up with one extra cheeseburger. We literally could not find the Airbnb because google maps wasn’t bringing up any of the landmarks the host said to look for. She eventually had to come and get us. Such a friendly woman! And the airbnb was perfect– large room with a private bathroom and a hot shower. And….WI FI!!! For $30!! Martinique- I think I like you!
DAY 1
It’s basically summer (summer starts for me the last day of classes!). That means it’s time for my annual mega trip! And I was ready to mix it up a bit. For summer 2016, I did one long housesit in Costa Rica. For summer 2017, I did a long housesit in Malaysia, but went to Singapore, Greece, Italy, and Sweden as well. For summer 2018, I did a whirlwind European tour interspersed with a few short sits- 10 countries in 3 months. For summer 2019, I wanted to do something totally different. I knew I didn’t want a trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific flight. And I knew I didn’t want to do one long housesit. Normally, my travel plans start at TrustedHousesitters.com. This year, I skipped THS in lieu of a new site- Workaway.info. The premise of this site is that you work for people around the world in exchange for accommodations. There are tons of things like “build our house with your own bare hands out of sustainable wood you cut and mill from our property!!” or “check in guests, prepare meals, and clean our hostel with a toothbrush in exchange for a bed in a 10 person dorm!”. Uh, yeah. Manual labor really isn’t my gig. Plus, I’m not really keen on taking away jobs that locals can/should be doing. So I thought I’d put my intellect and unique skills work. I started searching for workaways (preferably non-profits) where I could put my marine biology/teaching/researching/marketing talents to work. Enter Adopt A Coastline.
Adopt a Coastline is an organization that focuses on cleaning up the beaches of Antigua. They do this in several ways, including creating trash bins to place on the beach and educating and empowering the communities (especially youth) to become beach stewards and take care of their local beaches. Sounded like a great fit for me! I wrote the director, Jennifer, and she said she could use me in June! In exchange for a sweet little house right on the water in the fishing village of Seatons, I would be helping her with organizing reports for her UN grants, website work, and educational materials. I planned for June 4-27, and there it was…the first leg of my summer trip.
The next order of business was to find some other opportunities in the Caribbean, so back to the WorkAway site. And that’s when I found a housesit on the island of Guadeloupe! A French couple who are, get this, MARINE BIOLOGISTS, needed someone to watch their house and cat from July 4-25! Hey….I’m a house sitter AND a marine biologist! I knew I had a very good chance at getting this one! Wrote them a letter, we had a video chat, and as easy as that the second part of my Caribbean summer was finalized! Two months down, one to go!!
Next, I found a lodge in the El Yunque rainforest of Puerto Rico that was looking for volunteers. Now, I’m not going to clean rooms or anything like that, but I did send a proposal to create educational signage for their guests on their trails through the rainforest. They loved the idea, and we finalized (or so I thought…) dates for July 25-August 17. They even contacted a forest ranger who works in the rainforest who was willing to help me with plant identification. Perfect!! And with that, August was booked and my summer was set (or so I thought…). We had finalized all of that in February. I contacted them a few days ago to confirm, and they informed me that I had never sent them an airline ticket, so they had accepted other volunteers and had no room for me. I informed them that they had never even asked for a ticket to confirm. Oh well, whatever. It obviously wasn’t meant to be and something else will come along. So as of today, I do not have a ticket home and have no idea where I’m going or what I’m doing when the housesit ends on July 25. Stay tuned.
So I hopped a red eye flight out of LAX on June 4, quick layover in New York, then I was on my way to Antigua. Time for your first educational lesson of this blog. Antigua is pronounced An-TEE-guh. Not An-TEE-gwuh. You’re welcome. I wasn’t expecting much for a small island nation airport, but wow, it was really nice! And immigration was so easy and friendly! Jennifer picked me up in her 100% electrical van, we stopped and picked up a donation a local swim club was making to Adopt A Coastline, then headed toward the house. We stopped for groceries along the way. Thank god, because it was now after 4pm (1pm LA time), and all I had eaten since yesterday at about 7pm LA time was a snack size bag of chips and a snack size bag of Cheezits. I was STARVING. Jennifer just hopped out of the van, windows rolled down, and started walking in. I was like, “Um, my life for the next 3 months and my life period (laptop) are in the car. Shouldn’t we lock it up?” She said no, that’s not a problem here. What?! Everywhere in Central America you don’t leave anything unattended that you don’t intend to leave as a “gift”. Refreshing. I’m not 100% sure I trust that yet, but refreshing still. I picked up just a few things: some chicken, bag of rice, bag of beans, bananas, zucchini, canned tuna, and coconut cookies (a requirement for any vacation south of the border!). Scanned the soda shelves for my beloved maroon can, and nada. I knew that going in though. It’s the one thing I did research about this trip!! Bill- $20. Not dirt cheap, but not terrible either for a country that has to import everything.
This is in Eastern Caribbean Dollars. Divide by 2.68 to get US totals.
We drove and talked until we reached the little fishing village of Seatons. Jennifer is quite the interesting character, and reminds me a lot of me- except she’s artsy and I’m well…nope. Jennifer pointed out a little convenience store and cafe that is within walking (or kayaking) distance of the house. Then we pulled down a long private driveway. I’m home! So secluded, with no neighbors right on top of me, and it is SUCH a cute little house! Oh my gosh…There are 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and living room, and a kitchen. It’s not fancy at all, just cute and functional. And it’s RIGHT ON THE WATER!! I’m in like a little mangrove cove, and Jennifer says I can take out the kayak, paddleboards, and even snorkel right from the yard!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! #awesome
Front of the house
Back of the house. I’m practically standing in the water here to take this pic!
She showed me around the property with its cute little garden, gave me the pertinent information about how things operate, and left because it was almost dark and she needed to get home to walk her pup. And just like that, I was all alone, in a little fishing village called Seatons, on an island in the Caribbean. I seriously had never even looked Seatons up on a map. I had no idea if I was north, south, east, west. And I didn’t care. This trip is seriously a “let’s not really plan and just see what happens” kind of trip. Europe was planned to the hilt last year, because there was so much fast travel. Like I said, I’m mixing it up a bit this year!
First order of business, FOOD. Cooked a little chicken and rice. Ate outside and the mosquitoes are pretty bad here. They’ve been getting a lot of rain. Every time I travel somewhere tropical, I pack my mosquito spray. I never use it. Last night, I used it! It got dark, the frogs and crickets were putting on a concert, and I was ready for bed. Which of the 4 bedrooms shall I choose….hmmmm….. NONE OF THEM!! Because I didn’t mention the bestest part of this house. There’s a queen sized bed on the porch with a mosquito net!! So I climbed in, put on my sleep mask (research says sunrise is at 5:45am), and fell asleep to the sounds of nature.
DAY 2
I woke up several times last night, but always was able to go back to sleep immediately. It rained several times. Straight down and HARD! But I slept for 9 hours!! Woke up to birds chirping. And a lizard staring me down….
My buddy. He’s here every morning! About 6″ long.
This porch is the bomb! In fact, I have moved all operations to the porch. I strung together 3 power strips so I could set up my office at the outdoor table. I unplugged the modem and brought it out here. I am eating out here, working out here, and sleeping out here! I only go inside to cook or use the bathroom! Like I said, I’m pretty secluded. And I don’t have a car. So I’ll be hanging out at the house a lot. I worked on my business (new summer semester started yesterday). I worked here at the house pulling some weeds in the garden to pay for my accommodations. After lunch I decided to really get out of my comfort zone and snorkel by myself. If you know me, you know that’s a major deal… Walked the 30 steps to the water and stepped in. Warm like a bath- perfect! There was tons of seagrass and it was super shallow. I walked out until I was about knee deep, then started snorkeling. It is seriously shallow here, but that’s fine by me. I’m not a hang-out-in-deep-water-all-by-my-lonesome kind of girl anyway. For as shallow as it was, and as near to shore, it was AWESOME!! There were lots of species of algae, huge sea cucumbers, sea urchins (watch your step!), purple gorgonians, red sponges, feather duster worms, lots of fish (I even saw some big eye squirrels, damsels, and a butterfly fish!), and even CORAL!! At least 2 different species. A mounding variety and a branching variety- both yellow. If I had to guess based on my knowledge of Indo-Pacific corals, I’d say some type of Porites sp. Brian needs to hurry up and get here with the GoPro so I can take pics and identify everything!!
I snorkeled around from one side of the property to the other. Where I got out there was a lot of seagrass. I stood up, took 3 steps, and promptly sank into the mud up to my calf! I seriously had a panic moment where I imagined myself incapable of getting my leg out of the mud, no one around, and I would just die there and be crab food until Jennifer came back in a few days….Luckily I over dramatized the situation slightly! Both of these areas I can see from my porch office!
My snorkel “put in” location.
My snorkel take out location.
DAY 3
I slept for 10 hours. Count them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, TEN! I know my poor body and brain are in recovery mode. Too much stress when I’m home, so I have a hard time sleeping. Made breakfast, raked some leaves to earn my keep, then headed down to the water (30 whole steps away) and filmed a 15 minute video for my students about the red mangrove forest here! I’m trying to compile a little series of free videos for World Oceans Day, and this will be the first. Kind of hard without a cameraman, but I managed!
Then I decided to get crazy and go for a walk! Now, there was a pack of 5 or 6 pretty vicious sounding dogs at the corner when we drove in. Jennifer said the last volunteers were too scared to walk by them. So either I suck it up, or remain trapped. It was about 2pm when I left and hot as hell. I walked slowly by the dog house. They were on the porch and barked, but I think their bark was saying, “Hey, lady…this is Antigua. No one in their right mind is walking around in this heat at 2pm. And that includes us. Safe passage granted.” Whew. I wandered down a road, having no idea where in the heck I was going, other than Jennifer had said there was water this way. Then I saw tell-tale signs of a beast Jennifer had mentioned to the gardener had been in her yard…wild donkeys!! Apparently they were brought here in the 1600s to work in the sugar cane fields. These are the leftovers of those bygone years, and there are about 400 roaming the island- leaving a path of destruction in their wake quite often…Brian is already in love with them and insists we go on a donkey hunting adventure when he gets here! The road literally dead ended right into the water. It was low tide. There was a really interesting mangrove root. And then I saw something that made me squeal outloud!!! INTERTIDAL ZOOANTHIDS!!! These are colonial coral polyps, and I immediately recognized them all closed up waiting for the tide to come back in. And INSANELY red/orange sponges!!! I was losing my mind and sorry that I didn’t bring my snorkel gear. I took some exciting video for my students, with the promise that I’d come back and see them at high tide.
The mangrove root
Those little greenish “balls” are actually individual coral polyps- zooanthids!! They’re all connected with a common tissue they use to transport nutrients to one another.
CRAZY red sponge, surrounded by zooanthids!
So I’m laying in bed. It’s pitch dark outside. I mean PITCH. DARK. And remember, I’m sleeping outside on the porch. I start hearing weird snorting noises. Um, that got my attention. And the weird snorting noises were getting closer- like to the point I knew whatever it was was in the front yard, inside the gate, with only six stairs and a piece of mosquito net between us! My lack of research meant that I had not had the foresight to research “Antigua Chupacabra”, so I was quite certain that that was what it was. Tentatively, I turned on my phone flashlight and shined it out into the yard. Nothing. But it couldn’t see past the fence. I didn’t know if I should run in the house and lock the doors or what…then I heard a familiar sound. You know that flap-flap-flap sound horses make when they shake their head? I heard that!! And I knew I was safe from the chupacabra (for now) and was being visited by wild donkeys!! Except I don’t know how friendly wild donkeys are to white girls from the US who sleep on porches, so I didn’t venture out for a closer look…
DAY 4
More downtime. Unfortunately, Jennifer doesn’t have much planned for me right now, so I’m kind of left to my own devices all day. I have the dog gauntlet, the heat, and the not-so-great wifi that are limiting my ability to explore and work. So I just hung out here all day. It was hot. Like REALLY hot. And I’m one who doesn’t mind the heat. As long as there’s a breeze, I’m fine. But not even a breeze. Ugh. I literally spent the day just doing nothing, counting down the hours…Jennifer is coming tomorrow to take me to a new place where there’s supposed to be….FIBER OPTIC WIFI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that’s when our work together will really begin.
In the past, I always intend to make a list of how much these trips cost me. Uh, yeah. There’s a whole section of the road to hell paved with those….Let’s see if I can just add them in daily to each blog. Then maybe it won’t be so overwhelming at the end. Paperwork…the bane of my existence! #lookingatyouIRS
EXPENDITURES
LAX to Antigua flight on Jet Blue: $277
Travel Insurance: $187
Diet Dr. Pepper in New York: $3
Groceries: $20
Lodging: FREE! In exchange for a little gardening totaling about 2 hours over 2 days.
DAY 5
Last night the mosquitoes were FEROCIOUS!! I researched and found that the species of mosquito that is endemic to Antigua has evolved the adaptation of teleportation through impenetrable objects, like mosquito net! Seriously though, there is not a hole in the net, no gaps around the bottom, and where it opens I have it really layered heavily across. NOTHING should be able to get through- except Antiguan Teleporting Mosquitoes apparently….
I decided to head back down to the end of the road where I saw those zooanthid corals the other day. High tide was around 5:30am, and it was a little after 7, so I knew they’d be open! But….that meant passing the dog gauntlet again. It wasn’t hot. They were well rested. And two of them met me at the corner, barking their heads off, bearing their teeth, and making my, “It’s ok, boy…” sound pretty feeble. I had a damn good feeling that if all 6 or 7 of them were there, I’d be in a bit of trouble. I eased by them, and headed down the road. Thank god they didn’t follow me! Tide was high and there were my green zooanthids!! Open and in full glory!! At this point, I realized I should have brought my snorkel mask to take pictures through. I contemplated going and getting it, but after checking the Vegas odds, mine weren’t very good for making it safely past the dog gauntlet a total of 4 times… This was the best shot I could get under the circumstances.
The green button looking things are the zooanthids. To the right is an anemone.
On the way back I did some more filming of the mudflats that are down there, showing the kids the difference between low tide and high tide, and I managed to find some black mangroves as well (and what I’m pretty sure is a white!) to show them the zonation in mangrove forests. Because I’m cool like that. 🤓 As I was walking back up, something big was moving through the weeds on the side of the road. It was a crab. A MONSTER crab!! I may or may not have gotten a little too excited about it…. Research says he’s a land crab. If you’re super interested, I made a blog all about him on my school’s website.
Continued up the road toward the dog gauntlet, and now the whole pack was awake. There were 5 or 6 dogs in the road. Like seriously, I was trapped. I didn’t have anywhere to go but ahead. I was afraid to pick up a stick, because it might look like aggression. I seriously didn’t know what to do. I was SO relieved when an older man was in the yard. As I approached the pack surrounded me. That nasty brown dog with the evil eyes and teeth was right on me. The man started hollering at them to get in the yard. They all went one by one, with Brownie McEvilShitHead being the last to go. Fuck that dog. I wasn’t going to go back down there, because if that guy hadn’t of been there, I am very confident that I would have been bitten.
When I got back, I hung out for a bit and then the gardener came by to weed eat the entire lawn. His name is Miah (short for Nehemiah). He was born in the Virgin Islands and went to school there, but also has roots here in Antigua and lives in Seatons now. He has a son who lives in San Diego and a daughter in Connecticut. He has also lived in Florida and New York. Really friendly, interesting guy! Was nice to have some human interaction after 3+ days without. To “pay” for my lodging for the day, I raked up grass cuttings with Miah. Took about 30 min.
Soon Jennifer showed up. Today I’m moving to the Turtle Bay area on the opposite side of the island. Jennifer brought her pup-pup, Lily, who for 10 years old acts like she’s 2! Super energetic. She seriously ran ahead of the van for probably 3-4 miles total! We stopped off at the grocery store- good thing because I’m running low on provisions! This was more of a local grocery than the more modern one we went to the first day- very reminiscent of those in Costa Rica and Panama. I got some more chicken, rice, pasta, pasta sauce, peanut butter, jelly, bread, crackers, coconut cookies (a MUST HAVE!), and a pack of gnocchi that Jennifer recommended. $25. Seriously, not terrible! Of course, I tried to steer clear of imported American stuff and buy whatever the more “local” brand was.
We drove up a bumpy half paved road to the villa. Walked in. O-M-G-Wiz Willikers!!! This villa is a 5 bedroom, 3 bath solar powered home on 2 acres full of amazing plants with an infinity pool and, get this- FIBER OPTIC WIFI!!! I don’t even have that in Los Angeles!! My office…oh, my office!! I’m on the 2nd floor huge open porch overlooking these amazing colorful trees with an ocean view on either side of them! If I position my head just right, I can’t even see the houses across the way on the other hill!! There is a constant breeze blowing- just the exact right amount to act as the most amazing natural air conditioning and to keep the bugs away!! And did I mention FIBER OPTIC WIFI!!!!! What am I paying for this? A couple hours of easy work that I enjoy every dayish and feeding two of the sweetest kitties ever. #mylifedoesnotsuck
DAY 6
Today was an easy day. Hung out at my new digs all morning and worked. Jennifer came by in the afternoon and we talked a little about what we needed to accomplish and how we were going to do that- basically a task list. I work better that way. After that, Jennifer wanted to take me down to a local beach to see some mangroves. We hiked along the coast for a while, talking, while Lily dog found every opportunity possible to get into the water! On the way back, we found a mango tree with some almost ripe ones! Jennifer said that if I just let them sit a couple of days, they’d be good. I took two. It was getting dark, and we weren’t taking the beach back- we were going some other way. And a ways into it, I realized there wasn’t really a trail and Jennifer was just heading in the general direction of the van! The light was diminishing by the second, and there were massive crab holes everywhere, like so big my foot would fit just inside, making for a wonderful ankle-breaking-test-your-trip-insurance moment. Oy. Of course, then a HUGE freaking crab (like 5″ across) comes scurrying out of the semi-darkness towards me, claws raised and ready for action. And I, of course, screamed like a girl. Oy times 2. Oh, and did I mention the bushes that were everywhere that have thorns the Romans would be pleased to make crowns out of? Oy times 3! At this point, Jennifer is telling Lily to find the goat trail. So I’m out in the middle of no where (at least as far as I was concerned) with impending darkness and a dog for a guide. Oy times 4! I was just imagining being lost in this place in the dark, stepping in crab holes, being attacked by crabs and impaled by 2″ needle like thorns while the mosquitoes drained my blood. #rationalthoughts Well, Lily turned out to be the savior. She found said goat trail and led us back to the beach! Whew! Crisis averted!
There was so much debris and trash washed up on the beach. 🙁
Adopt A Coastline to the rescue!! That old boat wouldn’t fit in here, but normal litter sure would! They make these bins out of upcycled materials. So smart.
Me with 2 very impressive aerial roots from a HUGE red mangrove. Adopt A Coastline t-shirt! 🙂
I could spend days going through all of this! So many interesting shells, rocks, and pieces of coral!
No, I’m not trying to pet the ninja death crab that tried to attack me! This is a molt that I found- you can see how big these guys are! And that claw–well, you can see why I screamed!
DAY 7 Jennifer came over in the afternoon, and we spent a few hours working on her spreadsheet for her UN funding reports and getting together the things she needs to start the website. We also discussed more educational filming ideas. After that, she asked if I’d like to go to the 150 steps. Sure! So Jennifer has been here for 20 years. When she first moved here, she moved into a house just up the hill from this one. When I say hill, let me clarify. She moved into a house that is up a road that is about an 80 degree angle from this one!! Luckily, we drove. At the top is a cute little house with a garden. And if you are a local, you know there’s a trail here to a secret cove! We followed the trail down, down, down. Jennifer assured me that we could take the stairs back up. I’m not sure how assuring that was! At the bottom was an unbelievably gorgeous rock cove, with these huge, strange, red striped boulders- with ocean crashing on to them! There was a hidden pool. Deep enough to almost swim in, but definitely to sit in and relax! And then, a channel where another pool emptied into the sea over a small cliff- like a waterfall. WHAT?! MAGICAL!!! And guess what? This idiot didn’t bring the camera!!!!!!!!!! We then went up about 150 rock stairs that had been cut into the hill. Oh man. My out of shape self had to stop at least 6 times on the way up! I swear I’m going to get the energy and mental fortitude to go back with the camera- but means braving that insane uphill road and then those stairs again! I have to though. That place is too gorgeous not to capture.
DAY 8
Today Jennifer had to go to town. I’ve been working the past two days on my new Titanic class, so I was ready to get out and see something new! She picked me up in the afternoon and we headed to town. Please don’t ask me the name of it, for I do not know. I told Jennifer I’d take her to lunch. This is for three reasons:
1. I am sick of eating chicken and rice and pasta.
2. Jennifer has been taking me to some amazing places I never would have found without her! I want to return the favor in some small way!
3. I’ve been doing more of the “away” part of workaway than the “work” part, as Jennifer doesn’t really have everything organized for me, so I feel kind of bad. Yes, I’m that person.
Along the way, we wound up next to a church having a funeral. There was a lot of traffic. Everyone was dressed to the nines. Jennifer said funerals are a BIG DEAL here. We just stopped right in the middle of the road and grabbed a fresh coconut water to tide us over. We ran a few errands. First stop though was to meet Kerry and Charmane and see their house. Why? Well, because me and Brian’s flight leaves on the 27th at 6am. We’ll be back at the Seatons house while he’s here. We really didn’t want to drive in the dark to the airport, so I told Jennifer we were looking for an AirBNB for the night of the 26th close to the airport. She said her friends have a house right on the water that they Airbnb out private rooms and it’s 5 minutes from the airport. She checked with them- normal price, $100 a night. But they’re letting us stay for FREE!!! How cool is that??? #itswhoyouknow Anyway, the couple is really lovely, their home is gorgeous, and it’s right on a reef with great snorkeling!! I had told Kerry we’d be driving around Antigua all day the 26th exploring (since it’s Brian’s only full day here) and would be back right before dark. He said come early so we can snorkel. Sold.
We then went to town. This was a proper town- the first I’ve seen since I’ve been here. Some places with their strip malls looked like they could have come right out of the states! Literally, EVERYONE at the errand places that Jennifer went to see was at that funeral! Met one of Jennifer’s friends, Andrea, along the way. She decided to come have a drink while we had lunch. Lovely native Antiguan lady! I really enjoyed talking to her. Lunch was beef. Cow. Something I could sink my teeth into! I chose a bacon cheeseburger with fries and Jennifer got a veggie burger with fries. So, so good…. The receipt and amount I paid was about $42. I gave the cashier $60 US. You can pay for things in US dollars here, and they will give you East Caribbean Dollars back. I needed some just in case I wanted to buy some of that roasted corn I’ve been seeing on the side of the road, so this was an easy way to get it.
After lunch, we went to the store. And when I say store, I mean ultra-mega-expat-shopping-extravaganza! Holy shit, this place is bigger than the grocery store I shop at at home (a major chain!!). They had everything, and I mean literally EVERYTHING an expat would need/want/crave to make them feel at home in Antigua- no matter what country they were from. With expat food, comes expat prices. EEE-OWZA!! I didn’t buy a single thing. Jennifer got a few things. We headed for the checkout. There was a line, and it was right next to the soda aisle, so I thought what the hell- just for fun I’ll see if they have Dr. Pepper. And there, on the bottom shelf, was my beloved maroon can!! A whole full 36 pack of them! There wasn’t a price, but I didn’t care. I grabbed 12 and was quite pleased with myself. Total was a little over $1 a can! Not too shabby at all!
We headed back. Stopped at a small grocery store so I could grab some bananas and toothpaste, plus Jennifer needed a few things too that were cheaper here. Got 6 small bananas, a tube a toothpaste, and a small watermelon. Actually, that watermelon killed me. The price wasn’t marked, but at the register I learned that it was almost $10 and no bigger than my head!!! It better be good….
Headed back home, and guess what we saw crossing the road? A MONGOOSE!! O-EM-GEE it was SOOOOOOO freaking cute!! Jennifer wanted to show me her house, so we went there first. She’s about 1/2 a mile from my house on another hill closer to the ocean. And she has one of those mega death gravity defying roads up the hill to her place! So walking over there would be some work… Beautiful home that she housesits at almost full time. We then headed down to the beach by her house. Again, just beautiful!
Cool old crab pot
Cool little palapa/beach bench!
Jennifer, with Lily and Mini (her neighbor’s dog that basically lives at Jennifer’s)
Seriously? Just stunning!
Back in home just in time for early twilight over the pool….
DAY 9
Ah!! The morning of the ninth day…the morning that I would have one of my Dr. Peppers!!!!! I have been struggling to come up with a cool marketing piece for my fall enrollments for the past couple of days. I create a new one every semester and it needs to be catchy for Facebook. No good ideas. I shit thee not, I took a couple of sips of Dr. Pepper and the most BRILLIANT idea hit me!! Caffeine- it does my brain good.
On Day 6, I picked those mangoes fresh from the tree on the hike. Today, they were soft and ready. I cracked one of those puppies open and took a bite. I let it get a little too mushy, but omg- it was SO sweet!! And gorgeous. And natural.
Worked for a few hours and then had to stop, because today I had a meeting, like a real official businessperson or something! A woman named Susan found out through Jennifer’s facebook that I was in Antigua and own an online school. She messaged me, said she teaches a class at Columbia about online schools for K-12, and would like to talk to me. She came over at 11, was impressed with my digs (who wouldn’t be??), and we sat down and had a lovely chat for about 1.5 hours. She said my model was unique and filled a niche in the market. Yep. I ain’t public school at home. 😀
After Susan left, I worked some more on some things for Jennifer. More work on the spreadsheet, lined out some talking points for a sea turtle video we want to shoot, etc… Jennifer came by to get me around 3:30. She had broken her Iphone the other day, so we had to go in and meet someone who was selling her another. We stopped at a few SPECTACULAR stands of mangroves along the way, the tallest ones I’ve ever seen!!- getting good ideas on potential filming spots for the Adopt A Coastline program. After the phone was dealt with, Jennifer wanted to take me to Rendezvous Bay and beach, not too far away- but a world away. She is seriously taking me to the coolest places! Having a person who has lived her for 20 years as a tour guide is not a bad gig… One thing I’m missing soooooo much is wildlife. Other than the mongoose and a few birds, there’s not a lot of terrestrial critters. So as we were bouncing down the road- wait, let me back up. The road to Rendezvous is a rutted out, pothole filled 4 wheel drive road. We were in a low clearance electric van!!! I was thinking, “This woman is crazy!!”. Anyway, as we were literally bouncing down the road, my little underused jungle eye caught a glimpse of something!! I said the word Brian is all to familiar with on road trips through interesting places- STOP!!!!!! He knows that means I’ve seen something amazing. Jennifer probably thought I was over the traversing of this insane road! But she stopped. And I got this picture of the most gorgeous caterpillar! It’s a Fragapani Catepillar, as they eat Frangapani plants. Makes sense. Want to see what this brilliantly colored, insanely gorgeous beauty turns into??
Somehow we managed to make it down that road. I was doubting our ability to make it back out. And by the way, did I mention it was early evening, would be dark in about an hour and a half, and there was no cell signal? (This is a running theme with our adventures!) But I digress….We parked and made our way down to a gorgeous secluded beach. I swear, Jennifer keeps upping the ante on gorgeous places she takes me to every day!! We walked around the beach, with the waves crashing over rocks, zillions of gastropods of several different species (snails for you laypeople) holding on to said rocks for dear life. Around every curve was something else to stare at in wonder!
The direction we were going (with Lily in the water as always!)
The direction we came from- awesome tidal pools!
We walked along the rocks on the right to another even more gorgeous beach!!
Rendezvous Beach
It was starting to get dark by now, and the bugs were coming out, so we headed back. Lily found the shortcut path, and we headed up and back to the van-that-was-not-made-to-be-on-this-road.
Rende-VIEW (I’m so clever!) from the top
I’m not going to lie, I was nervous about a couple of the spots in the road that were particularly sketchy (hills, with ruts filled with medium sized boulders…). The first hill, we got stuck. The tires were spinning. Jennifer backed up and tried again. Same thing. Visions of all kinds of ghastly things were going through my head. However, to be perfectly honest, there was a house about a 1/2 mile up the road and Jennifer knew the lady (because she knows EVERYONE). But still. Backed up further, put the peddle to the metal (which in an electric van doesn’t mean much) and somehow made it up! There was one other sketchy spot, but she did it! How, I will never know.
EXPENDITURES Groceries: $25 + $12 + $13
Lunch: $42
Lodging in this KILLER villa: FREE!! About 6 hours of total real work for these 4 days 4 day total: $92 8 day total: $579
DAY 10 So this morning I got up and worked on my stuff, and then Jennifer came over and we worked on hers for a couple of hours. I’m super happy- we really did a great job creating a mock layout of her website! But when she came over, she told a pretty disturbing story. One of her friends texted her and said that she had driven by the trash bin and there was a tiny puppy in there with a rope around it’s neck. She came home and told her housekeeper about it, who replied, “Yes, it’s been there a few days.” WHAT???????? Let me explain the trash bin. It’s the place where the village takes all of their trash for pickup. There’s a large locked chain link fence. Inside of that is another chain link fence with a roof on it- that’s where all the trash cans are. A few dozen of them. Anyway, someone dumped the puppy in there and left. I have two questions:
1. What kind of heartless mother fucker would abandon a puppy like that? Especially with a dangerous rope around its neck?
2. What kind of heartless mother fucker would see the puppy abandoned in there and be like, “eh” and leave it?
….I’m lighting a candle that karma returns the favors swiftly….
Anyway, after we finished, the plan was for me to go over and FINALLY see Jennifer’s studio (she’s an artist). Instead, we went down to check on the puppy. Pulled up, and sure enough- there it was. And omg it was soooooooo little! We could see it had a pink rope tied around its neck that was trailing about 3 feet behind it. It ran from us. It could go around the entire outside perimeter of the inner trash shack. I went one way, Jennifer went the other. There are a ton of bushes and stuff all the way around, and somehow it slipped past us. We then heard Lily bark- she let us know that it was in the trash bin area. By the time we got back around, it was right out front. Jennifer grabbed the rope. I went to the car and got a can of cat food we had brought from the house and a towel to wrap around it so we could get the rope off without her running away. Poor little thing ate some, and then we realized that the rope was so tight we couldn’t even slip a finger under it! Not even a finger nail! Poor baby!!! A truck drove by, and Jennifer yelled at the guy by name and asked him if he had a knife or scissors. He didn’t, but he said to check and see if we could undo the knot. It was a slip knot!! #blondmoment We eased it off. We decided to leave her inside the trash bin until we could come back with more puppy food. Jennifer asked me if I wanted to take her home for the rest of the time I’m here, because the people coming into this house after I go back to Seatons actually emailed the owner and wanted to know if there was an organization on the island so they could foster a dog while they were here. That’s a big NOPE. Sorry, I have too much work to do. I never even do overseas housesits with dogs because they’re too much work. A 9 or 10 week old puppy like this one is way too much work + no sleep + constant pee and poo patrol + this yard isn’t set up for a puppy. Yeah. No thanks. They don’t speak Spanish here, but “No es mi problema”. I feel bad for the thing, but seriously, I have to be realistic.
So little and scared
We went to the grocery store to get some puppy food. I bought some more chicken, BACON!, some more bread (in the states, bread has so much preservatives that it’ll keep for months- the bread here lasted about 5 days.), two kinds of little cakes/breads that were sliced and wrapped in plastic wrap, and a little bag of potatoes. The chicken were those little styrofoam meat trays and there were 2 chicken breasts in them. To buy meat at this local store, you open a huge deep freezer and just start digging. There isn’t much organization. 5 of these trays were frozen solid together. I asked Jennifer for advice on how to handle this situation like a local, as I only needed 2 trays. She said give it to the man that was next to the freezer (he worked there). I told him I just needed two. He asked me to close my eyes. Like a weirdo, I did, no clue what to expect. BAM!! He dropped them on to the floor and one busted off. BAM!! Again, and another did. I said, “Ah! You do it the fancy factory way!”. He smiled and nodded.
So off to go get the dog. A little bit harder of a chase without the rope to grab on to. We cornered it and I put a towel around it. Jennifer said she wasn’t sure where she was going to take it. Oh holy christ on a stick…..here we go…..I uttered the words I’ll probably regret, “I’ll take it home.” She rode home with me on my lap. And I named her Annie for 3 reasons:
1. Jennifer insists my name is Annie and constantly calls me that!! I thought that if I would name the dog Annie, I could then retain rights to my real name again. (Spoiler alert: That was an illogical fallacy…)
2. Little orphan Annie.
3. ANNIEtigua! In fact, she has a first and middle name: Annie Teega.
We drove to Jennifer’s house to get some flea meds. Poor thing was literally crawling with them. We came back to the house, and gave her the meds. Jennifer left one of Lily’s stuffed babies with us, and then left. It was me and Annie (cue the song “We (I) Got Annie”). I haven’t had a puppy in about 20 years. And this wasn’t really a puppy- more like the saddest, most confused, vulnerable, and scared pup on the planet. She was so shy. I could barely pet her- she’d scoot out of the way. But I could feed her! I swear, I think she ate twice her weight in dry food mixed with boiled chicken broth I made her! She would literally only go from her towel (safe space) to her food bowl. That was it. Until the cats came around for dinner. They were equally curious about each other! It was bedtime. There’s a dog pen attached to the house, and originally I was going to keep her out there at night so I could sleep. Yeah, right. Originally I wasn’t going to bring her home in the first place…. When she was on the towel, that’s the only time I could pet her (and she was on the towel a lot). I scooped her up, towel and all, put her in the laundry basket, and went downstairs. Put the towel by my bed and we both fell asleep.
DAY 11
Last night she woke up once at 10:45 and whimpered by the door. Other than that, she slept through the rest of the night! I woke up at 4:45 and went upstairs. Came back down at 6 and got her for breakfast. She was still shy and I really could only pet her if she was on the towel. I tried holding a piece of food off the towel to teach her to come to me. That was a big NOPE. So I hand fed her a few pieces of food while she was on her towel. She could live with that arrangement. Then, once she understood I had food, I moved my hand further back. First, just the front paws off the towel and any further than that was the danger zone. Eventually, she stepped completely off the towel and ate from my hand! I let her have her food bowl after that, and she scarfed it up!
After breakfast I saw a tapeworm crawling on her leg!! ICK!! If smelling like the garbage dump she was found in wasn’t bad enough, this was the last straw. It was bathtime! I had to catch her when she was on her towel, because that’s the only place she won’t run from me. I wasn’t sure how she’d react, but she was great! Afterwards, I gave her a clean towel and laid her on it. It was windy out, and she was shivering, so I wrapped her up and she promptly took a long nap.
Those little eyes say it all
After her bath, I could tell she felt so much better! She actually started to play a bit! Jennifer came around 11:30. We were going to go to the tide pools to do some filming. Tide pools are MY JAM!! But I have to say, that leaving Annie made me a little nervous. The housekeeper (who is not a huge fan of dogs and informed me it couldn’t be in the house- sorry Sharon, love ya, but you’ve been overruled by the actual homeowner!!) and gardener were here, so I opted to lock Annie in the large dog pen in the garden. Jennifer brought Lily and Mini (her neighbor’s dog) and Annie was IN. LOVE. #jealous She wagged her tail at Mini and followed her around, it was so cute! And the first time her tail came from the locked position between her legs. I was hoping Mini would stay in the pen with Annie and keep her company. We tried that for like 2 minutes and Mini’s cries informed us that she was not in agreement with that arrangement. So we left Annie alone, and Jennifer, Lily, Mini, and I piled into the van and headed for the beach.
Chewing on her baby
First stop, food. We stopped at a place whose owner is a marketer after my own heart!! It’s a local joint called Grace Before Meals owned by a lady named Grace!! Jennifer got a veggie roti and I ordered stewed fish. $15 total for both- to go. We drove to Windward Beach, kind of a private area (you have to go in through a gate with a security guard), so yet again, no tourists!! Had our lunch shaded by some gorgeous cliffs.
The fish’s (whole) head is pointing toward me. Served with rice, pasta, cabbage, carrots, and plantain
After our yummy lunch, we started walking down the gorgeous secluded beach- not a soul in sight. There was so much life in the tidepools!! 3 species of urchins (black, red, and white), little fish (a blue and yellow damsel that was striking!), lots of different types of algae and seaweeds, snails, and even live coral!! It was so amazing!! We filmed 3 educational videos (sea urchins, seaweed, and coral) that we’ve named Mary’s Marine Minutes and will be posted on Adopt A Coastline’s website (if we ever get it going- I swear, the hurdles….). More to come!! I’m uploading them to the school’s YouTube channel as I get time.
There’s actually an underwater snorkeling trail here along the reef! There are signs underwater, marked by orange buoys that you follow!
Live green small polyp stony corals with sea urchins
After filming, we walked over to another beach. This one has tourists. Snorkeled for a bit around the dock and saw quite a few fish and some of the nasty, painful black long spine urchins. We made a few grocery store stops along the way, then headed back to the house. We had to be here to meet the vet at 3. Yes, vets in Antigua make house calls!! Chere came and was wonderful with Annie. She checked her temperature (normal), said she was really skinny (yup), and gave her some oral worming meds. I have to give her two more doses over the next two days. Side effect: super runny poop for the next few days #ohjoy She also said she was anemic and we should get her some liver. Jennifer wasn’t feeling driving all the way back into town for liver (and I don’t blame her). However, I was in full-fledged protective mode. My baby needs iron rich food? I’ll go kill a goat and let her drink the blood and eat the heart! No goats, we’ll find a tourist! Just get this baby what she NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDS!!!!!!!!! With no transportation, I lost the liver battle (and the goats and tourists won). Once we get rid of these damn worms, that will help a ton. Vet said bring her to the clinic on Friday for her shots. They have to start her paperwork. Because there are big changes ahead for Annie…. After the vet left, Jennifer wanted to let Annie walk with us across the property to the cottage to see what the workers had done (guests are coming tomorrow). I was leery, because catching her on the porch is a feat- on a 2 acre unfenced property???….. but she said Annie would follow Lily and Mini and she was right! Lily instantly became “momma” to Annie, and Annie wanted to follow her everywhere! #jealous Lily was not as thrilled with her newfound daughter and growled and snapped to prove it. But she never hurt Annie. So Annie would follow Lily and Lily would follow us, so it all worked out! Jennifer left and it was me and Annie again. I fed her dinner and took her down to bed, not relishing the idea of the super runny poop-poops I’d be cleaning up in the morning…
DAY 12
Last night Annie woke up twice- once at midnight and once around 2. Both times she’d make a little noise. I’d roll over to the edge of the bed, say something to her, and she would come over and WAG HER TAIL!!!!!! 😍 That’s a first at a human!! Not only that, she enjoyed me petting her! She’d stand there and lean in as I scratched her head. Normally, she just kind of tolerates it as if to say “I’ll let you do that if you promise not to kill me”. If I’d quit, she’d put her little paws up on the mattress trying to get up to me. 😍😍 That ain’t happening until worms quit pouring out of her butt! We woke up around 5. There were 2 runny poops (one with live worms in it- kill me now 😖 ). Then, she decided she was going to be my shadow- for the first time ever! She followed me upstairs, she followed me around the kitchen, she followed me back downstairs, then back upstairs! Breakthrough! Of course, if I stopped, she’d stop and keep that safe distance of about 2-3 feet between us. Because, you know, I could turn at any moment and try to kill her… I made her a breakfast of dry food mixed with warmed up wet food and a little chicken broth. She really didn’t want much of it. I thought maybe the Panacur was messing with her appetite. I made bacon for myself (and it’s real American style bacon!! Not that psuedo-bacon from Central America!!). I gave her a bite. Um, to say she liked it would literally be the understatement of the century! She immediately decided that bacon was the best thing in the entire world (who can argue with that kind of logic?) and put her paws on my chair, begging for more. I hid a piece at the bottom of her untouched dry/wet food mix, thinking she’d eat her way to the bottom. No, not Smarty McPuppyPants. She pushed all the “yucky” out of the way with her nose and found the piece of bacon! So what do you do to outsmart the smartest 8 week old pup-pup in the world? Pour bacon grease on the food! Wa-la…it then became edible. I hope whoever gives this dog her furever home is not a vegetarian…. But in case they are, she likes banana bread, too. 😀
So apparently bacon is puppy superfood!! After that, she actually became a real live puppy for the first time! I gave her more freedom by opening up the pool deck area for her and blocking off the dangerous parts. She explored all over that. Then, back to the porch to play with my swinging foot. I’m much safer when I’m laying down or sitting, and my foot was just the best toy! She mouthed it and chased it back and forth, and I petted her with it. You can tell she’s not scared of feet, but very scared of hands. Then, she barked at the plants blowing in the wind, telling them she owned this space and they better not get out of line! Then she ran and jumped and rolled and shook her baby back and forth and was just a puppy!! And the few times she would lay down to catch her breath between excited play sessions, it was no where near her towel. Because now, everywhere on the porch is her safe space. It was so good to see!! And that sad/confused/scared look in her eyes? Gone.
Since she had followed me around the house all morning, I felt confident enough to take her out into the garden for a walk. The cats even came along! She followed me, mostly. If she was being slow, I’d just hide out of her sight, and within a few moments she’d come looking for me. Getting her to follow me back into the pool area was the hard part, but I was eventually successful! At the time of this writing, she has been awake for 3 solid hours non-stop, and finally laid down on her towel and went to sleep. I wrote Jennifer about the people coming in next Saturday that want to foster a dog. I expressed concerns about whether they wanted a puppy this young because she’s up a couple of times a night and is too young to be dragged all over the place like they want a dog for- she needs her sleep. I offered to take her back to Seatons with me and bring her back here the next week before I leave. She agreed. Thank goodness, because I have done too much work with this baby and am too protective to turn her over to some dumb tourists for a week. Plus, I don’t know the laws for dog-napping in Antigua…
Worn out from all that playing and walking in the garden!
She slept like this for a while. She finally feels safe enough to not curl up into a ball.
I’m the pied piper of the Caribbean….
Crossing the bridge to the cottage
We hung out and worked until Jennifer came at 4. Guests are coming into the airbnb cottage at the bottom of the property, so we were putting on the finishing touches. Little Annie followed me back and forth about 4 times- lots of big steps! She’s going to be worn out!! The guests came- super nice people from Houston. They’ve done a good bit of traveling, so I enjoyed talking with them. OH!! And Jennifer must have known how crazy overprotective I am, because guess what she brought with her?? LIVER!! Annie had some for dinner and we went to bed early. I have a HUGE adventure planned for tomorrow and need my rest (and am already worrying about leaving Lil’ Bit alone for multiple hours….)
EXPENDITURES Groceries: $18
Lunch: $15
Lodging: FREE!! About 7 hours of total real work for these 3 days- doing some website stuff and educational filming 3 day total: $33 12 day total: $612
After about 45 minutes we reached a fork in the road. Left was Middleham Falls, right was Trafalgar falls. We decided to go left. Found the parking lot, and headed down the trail. Let me preface this with we had done zero research on this. Well, enough to put it on our “to do” map, but there were no notes or anything about it. We figured it couldn’t be too far down. So with just the camera, we headed down the trail. Just the camera. No water, no snacks. The trail turned into rainforest stairs. Around every curve was another huge set of steps, carved into the side of the mountain and held into place with a piece of a log. Up and up and up we went. It was pretty damn hard core, especially for couch potato me who never works out. The only saving grace was that it was overcast. Had the sun been out, we wouldn’t have made it. It would flatten out a bit, we’d get excited, and then more stairs. We checked the gps to see if we were even getting close to the damn thing. Who knows since we were doing more “up” than “over”. We had no clue how far away it was. It could be 10 miles one way for all we knew. I was getting a lot tired and a little bitchy- about ready to turn around. We then came to an intersection where there was a sign that said Middleham Falls! About that time, something on the opposite trail jumped out of the bush, on to the trail, and back into the bush on the other side! I excitedly declared it to be an agouti rabbit! It had the size and body shape of an agouti, but a back end like a rabbit. Brian said it was an agoutibit. Research after the fact says it was in fact just an agouti, no rabbit hybrid. (Side note: I’ve eaten agouti in Belize. We should have caught the damn thing and saved it for later. #thefoodstruggleisreal) Other than that, the only wildlife we saw were 2 black snakes that crossed our path, which I thought was a rare treat!
The road literally dead ended right into the water. It was low tide. There was a really interesting mangrove root. And then I saw something that made me squeal outloud!!! INTERTIDAL ZOOANTHIDS!!! These are colonial coral polyps, and I immediately recognized them all closed up waiting for the tide to come back in. And INSANELY red/orange sponges!!! I was losing my mind and sorry that I didn’t bring my snorkel gear. I took some exciting video for my students, with the promise that I’d come back and see them at high tide.
We ran a few errands. First stop though was to meet Kerry and Charmane and see their house. Why? Well, because me and Brian’s flight leaves on the 27th at 6am. We’ll be back at the Seatons house while he’s here. We really didn’t want to drive in the dark to the airport, so I told Jennifer we were looking for an AirBNB for the night of the 26th close to the airport. She said her friends have a house right on the water that they Airbnb out private rooms and it’s 5 minutes from the airport. She checked with them- normal price, $100 a night. But they’re letting us stay for FREE!!! How cool is that??? #itswhoyouknow Anyway, the couple is really lovely, their home is gorgeous, and it’s right on a reef with great snorkeling!! I had told Kerry we’d be driving around Antigua all day the 26th exploring (since it’s Brian’s only full day here) and would be back right before dark. He said come early so we can snorkel. Sold.
We headed back. Stopped at a small grocery store so I could grab some bananas and toothpaste, plus Jennifer needed a few things too that were cheaper here. Got 6 small bananas, a tube a toothpaste, and a small watermelon. Actually, that watermelon killed me. The price wasn’t marked, but at the register I learned that it was almost $10 and no bigger than my head!!! It better be good….
After the phone was dealt with, Jennifer wanted to take me to Rendezvous Bay and beach, not too far away- but a world away. She is seriously taking me to the coolest places! Having a person who has lived her for 20 years as a tour guide is not a bad gig… One thing I’m missing soooooo much is wildlife. Other than the mongoose and a few birds, there’s not a lot of terrestrial critters. So as we were bouncing down the road- wait, let me back up. The road to Rendezvous is a rutted out, pothole filled 4 wheel drive road. We were in a low clearance electric van!!! I was thinking, “This woman is crazy!!”. Anyway, as we were literally bouncing down the road, my little underused jungle eye caught a glimpse of something!! I said the word Brian is all to familiar with on road trips through interesting places- STOP!!!!!! He knows that means I’ve seen something amazing. Jennifer probably thought I was over the traversing of this insane road! But she stopped. And I got this picture of the most gorgeous caterpillar! It’s a Fragapani Catepillar, as they eat Frangapani plants. Makes sense. 
DAY 11
After the vet left, Jennifer wanted to let Annie walk with us across the property to the cottage to see what the workers had done (guests are coming tomorrow). I was leery, because catching her on the porch is a feat- on a 2 acre unfenced property???….. but she said Annie would follow Lily and Mini and she was right! Lily instantly became “momma” to Annie, and Annie wanted to follow her everywhere! #jealous Lily was not as thrilled with her newfound daughter and growled and snapped to prove it. But she never hurt Annie. So Annie would follow Lily and Lily would follow us, so it all worked out! Jennifer left and it was me and Annie again. I fed her dinner and took her down to bed, not relishing the idea of the super runny poop-poops I’d be cleaning up in the morning…
