Camping Trip: About a month ago I got to go on a wonderful camping trip. It was a weekend trip to celebrate the birthday of another volunteer. We spent the weekend in Hollywell National Park in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. Our campsite overlooked the valley that holds the greater Kingston area. It was gorgeous (as soon as I post the rest of my pictures somewhere I'll include a link), especially at night as the whole city was laid out like a filigreed bejeweled necklace. We also had a full moon that weekend. So it was pretty spectacular.
During the day we interspersed hiking with games and simply enjoying each other's company (there were about 15 campers in all). In the evening we chatted and enjoyed the company some more. :) It rained off and on, and the mist and clouds passing through the mountains looked very cool. It was way colder than I had expected, but thankfully I had packed a jacket for the trip. I about froze at night though. Never thought I'd get cold while living in Jamaica. :)The campsite was nice. We rented a big tent that looked like one of the tents from M*A*S*H. I was glad I'd hauled my sleeping pad and sleeping cocoon with me, though I wished I had a full fledged sleeping bag instead of just the liner but I survived. ;)
One funny thing that happened was our transportation issues. We broke two buses on the way up (only had to switch buses once, thankfully the second problem was a minor one and happened when we arrived at the park). We also broke down on the way back to town and had to switch buses again. Thankfully everyone had a good sense of humor about the whole thing so it turned out to be just part of the adventure.
Another weekend hiking trip: A couple of weekends ago I got to spend the weekend at a friends house along with some other volunteers. My friend is an amazing cook (he is also a vegetarian, so I tend to eat very healthily when I visit) so we were well fed the whole weekend. We hung out and played cards Friday, and then Saturday morning we left for our hike. There is a cave near my friend's house that was used by the Arawaks (the pre-Columbus inhabitants of Jamaica) and held some of their paintings. The cave was also used by one of the Maroons (a group of escaped slaves that fought a long, vicious guerrilla war with Britain) as a hiding spot. My friend told us that it was just a short walk to the path entrance where we would meet our guide and then a nice leisurely stroll up to the cave. He was mistaken on both counts, but it didn't keep us from enjoying the day. The walk down was about 40 minutes, but was mostly downhill. The hike up to the cave was a little more rigorous than expected since we first had to hike down the steep hill of red mud (thankfully there was a railing at one part since the path is frequently used by community members to get to the river) then hike up the hill on the other side.
The spot at the river where we crossed was lovely, and since we had known there would be a river near by we all wore our swim suits. The hike up was also beautiful. I finally got to see how pineapple's grow. Surprisingly it's on a ground plant with spiky leaves and not a tree. It grows in the middle of the plant. I have a picture but I haven't uploaded it to my computer yet. :) The cave was really interesting, though small. It was cool to be able to look at the paintings and not have to be standing behind a rope (though the museum worker in me winced a bit at that). The paintings were in remarkable shape for not having been preserved in any formal way. The cave was grilled (had security bars) and locked, but that was it. Anyway, after seeing the cave, and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, we started our hike back down.
Of course it had started raining, but we didn't mind so much. We decided to go swimming anyway. Our poor guide thought we were nuts (Jamaicans don't stay out in the rain. In fact her mom commented on that fact when we got back, saying that we didn't have sense enough to get out of the rain. I couldn't disagree with her.). We had a blast though. After we finally hauled ourselves back up the hill we started for my friend's house. Remarkable we got a ride (at least part of the way) which cut a good deal off time of the trip. Once we got back we enjoyed hot drinks and grilled sandwiches. Grilled peanut butter is actually pretty good. ::grins::
And thus concludes the things that I'd been meaning to blog and just hadn't gotten to.
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