In the morning, my dad picks up Mr. Forbes from his house and drives him back to GRC. Just as they arrive, the power cuts out, so Mr. Forbes can't sharpen his machete. Too bad, 'cause we're gonna be in the bush again today.
Read full entry »My companions go off to interview Erma Pratt after breakfast, but I'm too tired from the previous night, so I stay in and catch up on photos, blogging, and communication with the outside world. It's a hard decision: Erma's grandmother Sophia was one of the last midwives on the island, and an amazing woman... but I'm exhausted.
Read full entry »Today I help with interviews. The first one (with Eulese Storr) is indoors, and consists mainly of talking. I take a couple of photos of the woman and her great-grandchildren. The second interview of the morning is just down the road from the first. Susalee Anderson shows us some bush plants (hardback, strongback, and frog tree, if I recall correctly) and sets them to boil for tea. More conversation, more poking around outdoors. There is an encounter with fire ants. After lunch there is another interview (with Miss Edna), but more brief. We mainly look at plants out in the bush.
Finally, after dinner, we have some time for snorkeling. My dad and I swim around in front of GRC and to the west until the sun sets. We encounter a hungry, hopeful clam, something that looks like this scale worm (but longer), a gelatinous blob in its natural habitat, and many foot-wide sea-stars.
Today we wake at 7:30, for we must get to the airport by 9:30 in time for our 11:00 flight. (I'm a bit groggy having stayed up to midnight tagging all my photos. That was likely the last night of the trip where I'll be caught up to my photos.) After breakfast in the hotel's dining room, I have some time for a few pictures of plants whose flowers are only fully open in the morning, such as Momordica charantia (Bitter Melon). Then we are off to the airport by taxi.
Read full entry »I wake at 4:00, and we are out of the driveway by 4:30. Joining my father and I is the third member of the expedition, Kathleen Maier, an herbalist.
On the approach to Nassau, I get my first glimpse of the turquoise blue waters of the Bahamas. Islands and cays ("keys") are scattered here and there, with white waves marking hidden reefs.
This is my first time out of the country. My passport has its first visa. I am in a new land with different politics and culture and tradition. Also, they drive on the left. (Then why does the taxi have a left-hand driver's side?)
Stepping out of the taxi, I feel as if I am in the tropical section of a botanic garden. It takes a while for the realization to sink in: This is (more or less) the native habitat for these plants. The lizards are not imported. This is the landscape and bioregion that these people call home.
There are of course palms and plantains and bromeliads, and (amusingly) familiar ornamentals from home. That doesn't help the feeling of being in an exhibit, even though the ocean is just across from the hotel. But when I see the plants I have never seen before, I finally accept the full novelty: Royal Poinciana, Cerasee, avocado trees...
Oh, and the lizards! I love catching lizards.
More firsts: I head down to the beach with my snorkeling mask (complete with prescription lenses) and see my first coral reef creatures: Little orange and blue jobbies (apparently damselfish), tubeworms with frond-like filters, and a large, completely unexpected, and somewhat boxy fish hiding under a shelf. I also learn (relatively gently) not to put my hand down on the rock: My palm is jabbed hard by something small, accompanied by a very audible click. Mantis shrimp? Anyway, I'll be more respectful of the crevices, surfaces, and creatures in the future.
In all I take approximately 200 photos and videos in my first day, and I haven't even gotten to San Salvador island!