Home Sweet Home: Dolphin Style

After a really great trip back home for Christmas and New Years, Rob and I are back on the Rock. We spent two and a half glorious weeks with our family, who we really love, but we were both excited to get back to St. Kitts. It's too cold in the states for me now... All this desert and tropical island living has ruined me for winter! :)

The best part about coming back to the island was NOT having to live on campus anymore! It took a few days of cleaning and organizing (and a little bit of party-throwing) but we are finally settled into our new home- The Dolphin House. If you missed my original post about the DH, it got it's name from the enormous mural painted on the back of our pool. It is a delightful portrayal of a happy mommy and baby orca living in their salty underwater world. Yes, I know orcas are not dolphins (although they are in the dolphin family), but they apparently look like dolphins from the golf course behind our house.

View over our pool out to the Atlantic Ocean

Rob and I are sharing the house with Kate and Trevor. Kate and Rob and both in second semester, and we were all in the same orientation group last year. Our house is pretty awesome. We have a huge kitchen with tons of storage and a gas stove (thank God) and oven (double thank God), a giant tv and comfy couches, and a HUGE deck with a sweet sweet pool. Oh yeah, we also have private balconies of each of our bedrooms.  The awesome-est part of the Dolphin House is the incredible view. I can even see the ocean when I shower! Seriously though, we have a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean, completely uninterrupted. Life is good in the Dolphin House.

The pool

Rob's best friend Zack met us in St. Kitts for some island fun before Rob started school. They hiked to the top of Mt. Liamuiga on Wednesday, and they also cut the cast off of Rob's broken arm. Why you ask? "It had to come off Stephanie, it had to come off," was the response I got from my husband. It's strange though, because I don't remember Rob going to medical school or having a osteopathic medical degree...

Thursday was Trevor's 27th birthday, so we invited all our friends to come over for a party. I think everyone had a really great time. I had a lot of fun, minus the part where I was physically assaulted and thrown into the pool against my will. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you hang out with a bunch of lushes.

Our bedroom

Friday we took a catamaran trip to Nevis. We loaded on the the cat, did a bit of snorkeling in good ol' Shitten Bay, then headed across the Narrows to Nevis. We had lunch on the beach, played in the water, and cruised on home.

Saturday Rob, Zack, and Trevor hiked up to the Bat Cave, while some friends and I went and had brunch at the Marriott and lounged on the beach all day.  I have to ease back into my lifestyle or I might hurt myself. Baby steps... haha just kidding, my life is a piece of cake right now, and I love it!

Sunday was a quiet day... Kate and Rob got ready for school and that was about it. Today they were back to the books, and Trevor and I went to our VIP meeting then grocery shopping. Big day right? Now the groceries are put away and we're waiting for the kids to get out of school at 3. Life has gone back to normal for me here in SK.

To see more pictures of our house and it's view click here!

Oh, and if you haven't heard yet: I got a job offer to go back to Egypt to work on an expedition. My old boss, Dr. Peter Lacovara heads up an dig at Malqata on an 18th Dynasty harem palace that may have been a childhood home to King Tut. As of right now I am planning on going next January and February to work with him.  We will see what the next year holds for Egypt before I book any flights!

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!!!

Mt. Liamuiga

Tuesday morning I had to wake up at 6am. I HATE waking up early, but it was worth it- along with some other VIPs, I hiked up to the crater summit of Mt. Liamuiga, a volcano on St. Kitts.

Mt. Liamuiga is 3,792 ft high, and the crater is just over half a mile wide. It is the tallest peak in St. Kitts, and one of the highest in the Caribbean archipelago. It is a stratovolcano, and the last verified eruption was about 1,800 years ago. Two alleged eruptions took place in 1692 AND 1843. I am unsure how they are uncertain about whether or not it erupted, but Hey I'm no vulcanologist.

View of Mt. Liamuiga from the trailhead.

We started out at the trail head, at the end of some old sugar cane fields (a new resort is being built in the area), and entered the rain forest. It's my kind of rain forest too, no scary animals or bugs. In fact, I only saw one bug the whole time and I heard a few birds here and there. It was super lush and green, and VERY humid. Luckily the tree canopy kept us shaded, and it wasn't that hot.  The scenery was indescribable. It was beautiful, creepy, breathtaking, and weird all at once. The Banyan Trees were by far the coolest plant I have ever seen. At least I think that's what they were! Their trunks split apart near the bottom in all different directions. The climb up was easy-moderate for the most part. Although, there were some steep areas and we had to climb up some dry rocky river beds. My legs were killing me half way up... I'm such a wuss!

View into the summit crater.

At around 3,000 feet the rain forest turns into a cloud forest. It wasn't too cloudy while we were hiking though. Almost at the top, we had one last major obstacle- fairly large rocks (in my opinion) that needed to be scaled. Side note-if you have met me, you know I am not very outdoorsy. I am trying very hard for the sake of my very outdoorsy husband. So, I did manage to get to the top of the rocks... with some help from Matt (who pulled) and Trevor (who pushed). I also earned two scraped knees, a cut up shin, and a skinned elbow. It took two hours to get from the trailhead to the top.

The view down into the crater is magnificent. When the clouds near the rim, they are sucked down into the bowl. It's really amazing to see. The walls of the crater are completely green and near vertical, and at the bottom is a small lake. It is possible to hike down into the crater, but the guys said it's pretty challenging. We hung out on the rim for a while, eating lunch and enjoying the view. We didn't make it to the tippy top of the rim; the actual highest point was opposite us. We were behind a jagged peak, and were facing toward the island, so I couldn't see the ocean. I hear the view from the opposite side is even better. On a clear day you can see Saba, Statia, St. Maarten, St Barths, and Nevis. Next time volcano... next time!

The hike down was nearly as hard as going up. It had rained a bit when we started our hike, and the humid nature of the rain forest made the rocks and trees slippery. We took another two hours to get back to the cars. It was totally worth all the effort. I would really like  to hike it again, I just need to forget how hard it was first!

For my entire album click here.

Here are some more interesting links about Mt. Liamuiga:
Global Volcanism Program
Peakware.com