Jamaica-Day 3

After our good service to the locals, Angela, who is also the best cricket player in the area, challenged all who helped with repairs to a game of cricket. Now, I know what you might be thinking, “cricket why cricket?”. The answer to that is because cricket is Jamaica’s national sport. In college, we did occasionally play some cricket just to try it, but from what I remember, cricket is a mixture of baseball and croquet. We split the teams up as fairly as possible, thus putting Angela and I on opposite teams. During the game, Angela scored so many points against us that my team had to forfeit (so much for fair teams). After the game, we all settled next to a huge bonfire listening to some locals playing reggae which was most famously played by Bob Marley. After this relaxing evening, we all headed to a good nights sleep aching from the cricket game. This final country concludes my very exciting journey through some of Latin America’s most diverse and exotic places. I hope you all will take an adventure of your own someday to these exotic places.

Jamaica-Day 2

Hurricane Robbie caused mass destruction on surrounding, shabbier houses. Because these people suffered so much, Angela and I decided to give them a helping hand in repairing them. We started with the people who had a fewer number of people to help repair. As Angela and I gathered tools to help repair the buildings, I asked her why her house was not damaged. She said that because of the unique design of her house hurricanes cause minimal damage to her house. She also said that the houses that were damaged ‘badly’ have a similar design that was created by Jamaicans long ago. She said that the hurricane was a really bad one that they had not seen in years.

The entire day we danced the all seven of the major types of Jamaican, most of which are considered to be religious. They are Maroon, Myal, Kumina, Revival, Rastafari, Jonkonnu, and Hosay. After countless hours, we had built the houses stronger than the originals.

Jamaica-Day 1

Introduction to Jamaica

Welcome to Jamaica, my final country, on this most memorable trip. One of the many Caribbean islands, Jamaica is by far one of the most interesting and the most visited. Interior mountains and plateaus cover much of Jamaica’s length, and nearly half of the island’s surface is more than 1,000 feet above sea level. The most rugged topography and highest elevations are in the east, where the Blue Mountains rise to 7,402 feet at Blue Mountain Peak, the island’s highest point. Karst landscapes with ridges, depressions, and sinkholes characterize the hills and plateaus of the John Crow Mountains, the Dry Harbour Mountains, and Cockpit Country, a region covering 500 square miles in western Jamaica. The Don Figuerero, Santa Cruz, and May Day mountains are major landforms in the southwest. Coastal plains largely encircle the island, and the largest alluvial plains are located in the south. The climate in Jamiaca depends mainly on the elevation. As one travels higher to the Blue Mountains, the temperature only sinks to around 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit. Everywhere else it is a nice warm tropical climate with an average temperature of 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit.  

Day 1-Jamaica

I selected to go to Jamaica for a variety of reasons. Firstly, my best friend lives here her name is Angela. I have arrived in Kingston, the capital city of Jamaica. This is where Angela lives. After the flight, Angela greets me in the standard dialect of English that is used in Jamaica. She tells me that there is a massive hurricane coming soon called Hurricane Robie. She said that we must immediately get to shelter for the night, so we stayed at her house near the airport as that is the nearest shelter for us. When we get to her double-floor house, we immediately start to hear the mass booms of thunder followed quickly by rain and lightning. Soon through the night, we lost power and were sitting in her living room in pitch black. She decided to tell me some of the very famous Anansi stories. Anansi was a spider that always got into trouble. Each story had some moral teaching in it. Parents told these stories to their kids to help instill morals in them. After the exciting storytelling, the power finally came back on and we enjoyed a very good sleep in the Jamaican beds.

Suriname-Day 3

Today, people would be getting up with headaches and bad memory after last night. Because of the intense celebrating, people would be late to work and slowing businesses. Today, because everyone is back to work, I got permission to go to the Central Suriname Nature Reserve. Suriname is a territory that is rich in fauna. Within the country, 680 bird species, 185 mammal species, 152 species of reptiles, 95 species of amphibians and 790 fish species have been recorded. A total of approximately 1,890 vertebrate species are known to exist in the country, 3 percent of which are unique to Suriname. The total number of species in Suriname are close to the number of unique species in the Amazon Rainforest. This is one of the many examples of evidence on why Brazil is overshadowing Suriname. I saw almost all of these unique species in the CSNR on my hike through the amazing wildlife park. On my hike through the CSNR, I saw the most breathtaking sight, Devil’s Egg. It is basically a giant boulder balanced on top of a granite spire, that is several hundred meters high. This capped my time in Suriname.

Suriname-Day 2

After yesterday’s successful fishing, today it was time to cook and eat the fish and celebrate. Today was November 25, Independence Day (Srefidensi Dey) in Suriname. Yesterday, people worked hard to collect food for an enormous feast throughout the entire country. The men collected the food and the women cooked it. Together they make the best combination of tasty food and traditional partying. Some of the food included was: Pom, a chicken dish made with tayer, Pastei, a creole-style chicken pot pie, Dhal, a lentil stew, Roti - grilled flatbread, Curry Dishes, like this chicken curry (Massalakip), vegetables with peanut sauce (gado-gado style Indonesian dish), Bakabana - fried plantain with peanut sauce, Goedangan - mixed vegetable salad with coconut dressing, Coconut Desserts, Bojo cake - made with coconut and cassava, and Phulauri (fried lentil or chickpea balls). My favorite meal though was probably the standard fish and chicken with a side of rice. After we ate, we enjoyed many different dances, my favorite being the Jaran Kepang. Jaran Kepang means weaved bamboo bobby-horse.  Dancers perform a dance, interpreting horses with riders on their backs.  During the dance, they ride a flat hobby-horse made of weaved bamboo or leather.  At the beginning of the dance they move orderly, in time with the music.  At a certain moment, some dancers go into a trance and act like horses, running and jumping, some moving wildly and others calmly.  During the trance phase they drink a lot of water, eat raw grass, banana leaves, flowers and raw rice grains, like real horses would. After a fantastic day of stuffing our gullets with delicious foods and exotic dancing, tomorrow we would be put straight right back into the work environment.

Suriname-Day 1

Introduction to Suriname

Hi and welcome to the second country I am visiting. This country is cast in the shadow of its very famous neighbor Brazil. That country is Suriname. Suriname is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, by French Guiana to the east, by Brazil to the south, and by Guyana to the west. Suriname is involved in territorial disputes with both Guyana and French Guiana that are legacies of colonial rule. The dispute with Guyana centres on the New River Triangle, a 6,000-square-mile (15,600-square-km) area between two tributaries of the Courantyne River in southern Guyana. In addition to claiming the New River Triangle, Suriname also contests its border with Guyana along the Courantyne: Suriname claims sovereignty over the entire river and thus views its west bank as the border, while Guyana claims that the thalweg, or deepest channel of the river, is the boundary. In 2007 a United Nations international tribunal settled another long-standing boundary dispute between the two countries, in which Suriname was awarded one-third of a disputed area of the Caribbean Sea. The area in contention with French Guiana is the 5,000-square-mile (13,000-square-km) region between the Itany and Marouini rivers in the southwestern corner of French Guiana.

Day 1- Suriname

Today, I have landed into Paramaribo, Suriname. I had a very good friend who lived here. He has been living here for around seven years now. His name is Ravi. We both attended UNC together. I met up with him today and he said that Paramaribo is known for some of the most challenging fishing spots in the world. Because I work for National Geographics, I was fluent in a lot of nature activities, fishing being one of them. When I met him at noon, he told me about the Commewijne River. He said it was the most challenging river to fish because the fish there are very large and aggressive. He said that everyone in Suriname had to learn to fish to survive, as it is the biggest industry there.Today, we went out to the Commewijne River in a small, canoe usually used by locals. We fished all day catching many exotic fish that I have ever seen, but are usually seen by locals.  I caught the Anjumara, the Tarpon, the Redtailcatfish, the Law Law, and lots of Peacock bass. Overall, today was a major success for me and I can’t wait for tomorrow.

Panama-Day 3

After yesterday’s exciting events, I went to bed at a decent hour. When I woke up I saw a countless number of flags flagging in the air. I wondered what flag it was. Then I remembered that it was Panama’s national flag; also, I remembered that the day after Separation Day was Flag day. The only difference was that people did not get off work. Carlos and I decided to take our shifts early that day, so that way we could celebrate at night. On our shift, we almost encountered a big problem. One of the barges coming through was so big that the sides of the lock were only a few inches away from the sides of the barge. After our shift was done, we immediately reported the problem to our manager. He then called the Panama president who then called the US president and they all agreed that we must start expanding the canal.  After that Carlos and I were free to go and enjoy the rest of our day. As we strolled through the streets, I was very fascinated by the abundant number of street vendors. I had to buy something so I bought some Panama flag pj’s. Oh, they were so soft. For dinner, we had Tamales which are corn dough rolls with pockets stuffed with chicken or pork, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled and Sancocho which is an extremely popular local stew, especially during Carnaval, usually made with chicken vegetables, tomatoes and coriander. To finish it off we had Pastel de tres leches, a cake soaked in evaporated milk, condensed milk and cream, and Flans, egg custard with caramelized sauce. I had such a great  time in Panama that I am currently thinking of retiring there!