All is well in the Barbados. There is tons to do both day and night. Here is a link to some more photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Barbados#
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Crop Over Barbados and photos
Barbados is fabulous, so great that I extended my stay. I met Carl and Helen last night for supper and drinks and they brought me my pictures from Crop Over. When I was here in the summer Carl took me to the Crop Over celebrations and it was such an interesting experience. I lost my photos after we had uploaded some onto Carl’s computer so they were able to give me a copy of them. Here is the link to the photos followed by a story about Crop Over. Sorry I guess you are going to have to copy and paste the link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/CropOverBarbados#
Crop Over is a huge celebration here. We went to the parade that takes eight hours in the sweltering heat. The people in the parade are drinking and dancing very sexually the whole time. I think there were 23 floats and each float consists of the following; a flat bed truck at the beginning with the DJ and stereo equipment, 200-300 people dressed scantily clad in one colour corralled together with ropes to keep them in, then another truck with the bar on it, tons of 60 pounders of rum on it and runners to take the drinks to the people in the parade, then two coke trucks to keep the mix and beer cold, another flat bed truck with six or eight portable washrooms followed by an ambulance and then it repeats, another DJ truck 200 -300 of a different colour and so on. I thought by the end of the parade these people will be naked and frolicking in the street. It was a real Bajan experience.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/CropOverBarbados#
Crop Over is a huge celebration here. We went to the parade that takes eight hours in the sweltering heat. The people in the parade are drinking and dancing very sexually the whole time. I think there were 23 floats and each float consists of the following; a flat bed truck at the beginning with the DJ and stereo equipment, 200-300 people dressed scantily clad in one colour corralled together with ropes to keep them in, then another truck with the bar on it, tons of 60 pounders of rum on it and runners to take the drinks to the people in the parade, then two coke trucks to keep the mix and beer cold, another flat bed truck with six or eight portable washrooms followed by an ambulance and then it repeats, another DJ truck 200 -300 of a different colour and so on. I thought by the end of the parade these people will be naked and frolicking in the street. It was a real Bajan experience.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Barbados
Well I never figured I would be back in the Barbados again so quickly, having only been here six months ago, but you have to take an opportunity when it arises.
Tammy’s mom was down here in a house on the beach that she was to share with three other people and only one of them mad it. I found about this Monday night, booked the flight Tuesday morning and flew Wednesday morning, got to love spontaneity. I am so glad I came, beautiful white sand beaches, turquoise water and people. Our house has a great wrap around porch that looks out onto Miami Beach. We eat all of our meals there. Ah the serenity. We have been taking advantage of the beach the music and ample music venues.
There is quite the Peterborough connection down here. I have met at least 15 people from Peterborough so far.
Enjoying a steel drum band while I write this.
Tammy’s mom was down here in a house on the beach that she was to share with three other people and only one of them mad it. I found about this Monday night, booked the flight Tuesday morning and flew Wednesday morning, got to love spontaneity. I am so glad I came, beautiful white sand beaches, turquoise water and people. Our house has a great wrap around porch that looks out onto Miami Beach. We eat all of our meals there. Ah the serenity. We have been taking advantage of the beach the music and ample music venues.
There is quite the Peterborough connection down here. I have met at least 15 people from Peterborough so far.
Enjoying a steel drum band while I write this.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
El Salvador, pictures
El Salvador pictures
Click on the above link to see the pictures.
Mom and I spent the first week of my leave in El Salvador. It was great. The weather was hot, 35 degrees C during the day and around 18 or 20 at night.
Well I had to laugh when no sooner had we arrived in the airport do I heard my name being called. Anne that I golf with was in the airport waiting to take our plane home. So we chatted a bit and then I hear another “hello Sarah” and Kenny that trained me a Quaker was also there. Small world. Got to love when you can randomly run into people you know in foreign countries.
We stayed at the only all inclusive resort in El Salvador. It was 650 rooms and spans a huge area. The people were lovely and they must have had at least four staff to each guest. From the airport it was a two hour drive and our flight was delayed two hours going so we got in a midnight and then had a police escort to the resort. Nothing like letting the locals know the tourists are here. The lights were flashing all the way, enough to give you a seizure, safely first. On each excursion there are police that travel with the group. Basically for traffic control, when you are crossing the street they stop all traffic and let the tourists by.
I had a hot stone massage with their volcanic stones on the beach one day, lovely.
The hotel was hosting a conference and was over booked for a night. They were looking for 10 rooms. Mom and I gave up our room for the night and were given a tour of the capital and a night at the five star Radisson hotel in return. It was great. A cool tour of the town, saw some churches, Arch Bishop Romero’s monument, the Botanical Garden’s, got a history lesson, had lunch in the crater of the volcano and saw a museum. It was a nice little side trip. Our meals alone at this place cost a $180 US for the day, at their expense.
Oh the tremor. While we were at the Radisson we were about a kilometer from a volcano and there was a tremor in the middle of the night. It lasted for about 15 seconds and the room was a rocking. No it wasn’t the people next door it was more of a vertical displacement. About ½ of the people in our group felt it.
We went to a local church for mass on Sunday. It was two hours long, in Spanish and an hour sermon, an experience to say the least. We took a cab there and it was interesting. We went with an older couple from Winnipeg. We had to fill out papers to leave the resort and walk out to the main gate and wait for the cab as outsiders are not allowed in. The cabbie was great, spoke English and took us on a tour of the little town and the port.
Got lots of sun had a great time with my mom and I was saying my accommodation will only go down from here.
Click on the above link to see the pictures.
Mom and I spent the first week of my leave in El Salvador. It was great. The weather was hot, 35 degrees C during the day and around 18 or 20 at night.
Well I had to laugh when no sooner had we arrived in the airport do I heard my name being called. Anne that I golf with was in the airport waiting to take our plane home. So we chatted a bit and then I hear another “hello Sarah” and Kenny that trained me a Quaker was also there. Small world. Got to love when you can randomly run into people you know in foreign countries.
We stayed at the only all inclusive resort in El Salvador. It was 650 rooms and spans a huge area. The people were lovely and they must have had at least four staff to each guest. From the airport it was a two hour drive and our flight was delayed two hours going so we got in a midnight and then had a police escort to the resort. Nothing like letting the locals know the tourists are here. The lights were flashing all the way, enough to give you a seizure, safely first. On each excursion there are police that travel with the group. Basically for traffic control, when you are crossing the street they stop all traffic and let the tourists by.
I had a hot stone massage with their volcanic stones on the beach one day, lovely.
The hotel was hosting a conference and was over booked for a night. They were looking for 10 rooms. Mom and I gave up our room for the night and were given a tour of the capital and a night at the five star Radisson hotel in return. It was great. A cool tour of the town, saw some churches, Arch Bishop Romero’s monument, the Botanical Garden’s, got a history lesson, had lunch in the crater of the volcano and saw a museum. It was a nice little side trip. Our meals alone at this place cost a $180 US for the day, at their expense.
Oh the tremor. While we were at the Radisson we were about a kilometer from a volcano and there was a tremor in the middle of the night. It lasted for about 15 seconds and the room was a rocking. No it wasn’t the people next door it was more of a vertical displacement. About ½ of the people in our group felt it.
We went to a local church for mass on Sunday. It was two hours long, in Spanish and an hour sermon, an experience to say the least. We took a cab there and it was interesting. We went with an older couple from Winnipeg. We had to fill out papers to leave the resort and walk out to the main gate and wait for the cab as outsiders are not allowed in. The cabbie was great, spoke English and took us on a tour of the little town and the port.
Got lots of sun had a great time with my mom and I was saying my accommodation will only go down from here.
Thursday, 30 August 2007
All the pictures
All the picture albums can be seen at the following link. Sorry you will have to paste it into the toolbar.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney
I had a fabulous experience.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney
I had a fabulous experience.
East Coast of Canada and Pictures
The last two weeks of my trip were spent on the East Coast of Canada with my friend from work, Michelle. We toured around Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick and came home via Maine and New Hampshire.
In Nova Scotia we toured the Keith’s Brewery and in PEI we went to the St. Anne’s church lobster supper and to the Anne of Green Gables musical. We went to these things with my brother Dennis, Carol, Laura, Jack and Carolyn.
In New Brunswick we spent lots of time at Michelle’s grandparent’s cottage. We were put to work while we were there. We bottled lobster. We ended up doing two batches so we “put down” 82 lobsters. They are cooked, then taken out of their shells, cleaned, bottled and boiled again. It was a true maritime experience. We went to the wharf and picked them up also.
Check out the following link for pictures of the East Coast. You will have to paste it into your toolbar.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/EastCoastOfCanada
In Nova Scotia we toured the Keith’s Brewery and in PEI we went to the St. Anne’s church lobster supper and to the Anne of Green Gables musical. We went to these things with my brother Dennis, Carol, Laura, Jack and Carolyn.
In New Brunswick we spent lots of time at Michelle’s grandparent’s cottage. We were put to work while we were there. We bottled lobster. We ended up doing two batches so we “put down” 82 lobsters. They are cooked, then taken out of their shells, cleaned, bottled and boiled again. It was a true maritime experience. We went to the wharf and picked them up also.
Check out the following link for pictures of the East Coast. You will have to paste it into your toolbar.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/EastCoastOfCanada
Monday, 20 August 2007
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures.
Well a little more on Africa. It is very cold at night. I had this misconception that Africa is hot. Well I went in their winter and some days it is hot during the day and others, not so hot. In the evening it gets mighty cold. One evening it went down to -7 degrees. I was freezing. I lay in my sleeping bag with three pairs of pants, two pairs of socks (should have been three), two t-shirts, three sweaters, a light coat, my sarong as a scarf, toque and mitts. Luckily Christine in Hong Kong gave me her toque and mitts to borrow. Thanks again. Man it was cold at night. I wore them each night. I lay in my sleeping bag hoping to god it would hurry up and be six am. That was the time we were to leave that sight. They knew it was a cold location (a guy the week before got hypothermia) so we were to get up and take down the tents in the morning and get on the road. Usually we have breakfast, but it was too cold and we were going to stop around 9am to have breakfast. It was still freezing at 9am and we became hobos. We lit a garbage can on fire for warmth at our roadside breakfast stop. It was interesting. They did not check to see what was in the can, so there were little explosion going on and off. Then the can actually caught fire on the outside. It turned out to be burning the paint off the outside of the barrel. Needless to say the next town we hit I bought think socks and a wool blanket. These items made the evenings much more enjoyable.
We had some trouble with our truck or trucks. We ended up breaking down six times and having to switch trucks four times in the last few days. It was a big job to unload every single item off of the truck, but we hoped the next truck would be better. We just kept getting teased as the trucks were just borrowed from another group for a day or so and then we would have to carry on with our sh*t one.
We spent the night in the dessert. It was interesting. We broke down at 11 am. We entertained ourselves by playing dessert Olympics. We had the discus, javelin, shot-put and hurdle events. Then we played musical chairs, pass the toilet paper and finally we put a guy on the roof of the truck and made him be the hoop while we took shots at him, dessert basketball.
I went to the sand dunes and went sand boarding in Namibia. I climbed the 100m dune with my piece of wood (my sled) and slid down the dune head first at 76 km/h. They had a radar gun and I was the fastest person to go down. For each step we took up the dune, we slid two steps back. By the time I would reach the top I would have to empty a cup of sand out of each running shoe. We were to wear covered shoes as our feet were our brakes.
We visited a township on the last day and saw how the poor live in Africa. It was interesting. You are either very rich or very poor in Africa. It was interesting. We saw a dorm room for migrant workers. In each room a minimum of two families live in an 8’ x 10’ dirty room. In the township there were dorm rooms, shacks made of left over lumber and steel or proper houses.
I went to Victoria Falls, a waterfall that is 1.7 km wide. The falls are one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was spectacular. I flew over it in a micro light airplane. The micro light looked like a large kite. The falls are in both Zambia and Zimbabwe. So when I was flying I flew through Zimbabwe.
The animals and scenery were absolutely spectacular in Africa. There is some much to offer there. I feel like this was the animal tour, but I know there is so much more culturally to offer, so I will have to go back.
Check out the following links for African pictures. I separated them into four albums in the hopes it would be quicker for you to up load them. Also included are my Ireland pictures and a couple videos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Africa1Album
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Africa2Album
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Africa3Album
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Africa4Album
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/IrelandAndMyWelcomeHome
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6874432063335198577
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=2108636978677755654
We had some trouble with our truck or trucks. We ended up breaking down six times and having to switch trucks four times in the last few days. It was a big job to unload every single item off of the truck, but we hoped the next truck would be better. We just kept getting teased as the trucks were just borrowed from another group for a day or so and then we would have to carry on with our sh*t one.
We spent the night in the dessert. It was interesting. We broke down at 11 am. We entertained ourselves by playing dessert Olympics. We had the discus, javelin, shot-put and hurdle events. Then we played musical chairs, pass the toilet paper and finally we put a guy on the roof of the truck and made him be the hoop while we took shots at him, dessert basketball.
I went to the sand dunes and went sand boarding in Namibia. I climbed the 100m dune with my piece of wood (my sled) and slid down the dune head first at 76 km/h. They had a radar gun and I was the fastest person to go down. For each step we took up the dune, we slid two steps back. By the time I would reach the top I would have to empty a cup of sand out of each running shoe. We were to wear covered shoes as our feet were our brakes.
We visited a township on the last day and saw how the poor live in Africa. It was interesting. You are either very rich or very poor in Africa. It was interesting. We saw a dorm room for migrant workers. In each room a minimum of two families live in an 8’ x 10’ dirty room. In the township there were dorm rooms, shacks made of left over lumber and steel or proper houses.
I went to Victoria Falls, a waterfall that is 1.7 km wide. The falls are one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was spectacular. I flew over it in a micro light airplane. The micro light looked like a large kite. The falls are in both Zambia and Zimbabwe. So when I was flying I flew through Zimbabwe.
The animals and scenery were absolutely spectacular in Africa. There is some much to offer there. I feel like this was the animal tour, but I know there is so much more culturally to offer, so I will have to go back.
Check out the following links for African pictures. I separated them into four albums in the hopes it would be quicker for you to up load them. Also included are my Ireland pictures and a couple videos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Africa1Album
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Africa2Album
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Africa3Album
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Africa4Album
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/IrelandAndMyWelcomeHome
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6874432063335198577
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=2108636978677755654
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