I love me some Canadians

Let me tell you about the weekend I had last weekend.  I do realize that I'm going out of sequential order, because I still need to tell you about the great weekend I had diving with my students, but last weekend was so much fun and so chill, that I wanted to get some pictures out of where I stayed.

I guess it all starts with a (non-student) diving weekend about 4 weeks ago.  The usual crew, plus one - our friend Roshan who works for the Clinton AIDS Foundation down here, went back to the Manta Lodge to see what we could see underwater.  When you are not diving, you are basically hanging out in the dining area, near the pool, because there are no TV's or internet access at the Manta Lodge.  After dinner, we met a couple teachers from the Maple Leaf Academy (the Canadian International School here in Port-of-Spain) who were there with one of their students from their school's SCUBA Club.  We were playing cards after dinner and Christal, one of the teachers, tells us that a whole group of them are going to Toco (northeast corner of Trinidad) to see the turtles lay their eggs (a natural phenomenon that occurs here).  Aaron, Katie and myself have all been wanting to do this, so we jumped at the offer.

Christal told us they all rented a house up there that sleeps 25-30 people, so we thought it was going to be a big guest house, which aren't always the greatest accommodations - usually a bed, a small sitting room and maybe someone there cooking for you.  If you get a fan in your room to keep you cool, you're kind of lucky.  As it turns out, we were the lucky ones, but not because of getting a fan.

Here is what we rolled up to...This giant corporate guest house that was built by some company to entertain it's employees (or executives) on the weekends, which is also rented out to the public.

It rests on about 9 acres of land and is on the edge of a cliff looking out to the Atlantic ocean.  It has access to two small private beaches as well as a larger public beach that is within walking distance.

Here is the view of the backside of the beach house.  On the right of the picture (not shown) is a large manicured lawn with a large open BBQ pit.  On the left is another small field and the paths to the private beaches.  Behind me is an outdoor, covered dance area, complete with sink, a place to serve drinks and bathrooms.  This was not really used, but it's nice to add to the impressive list of things that this place had to offer.

Here's the picture of the inside of the beach house.  The backyard/pool is out the doors on the right.  There is obviously enough space to sit and feed the entire group and there is a pool table just peeking out of the corner of the picture.

So it's obvious that the amenities were great.  But what made the weekend one of the best weekends since I arrived in Trinidad was the people that I was around.

Just like when I first met my ISPS family, there was a lot of bonding and everyone was welcoming with open arms.  And meeting another large group of people like that just made the weekend so great.

We did get to see one turtle laying it's eggs, but that was actually the most depressing part of the weekend.  We had a large group with us (20 people went) and we were merged with another group of about 10 people.  But then there was another group of 20-30 people out on the beach also looking to watch the turtles lay their eggs.  So the only one we saw had close to 60 people surrounding it and the magic of mother nature was lost amongst a bunch of people not so in awe of what was happening around them, flashing pictures that was more like paparazzi than capturing memories, and just inconsiderate people.

So I choose not to remember the weekend as the weekend of watching turtles, but rather the weekend of meeting some more incredible people.  

Oh, and also some good times playing Super-Spectacular-Catch in the pool.  Here's my favorite shot of one of my catches.  A great shot, but let me tell you, the landing was not so great and it ended my afternoon of catches.  

Here's a quick video of Aaron and Katie trying to do a double catch.  They never quite got it, but it was fun watching them try.

This video also reminded me of one of the other really cool things that happened during this weekend.  The woman floating on the purple noodle, Pierett, didn't know how to swim, but she had a waist floatie on while she was in the pool.  She also played Super-Spectacular-Catch, but that wasn't the cool thing. 

Before we went to see the turtles, we hiked up to this waterfall.  It was around 5:00, which gave us sunlight, but when we got to the waterfall, the tree cover was making it kind of dark (hence no pictures).  You could climb to the top of the waterfall, maybe about 20 feet up and jump into the pool, which I did a couple times - it was so much fun.  But the really cool thing is that Pierett really wanted to join in on the fun.  So she climbed up and with myself and one other person waiting in the pool below the waterfall, jumped in.  She landed right between us and we took her back to dry land.  It was really cool being a part of her literally taking this leap of faith.  In hindsight, this may not have been the wisest thing to do.  But then again, life is about taking risks and trying to overcome fears and I think Pierett did that this weekend.