Blue Friday

We have been a little short of staff at work, so I got to be the Blue Iguana on Friday for the children of North Side Primary. The school was having a "Blue" dress down day and also holding a fund-raising fish fry. Photographed as I sweated to death in the school office awaiting the start of the assembly. I got lots of hugs and high-fives from some very excited children.
Jenn couldn't resist trying the head on for size!
Then she dressed Rex for the part of mascot for the fish fry. But she forgot to make a hole in his shirt for his doggy needs... the outfit was short-lived.
Finally, this is Hayley in her Penguin costume for Wednesday night dance competition at the Children's festival of the Arts. She already has a silver medal in piano and she and Hunter both earned Gold medals in poetry.

Mangoes!

We hiked in to Winters Land this morning to get the first of the "wild" mangoes! These are round mangoes and very stringy but sweet. Will check the farm this evening to see what they have too.

Some Cayman Brac

Staff, volunteers and "friends" of the National Trust visited the Brac for the Discovery Day long-weekend May 16-19th, sixteen people in all. View from the apartment with Jenn "studying" on the dock.
Jenn hiking into the "Splits"; one of the nature reserves owned by the Trust. Note the jagged rock. Hell on the hands!
The crew that braved snorkeling the wreck of the "Prince Frederick": Liv, me, Caroline, Jenn. The ship wrecked in the late 1800's and much of the wreckage remains strewn around the bottom including mounds of anchor chain, masts and four huge anchors. A big barracuda followed the girls around. Great trip except for the "sea itch" that some of us acquired.
Stealing mangoes is always dangerous work! We did manage to get some mangoes, naseberries and papayas and also bought some freshly caught "dolphin" (mahi mahi) from the guys on the dock by the apartment. It was soooo good! Jamie also made a cassava cake. I think between that and the beverages we all gained 10 pounds!

We also made new friends. This is a Caribbean Fruit Bat Artibius jamaicensis hanging out in one of the caves. What a cute little snuggly bat!

The days are getting longer

Now that the days are getting longer there is more daylight for fun when the homework is done.


Wish I didn't have to work...

Mother's Day

Looking at pictures of Mother's days past while enjoying the company of the family matriarch.
Dessert always brings smiles and especially after a great meal. Even though it was supposed to be the mom's day off, it was Granny, aunt Tinnie and Aunt Shir Shir that fixed all the food.
Solving all the World's problems.
Taking the advice "go fly a kite". It was a little too choppy for swimming but nice and windy for kites.
Watermelon is refreshing on a warm day at the beach. We hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day. We did.

Grand Turk

We took a Saturday morning flight to Grand Turk; twenty minutes away by Twin Otter. It was a very windy day which made for an exciting flight and landing. I think we landed three times.
Downtown Cockburn Town in Grand Turk is not the most exciting place. But the solitude was a welcome break from the "bustle" of Provo. And it was a very pretty town full of historic buildings and a few friendly people.
More of Front Street. The road is one way in this section and is lined with large Broadleaf trees. There are small resorts and B&B's along the way so we had breakfast at Turks Head Inn just to the right of the picture. Then we visited the National Museum which had nice shipwreck and salt production displays. Basically just roamed around and took in the scenery.
This is the waterfront downtown. It reminded me a lot of Cayman except that I couldn't see any fish in the water. Behind the wall on the left is the main road "Front Street". We got to see the wild donkeys on the road back to the airport and then headed home back to Provo at 3pm. Back home tomorrow.

More Turks

The internet does not work inside the apartment so I am forced to sit on the porch to check my emails etc which as you can see is a very miserable inconvenience! In the background is Grace Bay and as yet I have not set foot in the water!

Karie Bounds from Dept of Tourism is obviously delighted to see the "trained" conchs at the conch farm. This is one of the study trips we did as part of the conference. We also visited the Iguana Reserve but missed one trip due to weather.
Part of the experience of visiting new places is trying new cuisine... this was lunch at Sailing Paradise; a little shack on the water in Blue Hills. Note the teeth on that fish! The rice is Okra Rice which is quite tasty. Interesting to note that like many similar eateries in Cayman, the server could speak no english.

And yes, a very long game of pool as we both demonstrated our total lack of skill at the game! I eventually won the first and she the second. It was raining and we walked back and forth to the hotel (rather than take a taxi or bus) so played a game of pool until the rain passed.
There are hills on Provo and this must be about the highest. A very narrow and treacherous dirt tract but it did lead to a beautiful panoramic view and most importantly a place to turn around. With a day and a half free I am positive there will be more adventures to come.