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!!!

A Tale of Two Hikes

Today was Ross's mid-semester break, which means all the students had the day off. Since Monday is Mad-Hikers day, us VIPs decided to bring our over-worked spouses on our hike up to the Bat Cave.  As I was uploading my pictures from today, I realized I hadn't updated since early last week, and I have been on TWO hikes since then!

A shot I took while on the hike today, I can't believe how amazing it turned out!

Last Monday was a pretty easy hike.  We went out to Wingfield Estates (where we went zip-lining), and hiked west to some more old sugar plantation ruins. I have no idea to whom they once belonged to, or when they fell out of use. BJ, a fellow VIP who leads some of the hikes, said that the main house was allegedly being restored and turned into a hotel. It was easy to see all the modern masonry from the outside, and Trevor said it was even wired already. Lame. So instead of checking out the house, I focused on the old sugar processing area. This area was pretty well preserved. I liked the windmill ruins and the smoke stack best. There is even a passage that takes you into the bottom of the smoke stack, so you can look up toward the sky. I think the building near them is called a Boiling House, but I am not sure. I really should study up on the old sugar plantations in my free time.  We wandered around the ruins for a while, waited out a brief rainstorm in the windmill, and then headed back towards the car. We walked through field of what is either sugar cane or guinea grass... I should look those up too!  I just found this website, and it has really interesting and helpful information about St. Kitt's old plantations. It has some wonderful pictures of various estates (not the one we hiked unfortunately), and the essay sheds some light on the sugar plantations and their history. Click here to check out my entire album from this hike.

Part of the windmill, smokestack, and what I think might be part of the boiling house

Windmill (just the base, the wooden top part is gone) and the smokestack.

Back to today's hike.  Rob was very excited to go hiking. It has been driving him batty (ha) because I pretty much hate hiking, and he loves it. I go because I don't want to sit at home all day, I like the people that go hiking, and St. Kitts is really beautiful! The destination today was the Bat Cave. Getting to the trail head is... interesting. You have to turn down what looks like a driveway, turn at what looks like the end of the driveway, and finally come to a dead end in a sugar cane field (or guinea grass, I really need to figure out the difference). Next you dive into the cane field (with stalks about 9 or 10 feet tall), and just walk until you come to a dry creek bed. Yep, you just walk blind through the field. Ok, it is possible there there was a trail, and I just couldn't see it.  Once you are in the creek bed, the hike is pretty easy; it's fairly flat, you just have to watch your footing, cause the rocks are uneven and loose in places, and some are slippery with moss. There are a couple tricky parts though- including a huge boulder you have to climb over. I hate that stupid boulder, it doesn't even have the decency to be easy to climb over. There is a rope that you can use to pull yourself up, but precious few footholds. The guys made it up easy enough, the other ladies and I required some help... Courtney's husband, Lance, was kind enough to give the girls a boost (basically he let us step in his hand) as we grabbed the rope. Once Lance had boosted us up a bit, and we pulled ourselves up a little ways, BJ grabbed our hands, and helped to pull us the rest of the way.  The creek bed past the boulder had puddles and pools along the final leg to the Bat Cave, but again was pretty flat. The closer you get to the cave the more high pitched squeaky sounds you hear- it's the bats using their super sweet echo location! Inside the cave, which is relatively small (it looked like another giant boulder leaning against a bend in the rock wall), there are bats EVERYWHERE!!! Hanging from the ceiling, flying through the air, pooping on the ground, squeaking adorably, BATS GALORE! i have posted a video of the inside of the Bat Cave towards the bottom of this post

The giant boulder you have to climb over

When you hike the the Bat Cave, you have the option of continuing on past the cave to a waterfall. You have to climb over another impasse. I was actually able to get my big bum up and over without too much help! I made Trevor stand behind me just in case I fell to my death (it was only like 7-8 feet, but it was very rocky...). The way to the waterfall was also pretty easy once you got pass the climb. The falls are pretty small, and the water comes from one small pool up top, down to the pool underneath. Rob went up to the top pool, apparently it was home to some craw fish.

Waterfall

The hike back to the car was harder than coming up because it started to rain, making the rocks very slick (I not so gracefully fell twice). I was really nervous about using the rope to get down from the boulder. It was less scary then I anticipated. It's just tricky because you have to edge out on your belly, while trying to curl your legs under the ledge to find the foothold! Again, Lance assisted by pretty much grabbing my flailing foot and sticking it in the right spot. After you have footing, you basically scooch over the edge, backwards, while shimmy-ing down the rope. Moments like that remind my why I am not wildery.  Oy vey.

To see the pictures from today's hike, click here!  Oh, and we signed our lease for next semester, so be sure to book a room in the Dolphin House soon!

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

Monkey Hill Hike

On Mondays a group of VIPs get together and hike somewhere around the island. I decided to join them this past Monday on the Monkey Hill Hike. Apparently is is named for the Green Vervet Monkeys that have been seen there, we did not see any on our trip. There were a ton of cows though... and I do not like cows.

We met at school at about 8am and headed over to the hill, which is over 1000 ft tall... a big hill. we had to walk through a town, I believe it's called Belle Vue, to get to the main trail head. We hiked past a field full of cows, and a big house with some very loud dogs. There are supposed to be ruins of one of the old Great Houses, but I didn't see anything this time. The hike up was relatively easy, but it was very humid. I didn't have a scrap of dry clothing to wipe my sweaty brow with. I had a sheen of sweat covering my entire body. So gross.

View of Basseterre and the Southeast Peninsula. The Atlantic Ocean is on the left and the Caribbean Sea is on the right.

Once at the top we had amazing views of Bassterre, Port Zante, the airport, and the Southeast Peninsula (with the Atlantic Ocean on the left, and the Caribbean Sea on the right). It was beautiful! Check out all the photos here.  I was kind of a nerd and made it Lost themed (the show Lost).

Oh, two more thing, unrelated to hiking. Rob passed his first exam! Hooray! Tuesday nights are trivia here on St. Kitts. Last night our team, Ting Country, won first place!!! Yay!