More Adventures in "Paradise"

3/25/14 Today I attempted to be a helpful guest and work on Peter's cars a bit. After discovering both cars had dead batteries and no air in the bald tires, I had a much better appreciation of how rough things on the island can be. So I decided to go the beach and ignore this hardship. At the beach, similar yet different from the other beaches, I was able to see monkeys and mongeese (according to the dictionary this is correct. So is mongooses), and stood on a sandbar in the ocean. After all this relaxing I finally got to move some by going to Reina's Zumba class. This resulted in great embarrassment, only spared by the fact that Peter had managed to drag along some equally Zumba-incompetent guys along. The evening did end with a nice homemade steak dinner though.

3/26/14 This morning Peter took me to class with him. I learned about lameness in bovines and the most common causes. After the brief learning session some of Peter's friends took me out to the Crater Hike. Whats a Crater Hike you say? It's a hike up the side of a volcanic crater, officially known as Mount Liamuiga. This was a true mountain hike, complete with giant boulders, vines, and ladders of sketchy origin. It's really a true challenge, and it pushed me to my limits. Once I got to the 3600ft high crater edge I was treated with a truly breathtaking view well worth all the trouble. At the top I could see for miles, and was able to enjoy the company of two very angry-sounding mongeese (once again, real word). After spending just over an hour on the top soaking in all the beauty around me, while battling my fear of heights, it was time to come back down. Now as tough as going up was, down is a entirely different creature. First off, I was already exhausted from the hike up. Secondly, all the giant, moss-covered boulders that were awesome to climb up were a holy terror to climb back down. Thankfully I did manage to make it without killing myself, or mangling anything too terribly. As soon as I made it back to Peter's house I rewarded myself with a long soak in the pool.

For dinner we went to Spratnet, where I ate swordfish for the first time. It really was delicious, and I enjoyed listening to the live music and looking at the stars.

3/27/14 Lots of excitement today! Maybe more than I bargained for actually. But more on that later.

Today started with me learning more about vet things in vet school. I'm thinking after another class or two I'll be ready to spay a cat or do a rectal palpation on a horse. Once class ended and I had tried the world famous corn beef hash (well maybe not world famous, but all the students here are nuts about it) it was time for more island exploring! Peter wanted to take me on a lap of the island so I could see a little bit of everything, Lunch was first of course, and we went to Nirvana, a restaurant that was part of an old sugar plantation. Unlike most of the places I've eaten here, Nirvana was not on a beach, but rather up a hill where we could look down on the ocean sea. So that was a slight change of pace from the usual. We then went to Caribelle Batik on the Romney plantation, where local artists make all sorts of unique fabrics and crafts. Both plantations had beautiful gardens with all sots of interesting plants.

After that we headed on to Brimstone Hill Fortress, considered one of the most impenetrable fortresses in the world due to its remote location and geography. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999, it was impressive to see the amount of work that put into restoring it on a very limited budget. Given the dilapidated state of much of the island, it was a refreshing change. The rest of the tour de island was uneventful, with the exception of a short detour down a road where the neighborhood got very sketchy very quickly. The fact that we were very low on gas at the time was less than comforting.

Tonight was supposed to be a trip to the Marriott resort for some time in the casino and socializing, but then the reality of the island hit hard a bit close to home. You see, despite the tropic beauty around me, Saint Kitts is not a particularly safe place. Basseterre, the only real city on the island, has the third highest per-capita murder rate among countries most populous cities. And Saint Kitt's itself has the ninth highest per capita murder rate of any country in the world (just barely behind Guatemala where Kyra is currently living). Though I knew these facts before coming, it's much more real when someone is gunned down just a few blocks from where you're staying. Which is what happened tonight, just a few hours ago. Though we didn't hear the gunshots anything, Facebook was abuzz with news within minutes of it happening. Also of note is that these aren't normal city blocks, where you know that there are dozens and dozens of homes between you and the crime that just happened; there's maybe twelve or so homes located in this sparsely populated, poorly lit area between Peter's house and the crime. After hearing the terrible news (most recent report stated the person was indeed killed) the mood turned much more low key. Tomorrow is a fresh day with new adventure, but tonight is being spent inside with locked doors.