Help Sea Turtles this holiday season!

St. Kitts is lucky to be a nesting ground for Green, Hawksbill, and primarily Leatherback sea turtles. The Leatherback turtle is sadly a critically endangered species. Luckily, our local turtles have a great support system on the island- The St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network.

This is Olivia. She is an Olive Ridley sea turtle. She has lost both flippers on the right side of her body, and must spend the rest of her life in captivity. She would love to be adopted for Christmas or Hanukkah!

The primary objectives of the SKSTMN are :
-To implement a long standing sea turtle conservation management program
-To promote community awareness of the plight of sea turtles
-To provide non consumable sources of income to communities as an alternative to the sea turtle harvest in an effort to decrease pressure on SK turtle populations.

Baby Sea Turtle says please help us out!

Loads of Ross students and VIPs volunteer their time to help out our local turtle friends. There is a tagging program to track turtles, a rehabilitation center, an adoption program (for nesting turtles and turtles in rehab), and a recycled and sea glass jewelry workshop on island (staffed on a voluntary basis by many of my VIP friends); the beautiful jewelry is sold on the website and locally around St. Kitts. For the eco-tourists out there, SKSTMN even offers eco-tours during Leatherback nesting season (April-June).  Of course, they are always accepting donations to help in the conservation and protection of turtles. If you are interested in adopting or donating please visit the SKSTMN website here.

Olivia says thank you for any help you can give the sea turtles of St. Kitts!

This holiday season, it would be great if you would consider helping out the turtles! If you aren't interested in adopting a turtle or making a donation, there are loads of American stores (Amazon, Best Buy, LL Bean, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap, iTunes- to name a few) that will make a donation to the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitor Network when you shop online through goodseach.com! It is free to join, and it will make a HUGE difference! Please join today and add SKSTMN as your charity!  Click here to start Christmas shopping for a great cause!

Even if one person who reads my blog donates to this cause I will consider it a victory towards the protection of the turtles! Of course, I hope you all donate, and thank you so much for all of you who decide to help!

Paradise Found

Shipwreck beach, on South Friars Bay, is quickly becoming my favorite beach on St. Kitts. It has great views, a reef to snorkel, and some tasty drinks! Yesterday and today were beautiful here in the Caribbean, and I had two spectacular Shipwreck days!

Shipwreck beach on South Friars Bay on Tuesday
The water was like glass

Tuesday I met Catherine and Diana at the beach for some snorkeling. We could not have picked a better day. The water was so calm that waves were barely breaking on the shore- the water was lapping up on the shore like a lake. The calm water plus the sunny sky made for sparkly clear conditions underwater.  We saw puffer fish, octopus, squid, trumpet fish, big fat starfish, and a baby conch! There was also about a billion minnows swimming around in huge schools. It was by far the best snorkeling I have done since arriving. Everything was so colorful and beautiful! The best part was that I actually remembered to take my camera with me, so I was able to capture some great pictures of the reef and fish; I also got shots of how calm the water was and some of the resident monkeys!  Click here if you want to see them all! Oh, and the pictures are in the same album as Rob's football pictures that I posted last time, so the new ones start after them!

Me with a big fat starfish!

Puffer Fish

Today was another beach day. On Wednesdays, Trevor and I head to the beach to relax and talk about how awesome our life is here in St. Kitts. Today was no exception. What made today even better was the sweet 5 mast pirate ship anchored in South Friars Bay!  Ok, it wasn't a pirate ship, it was the Royal Clipper, part of a swanky cruise company that sails the Mediterranean Sea in the summer and the Caribbean Sea in the winter. I hope that the crew speaks in pirate slang... and that passengers have to walk the plank... I want to get on that ship so bad. This evening, after the ship left and the sun had set, we saw it off the coast all lit up. It was amazing!  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today when we went to the beach, so I did not get any close up shots of it. However, my friend Candace got a picture from campus with it's sails up. It was really amazing! I can't wait til it comes to port again so I can get a better picture!

The Royal Clipper leaving port with sails up

I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but I am really thankful to be living in St. Kitts. I know I don't have a job, and I'm giving up a career or pursuing my PhD to be down here, but I am really glad to be able to spend part of my life in St. Kitts! Paradise suits me!

Volcanos and Football!

Rob had quite the weekend. Saturday he hiked up to the summit of Mt. Liamuiga and today his football team played in the playoffs!


Yesterday Rob woke up super early for the hike.  The summit hike is different from the hike to the crater of the volcano that I did in October. When I went, we hiked up Liamuiga to the edge of the crater, but not the highest point. Rob, and some VIPs and students, went ALL the way to the top of the volcano. He was gone for 12 hours. I asked Rob if he would write a blog post about the hike up, and this is what I got:

Rob on the Mt. Liamuiga Summit Hike. In the rain/cloud forest.

I went with about 10 others on a St. Kitts VOLCANO hike yesterday! We left school at 6:15am and came back at 6:00pm. It stared with a 15 min drive through the sugar cane field, then about 1 hour through loose understory, about a half-hour on an elevated land bridge (2 ft wide mt. ridge) that led into a denser understory. THEN about 30 min on a washed out rocky-mud path before we left the canopy and spent 2 hours on a STEADY HAND-over-FOOT scramble up the steepest slopes with thin foot paths, some 70 degree inclines (many with ropes up the muddy/slimy rocks), but mostly about 50 degree inclines. We finally made it to the top but the cloud layers were so dense that we only caught 2 seconds of the view as the sun burst through the clouds (out of a 45 min lunch break)! I guess I'll have to go again and get that view! The was down took about as long due to the rain, mud, and poor conditions of the trail. YES! IT rains in the rain forest!... Who knew?


Rob also told me there is no way I would be able to do the hike- to intense for my wimpy arms!  He took tons of pictures, and you can see them here. 

Playing in the football playoffs. Rob is in the red shirt.

Today was playoffs for flag football.  I haven't been to any games, and since Rob's team was playing the VIP team I went along to cheer on my hubs and my friends. During the regular season, the VIPs won by a single point! This game was just as close, and pretty intense.  In the end the VIPs won by just a touchdown or two (I can't remember exactly).  The Red Rockets (Rob's team) were bummed out, but in January we have semester Olympics again and then a new football season. They can kick more butt soon enough. Pictures from the football game, as well as some recent pictures around the island, can be found here!

Sunset from campus, over the Caribbean Sea. One of Rob's classmates took this picture.

As a side note, Rob had heard that there was a place to smoke shisha on the island. Even though we aren't smokers, we really enjoyed shisha while we were living in Egypt. Last night we found the place! Kate, Trevor, Rob, and I smoked strawberry shisha, which wasn't so bad. I would have preferred rose or peach, but hey, I'll take what I can get here! I got pretty nostalgic for Egypt, and think that koshary and bird tongue soup will be on the menu this week! YUM!!!

Island life is the life for me

I initially thought being a housewife was going to be boring and tedious.  I was wrong. Although, to be fair, I try to stay out of the house! I have had some big adventures and small adventures since my last blog post. I figured it was time to share.

Last Tuesday our trivia team, Ting Country, won first place! We got a (terrible) bottle of rum, and some weird plastic frog. I freaking love winning.  Wednesday was packed with events. As always, Trevor and I started the day going to the local market here on campus, then spent most of the day at the beach.  Wednesday evening was the best though! Trevor and I went to a baby sea turtle release party! 30-40 baby sea turtles were found in a damaged nest, and we got to help release them back into the ocean. I named mine Stormy (cause there was a storm blowing in while we were on the beach, and the lightening was putting on quite a show). Trevor named his Ghost Ship (cause there is an abandoned ship off the coast, and we decided it's haunted). After a lot of encouragement, Ghost Ship made it to the water. Stormy... Stormy would not go to the water! I was devastated! However, the lady in charge (can't remember her name), took Stormy and three other babies back to her lab. Hopefully they will get stronger and be ready to go next release day. I got to help another baby though, Trevor named him Percy. Percy got into the water pretty quick, I was very proud. The babies were Hawksbills, which I have mentioned in earlier posts.  They were adorable and really tiny- about two inches long. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures. Bright lights can seriously disorient sea turtles (that's why at the beach, some resorts or condo communities have orange or red lights facing the sea), so I didn't bother to bring my camera.  Next time I'll try to take some photos without my flash with one of the red flash lights.

After the turtle release, Trevor and I headed to Bobsy's (a restaurant that has karaoke) for Sarah's going away party. Sarah is a fellow VIP who is heading back to the States. We had a late dinner and then "enjoyed" the music!

Thursday was fun too! The VIPs had been talking about swapping recipes, so we turned it into a pot luck dinner/recipe exchange.  I made my cucumber and vinegar salad, and the pineapple cheese ball I stole from Elaine DiMaggio years ago. I stuffed myself full of the yummy foods my friends made, and met some new people. The best part is that Kim, yet another VIP, is going to collect all the recipes and email out a cookbook of everything!  It can be difficult to find ingredients sometimes, so I am looking forward to having island friendly meals to make!

On Friday, Rob and his classmates had their second anatomy test- 3 hours of hell (according to them). To celebrate the test being over, and a belated birthday celebration for me, Sarah, Vanessa, Candice, Kate, Trevor, Rob, and I headed to Bamboo for drinking and dancing! I enjoyed a few libations, and danced the whole time we were there! I LOVE dancing!

Saturday and Sunday were beach days. The students only get to hang at the beach on weekends, so they try to go as much as they can, as long as they don't have a test to study for.

Trevor enjoying our homemade peanut butter cups!

Today, I decided to make homemade reese's peanut butter cups! I enlisted Trevor's help and we were very successful. We made 18 cups, and used the rest of the peanut butter mixture and chocolate to make chocolate peanut butter balls! I also went to yoga for the first time today! One of the students teaches the class every Monday. The floor is REALLY hard, so my wrists are killing me, but otherwise I feel great. I freakin' love yoga!

So, life goes on here in St. Kitts. Only 39 days til we head home from Christmas and New Years!

Mauri and Lia's visit

Last week two of my friends came to St. Kitts for a visit: my cousin Lia, and my friend Mauri. The arrived last Tuesday and stayed through Sunday. We had tons of fun, but the time flew by!

After picking them up at the airport, we dropped off their luggage at home, and went into town for some lunch at the Circus Grille. Tuesday night we headed to trivia (Rob had a test Friday and the following Monday, so we were trying to stay out of his hair). Most of our team was MIA, and we lost pretty badly! Wednesday we headed to the market here on campus, and then to Shipwreck Beach. The weather was perfect, and we were able to get in about 2 hours of snorkeling. I even saw a hawksbill sea turtle! That was by far the best part for me! Of course, I forgot to grab our camera before getting in the water, so I do not have any pictures to share.  There was a whole lot of monkeys hanging out too; usually you see one or two, but we saw around 8 or 9! They were swinging in the trees, sitting at the restaurant tables, lounging on the grass. They are super cute! Later that night we all headed to the casino at the Marriott for some gambling.  We all lost at the slots (such a waste of money), and then we did reasonably well at roulette for a while!  I am not so good at the whole casino thing, but it was still fun. Thursday we went to the Marriott beach- we just sat our buts on the beach for 6 hours. It was delightful. That evening we went to see the movie In Time.  It was a bit to unbelievable for my tastes, but it was alright. Friday we had an adventure day of sorts. First we went into Port Zante, this is where all the cruise ships dock, and has tons of duty free shopping and a local craft market. Then we headed to Romney Manor at Wingfield Estates. First we went to the Caribelle Batik store, then went ziplining. So much fun! Friday evening Rob, Lia, Mauri, and I went to La Belle Vie for dinner. It is a little French restaurant here on the island, and it was delicious! Saturday was my birthday and another beach day- this time we went down to Reggae and Cockleshell beach. We hung out at Reggae most of the day, then walked over to the Spice Mill, another restaurant. I hadn't been there before, but had wanted to try it, and I was not disappointed! I really liked the atmosphere of Spice Mill too- I plan on going again. When we walked back to our stuff at Reggae after lunch, we noticed the sand had been all rooted through, and our bag of apples, bananas, and cookies were missing. Wilbur the pig ate all of our stuff! Jerk! The best part was all the other people on the beach- they were clearly staring at us to see what our reaction would be! Jerks! They could have shooed Wilbur away, or given us a heads up, "Oh, hey, the giant pig ate your food... we tried to stop him but couldn't." Nope- nothing. Oh well!  Saturday night, Mauri, Lia, Trevor, Candice, Brayton, Leann, and I went out to celebrate my birthday at Nirvana. It is at an old plantation house, and it was another tasty meal! Our waitress was a bit weird, she seemed confused a lot, and none of us could figure out why! It was a really nice night, and I am so glad I had friends to spend it with since my family (besides Rob), is far away. Sunday I dropped Lia and Mauri back at the airport, and just like that it was back to me and Rob and a quiet apartment!

I haven't been able to download pictures to add to this post, but if you click here, you can see all the pictures that Lia took.

I had so much fun with Lia and Mauri; I hope they are able to come back and visit again! Hopefully we will be lucky, and have lots more of our friends and family visit while Rob and I are in St. Kitts!