So I was told Dominica has no excitement or night life.
I was deceived.
My first Friday comprised of bar hopping, lots of food and shots...!
***
One of the things I found most interesting is... Dominica looks a lot like Grenada, but their approach to their country is quite different. For one, the capital Rosseau is not dirty. I can walk around St. George's and sometimes see chips bags, bottles, plastic bags along the road side. This is not to say it's an epidemic here. We are taking initiatives to eliminate littering. However, I can still ride on a public bus and see a school child toss their candy wrappers out the window as if outside is a moving garbage bin. In Dominica? I had to look, and look hard. The streets had the dusty feel typical of busy, high traffic towns. That sort of grime is unavoidable. But litter? Nothing so.
Somewhere in town
One day when we got home I asked her mum, Aunty Deb, and she said that it is not as surprising as I'm making it out to seem. Apparently, they've taken it a step further than we have in Grenada. Actual companies have "adopted" their block that their business is located and maintain the cleanliness of the area, providing trash cans if necessary. I wonder if this is something that can be implemented locally. I remember when the number of bins on the Carenage were reduced, so then you had to walk twice as far to throw your garbage.
Lhana and I at Screws
Their natural attractions are similar, if not the same as ours. But their approach to marketing the same idea? Every tourist site Lhana brought me to (which believe it or not, I made it to most of the popular ones) was very clean, with secure railings, posts with clear signs and directions. Even the regular roads have signs indicating the percentage of the angle of inclination of the slope to facilitate tourists unfamiliar with the terrain. Not only are the sites well kept, but they do things to make your visit pleasant. For example, we went to Screws which is a developed fun site containing a sulfur spring. We have sulfur springs in Grenada. Ask me how accessible it is to get there? And what kind of vehicle one might need to access the nice ones?
(These are compiled vid clips from my instragram)
At Screws, which isn't the only sulfur spring on the island, has taken the time to develop several pools. Some are warm, others hot and then there are cool pools to close your pores and refresh your spirit. In the background, light reggae music permeates the air, not too loud to distract you from the sounds of water flowing. Fancy eh? Apparently you can even get a doctor's prescription to access their pools for therapy. At the end of your stay, you are given a platter of fresh fruits.
There's a small charge but that goes towards maintenance of the site. The other sulfur spring developed similarly takes it a step further... I didn't get the opportunity to go because there was no reason for me and Lhana to need a personal pool. However, couples and friends could book personal enclosed private pools for a set period of time. Hint hint!! How cool is that? Why are we not doing this here in Grenada?
Girly primping
How we get ready for the night life.
As for the night life? Yes, there isn't that much of parties happening. However, there's that little trend of everyone following the crowd wherever it seems to be going until a new hot spot happens. While I was there, it wasn't the club Kokonuts, but a bar called Marva's noted for their fish. (You can get fish almost anywhere on the island). This bar isn't particularly fancy, but it is well known for their food...and everyone turned up on a Friday night. We frequented the Reggae Lounge very often in the earlier part of the trip. Engaged in shot taking and lots of food eating.
Mouth diver shots at the Reggae Lounge
(These are compiled vid clips from my instragram, hence why they're so abrupt and poorly edited and synced.)
Tequila shots at After 4 Lounge
After 4 Lounge, shrimp alfredo
However, there were a few spots like Spiders, that Lhana brought me by, that by day when it's closed, I'd wonder what kind of ghetto neighbourhood she's trying to bring me in to get shot... only to discover when the place opens by night, it's classy with nice lights, flat screen tvs, tasteful art. Truly an open mouth, insert foot moment. She kept telling me about these amazing pies that gets sold out quickly. I was suspect looking at the building. At night? We did have to fight to get pies. The place was incredibly busy. And Shellon? I was busy being mystified at the transformation. The pies and chicken were legit - totally worth lining up around the corner for. It's also worth noting that the only rum shops I saw that resembled the ones from home were in the Carib territory. I remember being brought in a "ghetto rum shop" and wasn't aware of being in the ghetto until her friend who brought us there, and informed us. This ghetto rum shop was as unnecessarily cold as SGU library, with flat screen tvs, pool boards. I heard a rumour that rum shops could afford to look like this because they run on drugs money. But that's cool, didn't put me out, I was there for the good food.
Steam fish
The "ghetto rum shop" with amazing steam fish.
Banana Tree Bar
As for the night life? I remember my dear friend Tuesday told me last night when I went to NY, "Honey, at our age we don't do clubs anymore, we do bars." I think she would've loved Dominica. Lhana and I would park, and then spend the night walking from bar to bar. My favourite was Banana Tree. I was amazed at how well done and classy most of the places looked.
Having a fancy girly strawberry umbrella drink at Reggae Lounge
Fort Young Hotel
Restaurants here in Grenada, the kitchen closes at 10pm. In Dominica, it seems like the kitchen closed when you stop coming and asking for food. I got shrimp alfredo after midnight at After 4 lounge, while waiting on our tequila shots, listening to smooth jazz and watching videos on the flat screen tv. Fort Young hotel happy hour also has food and drinks. I just didn't have the patience to figure out how to get the food as the layout is a bit different from a bar and the wait was longer as the happy hour is busy.
Escape bar is so gorgeous. As per usual, what I wanted to know about was the food. Yes, you can reserve a table at midnight and order delicious platters of yummy goodies. I swear I think I saw a platter of shrimp goodies for 20-something EC.
My super amazing boyfriend gave me a laptop yesterday as a gift. So now instead of trying to make a netbook do laptop work, I have no excuses to not publish posts in a timely manner. I can finally edit everything ideally in a full sized screen. (Yay me!)
With that said, I can finally get those old posts from summer I had intended to write. I feel now is a good time to state that many of the minor details have since faded from memory but the epicness of the experience I hope to still be able to portray in these consequent posts. My summer getaway choice was somewhat unorthodox and spontaneous as this summer I found myself in exploring the Nature Isle of the Caribbean.
Why Dominica you ask?
Well I had the opportunity to meet a Dominican friend in Physics 1 at SGU. We bonded through the suffering of classes and exams and then found ourselves together again to endure Chemistry 2. At that point we decided to not make the universe conspire more to form a friendship, and we were close since. Along the way many other little friendships were formed and we were all toying with the idea of the trip. Somehow envisioning the trip in our mind the way MTV made Cancun look on Spring Break back in the day. In the end, the big group resulted in just me going.
Me on the plane..
Right above the clouds.
To be honest, I had no idea what exactly to expect from the trip. As fate would have it, I bounced into folks who had visited there before and gave me a list of "must-see" places. My mom insisted there was no night life. My dad insisted I'd love it as there was a lot of nature stuff to do. My friend? She's a city girl who doesn't like the bush, nor mosquitoes, nor cute furry wild animals or the sea.
Lhana, my friend, did an awkward job preparing me. For one, she got me adequately fearful of surviving the landing with strange stories of very rough landings and wind currents making it impossible to land due to mountainous terrain and even actual crashes. Other people correlated her story. What really happened? I found myself mesmerized by how many coconut trees were visible in the forest from above land. Then I found myself fantasizing about how much coconut water much be available on the island and how much I would drink. Then next thing I know? I'm on the ground, smooth landing. I found the flight to be super quick. Literally felt like I hopped a bus from my home, to town, then to country. The ability to be one place now and another then still marvels me sometimes.
Look at all the trreeeeeeesssss....! I know you can't really see how many coconut trees are there.. But I swear it looks like there's almost a plantation happening.
Then I arrived. I think the drive from the airport took me longer to get to my friend's house than the actual plane flight. I stayed in Castle Comfort, near Rosseau, high enough to see a beautiful sunset every day if I so desired. My taxi driver did an amazing job bringing me up to speed on what to expect on the island. He made me wonder (not saying that we don't...just never been a tourist on my island) if our local taxis invested this much time for no extra charge to sell Grenada. Leatherback turtles are protected there as they are in Grenada. My taxi driver was a part of the group that tries to protect him. He told me stories of how skilled some of the hunters are to know when turtles would come on shore by the moon and weather. The wildlife is pretty similar to Grenada but they also have agouti. I wasn't blessed with the opportunity to see one but I heard they were super cute. Everything wild is protected, right down to the mountain chicken (frog), and seasonal. They take these things so seriously that there's even Iguana crossings. Yes, it's illegal to bounce an iguana trying to cross the road. It so happens that Lhana failed to bring me up to speed on all this seasonal stuff that it seemed like the only thing readily available was typical stuff like fish or chicken, etc. However, no complaints here.
Normally, I'm iffy when it comes to fish. It's a moody, sometime-ish, if I feel like, maybe, sorta, kind of decision making process. I approached it with the same mindset... and then when I tried it, my world changed. While Grenada with it's not so active nightlife is more active than Dominica. Shellon, the foodie, was able to get food at any hour she desired. And when I discovered steam fish, you can bet your bottom dollar I pestered Lhana to help me acquire it.
In Dominica, there are little food places that open at night and serve amazing food. When it comes to fish, it's not like here where you take what is offered and prepared. Instead, when you go, there is a big basin of seasoned fish. You pick which fish you want. Then tell the chef how you want it done - steam, fried, etc. and then patiently wait for your meal to be prepared. Everything was oh-so-delicious. If I so desired jerk or grilled chicken, pork or fish, that was readily available late at nights reliably from I'Cho (It's hot).
Things I found most curious... In Dominica, both the top and bottom of the windscreen is tinted. Some vehicles have straight tints, some have wavy ones like this one in Lhana's mum's car, some have a heavy tint with a narrow slit.
I love to make plans and write lists. I like to have a general idea of what I intend to do with my time and get frustrated if there's too much nothingness happening. Mind you, I still love my lazy days where I just laze around too...
However, there's something special about holiday weekends. Sometimes you get an extra day, be it Friday or Monday, or both, sometimes it merely falls on the weekend itself. But then you have a host of activities to choose from, or attempt to avoid... and figure out plans and stuff.
I'm trying to cut back on this compulsion I have to plan especially around these times. Minimizes all potential disappoints if you try not to build expectations.
I wanted to do something so badly Friday but I ended up in a Conservation of Wildlife Club meeting at school that finished around 6-ish. Sure that's early, but waiting an hour plus idly can be more exhaustive than actually doing something sometimes. By the time I got home, I was too tired to do anything but go in my bed.
Yesterday I went to a tea party. My third one for the year I believe. As usual, there were a bunch of activities such as little games with prize rewards and modeling. I was one of the models this time. After the tea party there were several parties going on around the island. Lack of transport...*sigh* I passed by Karma and it was so dead I refused to go inside. Instead I found myself waiting for another 5 hours on the Carenage for my mom to finish with her party...lol Life's little ironies. She went to an 80s party in Aquarium. Usually, she'd be harassing my phone line to go home.
The weekend up to that point was just an epic fail. I mean I did end up chatting with a friend while I waited and that was awesome... But I had wanted so badly to do something.
This morning I went to the Dove Sanctuary near Perseverance to observe a dove nest.
I didn't sleep when I got home from Karma, yet I managed to still arrive late to meet Dr. Rusk. However, we did get there early and it was still quite an experience.
We had a mini-hike to the location of the nest. Upon reaching, we sat down and set up the equipment, or rather I watched Dr. set up the equipment. I had a pair of binoculars so I could see the bird up close. It was a pretty cool experience. There is always a bird on the nest. Initially, based on the consensus that only the male bird calls, the female was on the eggs. Then flew off and the male bird took up the position on the nest. With the aid of the binoculars, you could see the chest puff right before it coos. I think we heard about 5 males coo-ing.
I got some photos. They're not absolutely clear though because I had twigs and branches in my line of vision and despite the excellent zoom on my camera, it kept auto-focusing to the nearby branches in front of the dove.
The following photos are a combination of long overdue photos from the Mt. Hartman field trip and this last trip.
Mt. Hartman photos
Mushrooms?
This is what the dry forest habitat looks like during the rainy season.
The most interesting thing we got to see at the Mt. Hartman trip. It was breeding season so we weren't allowed to venture too far in. The doves are shy, and instinctively flee by flying to the ground and running upon seeing any threats.
The road leading to the Visitor Center.
The Grenada Hawk-Billed Kite feeds on snails. They crack the shells, eat the snail and drop the shell on the ground....So we didn't have experts with us to confirm, but there were lots of shells all over.
Classmates walking out.
Dove Reserve near Perseverance
First attempt to get a shot. Stupes. Out of focus.
That's the nest. I think that was the male bird at this point. I don't know how big that bird actually was... but I think they get as big as 12 inches.
Now that I've broken the blog post drought.... onto the other updates.
*** WARNING ***
This is going to be a super long post.
(filled with pics and vids)
(and lots of *gasp* words)
***
Life Lesson # 12 : When you come to that fork in the road, take it.
-Yogi Berri
***
Today I've been musing about all sorts of things but mostly revolving around choices. And well, my oh so eventful weekend.
When you really think about it, that's all that life comes down to - making choices. A friend was telling me the other night about a series of what if's regarding her relationship. What if she was really meant to be with her ex, who was a really good guy but they broke up, and not her current bf who's seemingly not as sweet as her ex but obviously has his own weight of value in her life? What if?
What if I should've stayed in NY last year and pushed and found a way to see my way through it? What if I decided to do Life Sciences at SGU when I returned? What if me and my ex never broke up? What if I never met my current boyfriend? What if I never taught those two years? What if I went straight to study in the States after high school? What if I never moved out in NY?
There will always be a what if... but that's the beauty of life, ain't it? I know I wrote a similar post a while back musing over what ifs regarding last year. But that's the thing.
In reality, there's no real good choice or bad choice. Hindsight is really only 20/20 regardless of how you flip it. Someone's seemingly bad choice, could be your best choice were you in their shoes... Different people need different experiences to bring them to certain breaking points so that they could grow.
The trick is, making a decision that involves some sort of risk and not just the easy stuff. You don't grow with the easy stuff. Moving out, that was a tough decision.
I grew up relatively sheltered. Regardless of how extensively I had previously traveled, that summer of 2009 was the first on-my-own voyage without parents there to hold my hand. Moving to Yonkers, a place I've never been before, unfamiliar territory. No prior experience on taking care of myself to that extent where the entire responsibility of how you survive weighs entirely upon you (except for bills... daddy helped cover that but within a budget).
It was scary. I had a lot of people who didn't think I was ready for it. I heard that I was young, I still needed someone there, I needed guidance, etc etc. But anyone who knows me, and knows me well, knows that I'm stubborn, independent minded and not afraid of taking on such risky ventures once I've wrapped my mind properly around the idea of it.
And guess what? Despite all those who didn't believe I could pull it off... I did. I had food in my fridge to last me weeks if at any given point I was unable to buy groceries because of low funds. I would shop at the supermarkets as sales permitted, go to class with my grocery bags and carry it the whole hour and some journey via train and bus home. I had to organize laundry days, study hours, time for cleaning, time for cooking... and figure out alternatives for all of the aforementioned should I mess up my schedule.
I ate healthy for the most part because I got into the whole anti-high fructose corn syrup thing... I started making my own juice at home with cane sugar and limes, eating sunflower seeds, prunes and blueberries for snacks, I had frozen ice cream yogurt in my fridge because it was healthier than normal ice cream. In fact, I spent more money on frozen yogurt with real fruit slices (with Enda) than on regular ice cream for the entire duration of that year in NY. And I didn't return home malnourished. My grades were good - I got all As and one C in Micro-econ (but thats because in my mind I already signed off on paying attention in class). I didn't party every weekend like everyone thought was my ulterior motive.
I was home most weekends, chatting with friends from back home, my bf, cooking, doing laundry, etc. The few, and literally few times, I made it out at nights were with Enda and Adia and it was nothing lawless... just to chill in the city for a bit.
Ohhh.... I fell in love with the pub right by my house though. I discovered it late, but I used to go shoot pool on a regular and have dinner there sometimes when I did discover it.
Moving back was another decision that I wasn't sure that would pan out too well. I'm still uncertain about how well it's working. In many ways, I'm happy. There's a lot less stress. I must admit, just like Dahl admitted recently about having his mom move in with him, there's a lot of perks to living with the parents. Mom cooks and packs my lunch like old times, washes my clothes and irons it sometimes. (Although mind you, in my fierce independent moments I declare I want to do all those things myself and I get ignorant and do it myself) (Most of) My friends are here... My hunny bunny is here. But on the flip side, I know why the caged bird sings. *sad face* There's nothing like tasting freedom and the bittersweet/blissful weight of responsibility and then losing it completely. Along with all the perks are alllll the rules that existed before I moved out. *sigh*
But it's only for a time right? However, the point of saying all this is that... you don't really know. All you can do is make a decision, and see it through regardless. Then if you don't like how it's going, then make another decision, and see it through and so forth.
Avoid the fear of risk. I don't know. At one point in time I was terrified of change and lived for the expectations of people...
And now, although I try to follow most of societies norms and expectations, I try to dance to the beat of my own drum... paving my own route and figuring it all out as I go along.
I refuse to be one of those people, although I'm guilty on occasion, that look back years later in life saying "maybe I should've done this... or have done that." So long as it's not completely insane, and I truly believe it's for the betterment in my personal development logically as a decision, I shall do it. And then, I'll figure out how to deal with the consequences as I go on... There will always be consequences regardless of what you decision you make. *shrug*
Ships are safe in harbour... but that's not what ships are built for.
Who's with me?
***
As for my summer? I didn't get to take any pics at all. It wasn't nearly as epic as my good friend Jamal's summer. But it was surely a delectable sun-soaked season indeed. I had lots of fun times. I experienced Carnival in a way I never did before... I played jab jab with the old oil for the very first time. It was quite an experience. Naturally I was paranoid about the health effects of using the old car oil on my skin, but I did it anyways for the experience. Initially, it took a while for me to get accustomed to the fumes (although I'm not sure if there were really any or was just my imagination because Chloe kept telling me there was... lol). Then I ended up changing in public, a switch with me and Chlo Chlo, so as to use my shirt to cover my hair.. I tried to avoid getting the oil on my chest, tummy and back. And then my bf's brother dabbed it all over me, and that was about it. After that point, everyone felt it was ok to dab me in the oil. I got over my hysterics and just had fun and started dabbing people too. The major disappointment for me was that they had barricades along the sidewalks. All the years I've played J'ouvert (yeah I know I make it sound like I've played it more than just 2-3 times), there have never been barricades. If someone knows you, and they see you, they will dab you in paint or oil. It's just expected. No one goes to J'ouvert clean and come out clean. But apparently this year, it was possible. *sigh* The strangest thing for me in the Jab Jab band was the music. Drums the whole way. I didn't expect that.
Anyways, I enjoyed it.
(Note: before you start clicking wildly at the following links... I suggest you right-click on the hyperlink and open it in a new tab just so that you don't lose your position on this post)
Below are some J'ouvert pics I robbed from this website.
The slideshow for the pretty mas is on this link...click here
And some from Oliver Lewis (yes I got his permission =P)
I know I know.. His pics are gorgeous... and here are a few from Pretty Mas.
***
Aside from that, as mentioned before in previous posts. I had the house to myself for a week and some. During that time, I had friends over to cook and stuff. The following is a video from me and my friends cooking in my kitchen. We had decided to make roti and curried chicken. Akeem, the guy it's mostly focused on, had decided to deviate from the proper way to make roti by rolling it out on the tawa whilst cooking it because he didn't want to clap it and pop the air pockets.
Oh... and you could check out my youtube channel while you're at it ---> here <---
They're all very random... not fully edited. But fun nuntheless. I'm working on doing proper vids with a purpose... worry not.
***
That concludes my post...
...
All because he buys you champagne and I buy you lemonade.
Welcome to my little piece of the blogosphere. I'm a Caribbean artist/ wildlife conservationist/ adventure enthusiast. Hope my blog brings a bit of sunshine into your life.
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