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.