Letters from Bermuda - the last part of the trip

Hey,

Sorry for being slack with updating. Been busy doing lots of nothing.

Wednesday, I went out to the Gibbs Hill lighthouse. It's the tallest lighthouse on the island, 193 steps up. It's built out of, I believe, cast iron plates. Apparently the ground it's under couldn't support the weight of the lighthouse, so the architect had to somehow make the lighthouse more self supporting to balance it all. It was preassembled in England to test it & then the pieces were shipped to Bermuda & reassembled there. pretty great view of the island from there.

Then went back into Hamilton to spend a chunk of the afternoon souvenier shopping with Marie.

Thursday, I got an early start & made it into Hamilton to catch the 9:30 ferry from Hamilton to Dockyard to St.Georges - the ride from Dockyard to St.George's was cool, but man, was it ever windy - between the natural wind & the speed of the boat, my head felt like it was getting hammered around by the wind. I'd made the mistake of wearing a shirt with a collar & kept getting lacerated by the lapels whipping away in the wind.

Once in St. Georges, I went to Fort St. Catherine on the NE tip of the island. They dug the powder magazine (storage area for the cannon shells & gunpowder) under the hill & part of the tour is wandering through the tunnels there - it's a bit creepy 'cause it's all dark & winding & you get a bit lost down there. When people went into the magazine, they had to wear special suits to cover their clothes 'cause they wanted to ensure that nothing inside the magazine could cause a spark & blow the whole place up. Since the magazine is under a hill, they had to illuminate the place, so they've basically set it up so there is an internal set of tunnels & storage rooms that forms the magazine & then there is another set of tunnels around the outside of that with these 'light passages' - passages that dead end in a thick glass window that looks into the magazine & they put a lamp there behind the glass to shine into the powder magazine. Pretty interesting place.

Then wandered back to St.Georges (would've stayed at the St.Catherines beach more, but they had some big speakers blaring reggae renditions of tunes from the 50's or 60's - too noisy for me, nice beach though), did some shopping & had lunch & then went back to Tobacco bay to rent some scuba gear. Tobacco was less busy than it was on Monday (or whenever I was there last) & so that was kind of nice.

Snorkelling was, wow, pretty cool. With my lack of swimming skills I was a bit on the nervous side & figured I'd just wear the mark/snorkel & look underwater for a while & wouldn't use the flippers I rented much. Well, between the current & the tendancy to float, as soon as I put my head in the water, I'd start to float up (or fall over depending on your perspective) & so ended up having to swim. It's amazing how easy it was to swim while wearing the snorkel gear - you're partially submerged & not (as) worried about being able to breathe & so it was pretty natural just to float there & kick with my feet to propel me along. Figuring out the breathing & just breathing through the snorkel & closing your mouth over the flaps on the snorkel took a bit to figure out.

& so the view... it was amazing. Those little silver/clear fish with the black spots on their tails that were eating the cheerios - turns out they weren't magically summoned by the cheerios. Once I had the snorkel mask on & was looking in the water it turned out that they were swimming all around you all the time. They were just there & because they didn't stand out when you looked down through the surface of the water & they managed to steer clear of the humans, no body really realizes that you have a school of fish around you while you're just standing there.... pretty wild (& freaky in some senses).

Was trying to mostly stick to snorkelling over places that I felt I could stand up in the water if I had to. The problem was, trying to stand wearing flippers takes a bit of organization. Because you have an extra foot or so of flipper extending past where your normal foot is, a flap of flipper that exerts a fair bit of water resistance, swinging your feet down & under you doesn't work so well.... so often I found my attempts to stand up to 'keep me from drowing', to make me 'safer', ended up nearly drowning me 'cause I couldn't get my feet under me before my head started to fall back under the water.

The whole snorkelling thing was a bunch of lessons in trust. My fear of drowing keeps me normally pretty anchored in the shallow waters & my head out of the water where I can breathe easily. Snorkelling required me to realize that I was much safer if I kept floating, kept breathing nice & steady through the snorkel. I found I was safer when I relinquished my 'control' over the situation & instead trusted that the snorkel gear would work properly (& the snorkel & mask had a fantastic design on it (by US Divers) so I don't think even waves would wash water down the snorkel into your mouth. Good engineering there).

But it was pretty hard to release the control. The Ocean side of tobacco bay is shielded by these large rocks that help make tobacco a more secluded/sheltered cove. Just in front of the big rocks are several smaller rocks (about 4 to 6 feet in diameter & jutting out of the water about 1-3 feet). I finally got up the courage to swim over to those rocks & it was amazing 'cause there was such a diversity of fish over there. There were smaller (4-8 inches long by 2-4 inches deep) zebra striped fish with yellow backs & green fish with blue spots. There were two 18" long by 8" deep blue &greeny-grey fish & a bunch of other shapes & sizes & colors of fish. It was such an amazing sight & the fish were a bit bolder there & would swim right up to you & yeah, was following one of the big blue fish as he was stopping to eat something off the surface of the rock & I was trying to rest my hand on one of the rocks to steady myself & keep the current from pushing me closer to big blue & when I rested my hand on the rock, one of the green fish took a run at my hand to 'bite' me - though I don't think it had teeth... kind of felt a popping of a mouth in the vicinity of my hand, don't know if it actually made contact or was just close (and i suppose, it could've been coming over to kiss me, but since I assume that the entire animal kingdom is out to get me, it was obviously trying to eat me in a wannabe pirana-ish way)

Anyhow, I would sometimes stand on the rocks to catch my breath & rest (& keep in that sense that I could stand up & breathe OK - that sense of being in control). For a while there I'd swim out to the rocks, look around for a bit, then swim back to the shallows & stand up for a while. Or else I'd swim out, stand or sit on a rock & then look around some more & then swim back to the shallows. At one point, as I got more bold, I swam to the far side of the rocks where the water is a bit deeper & then decided to stand on a shelf on one of the biggest rocks to rest & 'cause the deeper water was a bit darker & I couldn't see it & was starting to worry about barracudas lurking there waiting to attack (I saw one of those at the zoo/aquarium). So in standing on the rock, I was doing OK, until I got the thought in my head that maybe this rock could house a moray eel (saw one of those at the zoo, too) & then I started having this panic attack with all these visions of the moray's green, muscular body lashing out of the rock & wrapping its fearsome beak around my leg. & so I started to push back from the rock face a bit, but then the current pushed & the rock was slippery & I was starting to lose my balance & the snorkelling gear wasn't on & then visions of the barracuda in the trench behind me was also filling my head & I was in full blown panic until I had to force myself to stop, to keep breathing, to pull back to the rock, readjust my snorkel gear & then release myself into the water to float & swim.

In some ways, it is an amazing thing to realize that we can do that as humans, that we can actually control fear.... There are so many times where I get so gripped by fear, but it was a gift to me to realize that it can be controlled. That I can stop & concentrate on not being afraid, concentrate on regulating my breathing & simply resting & releasing the fear.... it's a pretty active process 'cause my mind will jump quickly back to the images that feed the fear, but I have to keep reminding myself to not be afraid....

Shortly after this, as I was swimming around the rock, I saw this guy who was just floating there (which also helped deal with the fear 'cause he wasn't being eaten - and it's a guy thing where you try not to look all wide-eyed terrified in the presence of another man who seems calm - bad for the ego). Watching him float there motionless, only slightly drifting with the current made me realize that I could release that part of control, too - that I didn't have to keep swimming/be in constant motion - that I could rest there & trust that I'd be OK. & it was neat to let that close the day as I just floated there & got a really great view of the fishes for one last time before heading back.

Friday I headed for 'Devil's hole' a natural aquarium with sharks & morays & stuff (either trying to overcome the fears or reinforce them), but it was closed & so I went to Marie's work to see where she worked & then went to the Crystal caves. They take you under the surface right down to sea level where there are a ton of stallactites/stalagmites in the cave ceiling/floor & then a large portion of the floor of the cave is covered in 20 to 55 feet of water - pretty wild - like being in some pirate's cave where they'd bury there treasure or something. Though there's only 1 sea entrance to the crystal cave & it opens into a network of tunnels that no one's been able to actually get from the cave to the ocean, though the occasional fish comes in. Another weird fact is that the water in there is salt water except for the top 6 inches which is freshwater from the water dripping from the stallactites, & since fresh water is lighter (less dense) than salt water, it floats on the surface).

Our tour guide for the crystal cave, Sandra Palmer, was this sweet older black lady that was a lot of fun & she's actually writing a book that will come out in December.

Had lunch at the swizzle Inn (though skipped the rum swizzle that helps give them their modified motto - the real motto for the swizzle inn is "swizzle inn- swagger out", but most people, when referencing the rum swizzle drink that's a specialty there change the motto to "swizzle inn- stagger out"). Pretty good tasting burger though. Then wandered back to Hamilton & did more souvenier hunting & came home.

Saturday went to Dockyards with Marie & visited the naval museum & watched the dolphin show - their dolphin show is pretty interactive - they bring people into the water with them to give a hands on education about dolphins - pretty informative - not that I got in the water, but was just listening to what they were teaching the people.

After that, finished up the souvenier shopping & went to Marie's old school where they were having a carnival type thing & then relaxed for a bit & headed back to Maries where they were having a sort of thanksgiving-ish type meal with a bunch of people from their church.

During the meal, it started to storm pretty bad - lots of wind/rain & that keep going all through the night & through the majority of Sunday. So, since it was kind of not safe to go anywhere on the scooters 'cause of the strong winds & 'cause I'd get soaked walking to the bus (or anywhere), decided to take a lazy day at their place & watched like 4-5 episodes of the gilmore girls & 'pirates of the carribean' & stuff & that was basically the day (yep, pretty slack & non productive... this is the plus of being on vacation...nothing has to get done.

Yesterday, took the day to head down to horseshoe bay again & spent the whole day on the beach enjoying the oceans & the peacefullness there. The day was looking pretty grey & overcast & so I was praying lots & asking that God would give me a nice day there to enjoy one last day at the ocean & it was great - little bits of a breeze, kind of cloudy, though it never rain & the cloud pretty much totally cleared up by mid afternoon. Had a fish sandwich on the beach, journalled, played with the waves, rested/tanned on the beach, played in the sand. Pretty fantastic. Also wandered to the east side of horseshoe bay & found that behind/around some of the big rocks were other tiny parts of beach that were pretty much totally secluded since the tourists stick to the main beach - that was pretty cool - a real romantic spot (or could be if you were there with someone you wanted to be romantic with).

So yeah, that was about it. Met Marie for supper at a place servind delicious East Indian food.

Today, just tying things up & getting ready to head to the airport (packed last night & managed to (barely) fit everything in my bags - though I've torn my computer bag trying to fit too much into it.)

Very much looking forward to coming home. Have had a great time here, but yeah, still find myself clicking my heels together like Dorothy on the Wizard of Oz & saying, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home".... The island's been amazing, but it's still different when you're not around the familiar (your resources: house, car, canadian currency, the knowns of grocery stores, etc,) & not with the family/friends that you'd enjoy sharing this stuff with (took lots of pictures though).

Anyhow, will chat with you when I get back. Look forward to connecting with you again when I'm back.

Letters from Bermuda - Cheerio, Mr. Fishie

Had a fantastic day today. Did my laundry so have I have clean clothes & finished 24, walked to the bus in the pouring rain - it wasn't coming down that strong, but I was completely soaked by the time I made it to the bus stop & was there trying to wring the water out of my shirts & stuff. Went to the town of St. George's (the other of the 3 major towns (Hamilton & Dockyards being the other two) in Bermuda). Wandered around the shops & sort of figuring out the souvenier thing & had lunch & journalled (a fantastic tuna sandwich, pecan pie & a ginger beer to drink (sort of like root beer, but it tastes like ginger)). Then I wandered up to Tobacco Bay & the little beach there. It was jam packed - it's way, way smaller than horseshoe bay with about the same # of people. It was good. I pulled up a spot of sand, realized I'd forgot to pack sunscreen & so only stayed for a while - but went into the water & approached this crowd of people (5-8). Turns out this lady is tossing cheerios into the water & there are about 50 ten inch long silvery fish in the water - it was soooooo cool. They were swimming around, jumping out of the water, fighting over the cheerios. I've never been so close to fish before (Other than fishing at our dugout back home & trying to get fish off the hook) - I was a bit scared to try to touch them (and a bit worried about them looking for cheerios in my shorts), but they kind of steered clear of humans)... very, very cool. pretty amazing. Will have to go back (perhaps with more cereal).

Started wandering back after a while & talked to a couple from New York on the bus & then came back to the house to hang with Marie & her family.

The fish thing was a highlight for the day... very cool....

Letters from Bermuda - The consequences of travelling on your own

Well, one other quick note: Checked myself for sunburns last night & did pretty good - nice normal pinkish skin with a slightly darker colour - all except for a butterfly shaped patch of red on my back/shoulder blades that sort of matches exactly the spots my flailing arms can't reach to rub sunscreen on...

So yeah, feel kind of embarassed & dumb & not so happy... but I guess that's part of the consequences.

Guess I'll skip going to the beach again today.... go hunting for some noxema or something & do some sightseeing instead.

Sigh....

Letters from Bermuda - another quick hello

Just jotting down another note of the day. Am trying to send some stuff for Marie's mom - Kirk's computer technical support is available 24 hours a day (or something like that). SO figured I can write & do stuff for her at the same time (hopefully).

Anyhow, got a later start to the day than planned & an earlier one, too. I've been sleeping in the living room on the sort of comfy (if you use your imagination) hide a bed & then when Marie comes out to leave at 5AM ish, she wakes me, I wander into her now vacant room & sleep there until whenever allowing her family to go about their morning routine.

This morning Marie decided to go to work late, so came in at 7 & chatted it up with me & then she left & her mom sat & chatted with me for a long time (all while I'm still sitting in shorts & T-shirt - I'm decently clothed, but technically still jammies).

It was good, but didn't get away until noon - though Marie's mom made me lunch so that was a good deal. Likely just as well though - being on the beach for a long time is, well, sort of odd for me. Not sure how to handle it. Mostly trying not to burn - lots of sunscreen & trying to break things up - it wasn't that hot of a day - cloudy & with a solid breeze - not cold by any stretch of the imagination, but a nice day & a relief from the heat/humidity. I don't think I got burned - or perhaps even tanned - using a sunscreen with SPF 45 which is about as high as you can get. Think I'm OK, but will have to check tonight.

The time at the beach was mostly laying there reading or journalling or (almost) sleeping (again, worried about the burning thing) & then heading into the ocean to wander around in the shallow end. The water isn't "bath water" warm, but it is pretty nice - it's cold at first, but once you're in it's OK - quite nice, actually. It's a lot easier to get into than the water at Pigeon Lake. At Pigeon Lake I had to psych myself up to dunk myself in ('cause once you're all wet, it's not as cold somehow). With the ocean, you don't have much choice - you stand there & every so often a big wave decides to come rolling up & you get wet whether you're ready or not. The waves aren't that tall - about 1-2 feet above the surface of the water - it's like being at the wave pool in West Edmonton mall except with less control & the waves aren't predictable.

The waves are cool. It's the ocean's sighing - breathing in & out. You can tell when a new wave is coming 'cause there's a tug on your feet towards sea & then you look & the wave is nearly on you (or maybe the tug is the outflow from the last wave that came in. It's neat how it moves the sand around in little clouds & billows of currents washing in & out & in & out... It's pretty amazing & nice when the sand is so fine.

Journalling was good. It was a bit on the lonelier-ish side out there. It'd be nice to have some good company to share the time with, but I guess you can't have everything (& I'd be picky about who would be "sharing" the time vs. who would be just be making noise & distracting from the beauty & peacefulness). & yeah, would've been nice to have a 2nd pair of eyes to watch the gear. I'm getting paranoid, not that I have anything to worry about - people seem to leave their stuff lying around all the time without incident. But I decided to minimize the valueables in my pack today in case someone decided to walk off with it.

The hat is working great by the way & my head is not melting...

Oh & one of the things that's different about Bermuda (people were trying to tell me this, but I didn't believe them) - Businessmen actually do wear suit jackets, shirts & ties over plain coloured bermuda shorts with socks pulled up to their knees - it's weird... some of it because some of these guys should not be wearing shorts & partly 'cause you have distinguished looking guys looking like school kids with their knees exposed (oh, all the kids wear uniforms, too - which I guess sort of looks like the business attire).

Anyhow, guess that's all I have to say for sure & I'm getting close to finishing sending files for Marie's mom, so I should go.

Anyhow, 2nd full day of wandering around Bermuda. Yesterday ran some errands in hamilton like I said & then met up with Marie & ate & then wandered some more. I was getting pretty wiped out yesterday - lack of water & salt & I forgot to bring a hat with me, so I'm pretty sure my brain was getting fried. After wandering with Marie around Hamilton as she ran some errands, I went to Horseshoe bay, one of the more popular beaches. Once there I got some water &
downed a bunch of salt packets & that helped a lot. Stayed at the beach for about an hour - it was amazing, beautiful sand - very fine like powder & the water was, well, not as warm as bath water, it was definitely warmer than pigeon lake in August or whenever it was that I went & yeah, swimming went better than it does in non-ocean. Very fun time there & very, very peaceful.

Then went back to Marie's (on Sleepy hollow drive up by Sandy bay if you're looking at a map), had supper & went to a bible study group at the catholic church. It was OK, they were all excited with me commenting & about how much I knew the Bible...

Today went to the Naval Dockyards, was a british naval dock yard, but now it's mostly a tourist trap. Took the ferry out (ferry admission is included in the bus pass). They get the ferry pretty revved up (about 20 knots). The Dockyards were nice & had a good time wandering around looking at the touristy stuff - beautiful glass & clay works.

Going to wander around hamilton some now & then meet up with marie for "harbour night" - big celebration thing with fireworks & such.

Oh, & I bought a hat today & have been watching the liquid & salt intake a bit better, so feeling pretty decent.

Quick Hello from Bermuda

Hey, Just a quick Hello to say I've arrived in Bermuda A-OK & am wandering around doing some of the sight seeing... it's beautiful & really hot & humid here. Lots & lots of ocean all around. Sweating lots & trying to figure out how things work. Have a monthy bus pass & so will have unlimited travel on the busses & ferries around here. (after adding things up, it would be cheaper to just get the monthly pass). Just have to figure out the systems.

Good to connect with Marie & her family too - they live in a house with a eautiful view about 1/2 hour walk from a beach (the sand's pretty rough, but not bad).

No snakes, the reefs surrounding the island are suppossed to keep the sharks away, so yeah, my kind of island.

Notes from the Road - in TO

Well, made it successfully to Toronto(TO). Kind of a long trip... slept (more or less) on the flight from Calgary to Winnipeg & then decided to stay the night in the airport instead of trying to find a hotel & stuff. Went not bad. Watched 4 episodes of '24:season 2' & then went to watch more, but the DVD playre on my laptop was acting all finnicky & wouldn't play the next disc (does that sometimes). So watched "the Heist" a movie my dad recommended which was pretty good. Chatted with Basil the janitor & read a bit & then caught the flight to Toronto at 6:50AM (winnipeg one was in at 10:30). Slept solid on that flight (the stewardess had to keep bugging me to tilt my chair up & I thought it was up in my half asleep zone).

So made it into Toronto, took a long time to debate what to do. Finally decided to head to the hostel down town & get a room....not exactly the best. What I really wanted was a nice cozy room to myself with a tub & secure place to store my gear & a place where I could be alone & watch DVD's & read & stuff... but I cheaped out & went for the hostel in which I get bunk 'C' in a room of 6 & have to lock up my stuff in lockers that look like the pictures you see on TV of how they store people in the morgue.... but it's just for one night.... Not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. Sharon (Zacharias) doesn't get in town until 6:40 & I have to be out of the hostel at 11AM. So, will be lugging my gear around Toronto looking for some place to just sit & do nothing.... maybe will have to get out of the downtown - it's all busy & dirty & way too rich/professional... I feel uncomfortable down here 'cause it's so not the world I'm confortable with. Noisy, people full of polish, Stock tickers flashing across the electronic billboards on the street.. Money & poverty, greed & despair, people caught up in the illusions of the corporate world... yeah, just as soon be not in that... it's not that it's that bad, it's just not as comfortable for me.

So, got into the hostel at 1 something & then slept until 5:15 & then sort of showered & changed clothes (the bathroom is a bit sketchy - water all over the floor, the facet into the tub has hot & cold water, though it seems that only cold gets redirected into the shower head & the water doesn't drain out of the tub properly. That & it's a tiny room with a toilet without a full toilet seat cover, so I'm trying to balance all my clothes & stuff on the back of the toilet/the walls & make sure nothing falls in....

Spent the evening wandering around.... looking for food & an internet cafe. Finally found a place that wasn't noisy/dark & was selling ribs - they claimed the were the "best in the world", but they weren't - they were good, just not THAT good... & now found the internet cafe & can sit & jot down some notes.

Started reading Deitrich Boenhoffer's "the cost of discipleship"... not bad so far... the introduction kind of voices the things I'm struggling with at present - watching the church become some place that is very much limited to the spiritual 'elite' - having a Christianity geared so that only the super spiritual can acheive 'closeness' with God & I keep thinking that if this faith thing is real (which I believe that it is), then it should 'work' for basically anyone.... & not be limited to the 'really dedicated' or something.... but yeah, we'll see.....
So lesson 1 from my trip so far (every journey has it's share of lessons): Sometimes it's worth it to spend the extra to get what you really want.... Getting the cheapest may not always be getting what you are really longing for... it may help the bank account, but the bank account of the soul may find it's short a few 'dollars'

& yeah, it's nice with this trip so far 'cause I'm not pressuring myself into having to 'see' a bunch of stuff. I'm here killing time until Sharon arrives.... no agenda, just rest & do stuff that I think is fun....

Trying to figure out how this works.

Testing Posting abilities.