Swimming with seaturtles
Door: Marianne
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Marianne
24 Mei 2010 | St. Vincent, Kingstown
First stop was the island of Baliceaux to survey for Garifuna pottery. According to historical accounts, the most rebellious Garifuna leaders were dumped on an island for a year before they were deported to Belize (16th century). We were suspecting it may have been this Island.We did not find any Garifuna pottery, but loads of Saladoid, which is a lot earlier. There also seemed to be a lot of poo around, I mean everywhere which I found bizar because I only encountered one cow and 3 goats;) I still shot a lot of really nice pictures though, which I will upload to this photobucket album. (It takes a lot of time, and internet isn't working all the time). I have uploaded a few pictures from te trip last week -when we visited Walliabou beach amongst others...many more pictures to upload still!)
This is the link: http://photobucket.com/saintvincent
Password: argyle
Instead of taking the little motorized boat, I swam the way over to the island, which was cool too. There were huge shells on the beach, which unfortunately you weren't allowed to take. I also encountered a landturtle.
And lots of prickly bushes. After we left, we went to go snorkling at the Tobago Cays, which was an absoluteley amazing experience. The water was so clear you could see everything. I swam with seaturtles, and saw lots of nice fishes. Other people said they saw a sting rays, Barracuda and sharks, but I haven't. I wasn't afraid of that anyway. It was just unreal, like the stuff you only see in Jacques Cousteu documentaries:).I had to pinch myself a couple of times.Then we continued on to the island of Mayreau, which is your typical white sandbeach with palmtrees island. Think Bounty commercials.
Lots of yachts from other westerners, and dodgy tourist souvenirs for sale on the beach. Still it was really nice, and beautiful.
On the way back, we also made a brief stop at Bequia, which has some cool looking structures.
Being on the boat was really fun, and I was sitting mostly in the front. The Atlantic Ocean is quite rough, and it happened quite a lotthat a wave came splashing to the front of the boat, and we would all be soaking wet but having a blast. Like being on a rollercoaster, kindof, or perhaps you should call it a catamaran joy ride;).
It was perfectly safe though.
Now last week, I had to write dayreports for two days, which also means I was the one doing all the administration in the field> And I just happened to have the two busiest days, when we suddenly got a lot of finds to process, because we started to work on the slopes facing the sea, which yielded lot's of Cayo pottery of previously unknown styles. Also the postholes show historically documented houseplatforms, that have not yet before been found archeaologically. So we're doing good work here.
Also on the 2nd day Bernoit Berard (who investigates how one may have travelled from island to island with a canoe build by Calinago people the from French Guinea. He and his team of rowers cross the atlantic from island to island. He rowed from Bequia to St. Vincent the other day. We missed their arrival by 15 minutes which was a bit of a dissapointment. But they came the next day (about 70 people) to help and experience archaeology for a few hours. We went to a video presentation later.
I have to get going, our middaybreak ends soon:) Strange idea that I will be home in a week again!
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26 Mei 2010 - 13:57
Reinier:
Hoi Marianne,
Ik heb nog niet alles gelezen, maar wat fijn dat je zo'n mooie tijd daar hebt! Geniet van de laatste week :)
Groetjes van Reinier & de katten. -
27 Mei 2010 - 09:08
Marjolein:
Greaaaat travelblog again :) I like the poo-mystery :D And the whole swimming with turtles in azury sea...mmm...I'll be swimming too today haha, 'baantjes trekken' in the Utrecht overvecht swimmingpool. However, I ejoy reading your blogs and seeing the beautiful pictures :D Must be quite a culture-shock when you get back. But we should meet soon then :D
xxx
Marjolein
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