Boy oh boy have we been neglectful! Lot's of information to catch you all up on. January has seemed to have flown by. It was full of work, birthdays, barbeques, and heat!

Work is still moving right along. We seem to be busy in waves at NCERD. We are either juggling a million different projects or twiddling our thimbs catching up on our most recent novel. At the moment things are slow, but we are amping up to begin a curriculum pilot in the schools here. That's right...that means I will actually be working in schools with teachers and kids to improve literacy! We are piloting a program that Ann (my British counterpart) and I have created ourselves. If all goes well with the pilot schools, there is talk of nation wide distribution. That would be wild!

Blake's countdown at the VSO office is coming to a speedy close as Friday will be his last day at the office. It has been a long awaited day and I know that he is going to love sleeping in come Monday morning. He is beginning his quest for a job and will be delivering applications and resumes to some very promising job postings; one being the British High Commision. How posh! There are also several non-profit agencies that are doing really interesting work here that he would be a great asset to, so that is in the radar as well. For a while at least though, I am hoping that he will relax, and explore, and enjoy some down time here in Guyana. One of his most favorite past-times lately has become the bi-weekly trips to the market. He is a pro at getting everything we need for under $1,000 Guyanese dollars (about $5 USD). He often gets away with an extra cucumber or bag of peppers slipped into the bag as he has made friends with every vendor in Georgetown!

There have been several birthdays here in Guyana lately and each and every one has been celebrated enthusiatically. The first was Cheryl, a wonderful British volunteer who turned 30. A big one! Blake was keen to remind me that mine was not far off and that he would always be younger than me. :) Cheryl is placed in a small town called Corriverton in Region 6, about a 4 journey away from Georgetown. To get there you take minibusses for about 3 hours and then a ferry for about 20 minutes. The time is lost waiting for the ferry to fill up and take off. All in all, it is a pretty easy journey that we made with about 25 other VSO's to celebrate with Cheryl on the beach. I am not sure if I have mentioned the beach in Corriverton before. It is not exactly the white sand, blue water, Trinidad and Tobago beach that we have experienced, more like a brown sand, brown water, deserted beach. It does have an eerie beauty all it's own though and you can look out over the water and see Suriname. There is a "back way" to travel to Suriname from Corriverton, but it is highly illegal and we decided to pass on that trip. So we spent the day on the beach with friends, playing cricket (very popular here!), and enjoying the day. What a birthday to remember!

We also celebrated with Rob, a Canadian volunteer, who will be leaving with his wife in April. They have been here for a short 6 month placement and then are off to experience the rest of South America. In commemoration of his birthday we had a barbeque on a homemade barbeque pit, (homemade veggie burgers for us...not a recipe I will use again. :)) and then it was off to the karaoke bar. Somehow I was talked into singing what I am sure was a ear- spliting rendition of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, with the rest of the gang. Blake looked on...proudly I am sure.

The December/ January rainy season was very mild this year and we only got a couple of really heavy downpours. Thank goodness, as I recently lost my rain jacket at the Venezuelan institute where we are taking free Spanish lessons. Blake and I kept hoping for rain, so that we could find whatever lucky classmate made off with it, but never tracked it down. They needed it more than I and luckily Blake's mom sent a perfect replacement. (Thank You!) Now I am set for whatever weather comes our way. We are back to the humid heat for awhile though, to await the next rainy season in May. (The big one!)

Plans for the coming months include some short weekend trips out of region 4 (Georgetown) to see some more of Guyana, a World Cup Cricket match (the semi-finals are being held in Georgetown and the whole city is in preparation mode), a 5 day overland trek to Kaiteur Falls (the longest single drop waterfall in the world), and a 2 week trip home in May that we are so looking forward to. We miss you guys!

Well, I will call that an update for now. We will try to be better at keeping you informed in the future. Thank yous to Ben and Celeste, Sarah S., Jill and Travis, Pete and Catherine, and of course all of our parents for sending packages, cards, letters, pictures, etc. They make our weeks!

Love and miss you guys!

Blake and Jessa

Christmas and New Year's Update

Well, it's 2007 here in Guyana and remarkably enough still hot, still very wet, and still pretty underdeveloped. I thought I would take a minute to give an update of our holidays here in Georgetown. No pictures for now, but I will add more later.

Christmas pretty much begins around December 15th here. People stop going to work (some on leave, some just not showing up) school closes for 3 weeks, everyone in Guyana miracuously has money and starts spending it everywhere you look, the TV channels put Home Alone on repeat, and everyone starts to talk about black cake and pepperpot (local dishes one made with rum and fruit, the other with wild meat).

Several volunteers left to go sweat it out on Mt. Roraima in Venezuela but about 12 of us stayed around Georgetown. A Canadian couple put on a Christmas Eve cocktail type party and we all brought appetizers and of course rum. Jessa and I had everyone over for Christmas morning brunch and we did a secret santa gift exchange. Lots of fun. Finally we ended it all with a Christmas Night pot luck dinner and found ourselves back at home on the couch with a movie by 8 o'clock.

We had 4 days off for Christmas and then were back to work for 2 1/2 days before being off yet again for a 3 1/2 day New Year's holiday. Once again we stuck around Georgetown but there were plenty of people here to celebrate. We've started going to a place called Butcher's every now and again for a beer. It's pretty much a dive so we love it and I think the locals there are taking to us quite nicely. There is a guy there that likes to buy Jessa and I beers and he's real nice, not pushy, just friendly and inviting but his name is Lucipher. We're not yet sure how to take that, but I'll be keeping an eye on him.

Nick and Meg from Chicago threw a small New Year's Eve party. Nothing wild just about 10 of us. We decided to ring in the new year's by having a countdown based on everyone's watch. So we had about 10 countdowns then all crossed arms and sang Auld Lang Syne and hugged and kissed to the New Year in Guyana.

After a relaxing Monday and a little cabbage and black-eyed peas for good luck we are back at work today. Not sure what the New Year will hold for us, but hopefully good things.

So a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you. Hope all is well. Keep in touch.

Blake and Jessa

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is enjoying their cold weather! We are still sweating it out here in Guyana. The rain has started and it is gray and gloomy outside which at least gives the illusion of a chilly December. The rain has been a relief from the heat and has done a really nice job of cooling things off a bit.
Blake makes sure to keep us fully stocked with water bottles to keep us nice and hydrated. For those of you who were wondering...The water here is generally brown in color. So, we don't drink it right out of the faucet. It is howevere safe to use it to brush teeth with, etc. We were given a water filter by VSO which we can use when we boil it, but most of our drinkable water we get from Jus' Water down the street where they fill up our huge water bottles for only about $1. What a deal!

The Guyanese people are obsessed with decorating for the holidays so there are fake trees and fake snow and fake holly everywhere! Fuuny story to tell about that...as a part of any true Guyanese decorating scheme every room has at least 3 ornate fake flower arrangements. We had to clear out several when we moved into our house. My office also has its fair share of fake flora and fauna. So, one of the couples here recently celebrated a wedding anniversary here. The husband, had planned on going to one of the many florist shops to buy her some celebratory flowers. When he went into the first shop there were no real flowers to be found; only plastic bouquets. He went to several shops but was unable to find a real flower in town! So, in true Guyanese style there are plastic reminders of the holidays all over town, which helps us get into the spirit of things despite the heat.

One of the other couples had the first holiday party of the season last night and it was a lot of fun. A good chance for everyone to relax and seee everyone. We have many more plans for the holiday season as well and are looking forward to it. Coming from a teacher background I am awfully used to the long vacations that follow the school holiday schedule. Here we are only allotted 2 days off; Christmas Day and Boxing Day (the day after Christmas). So it will be yet another adjustment. Blake also gets 2 half days off for holiday shopping...My hopes are high. :)

Next weekend we are taking off from work on Friday afternoon and heading down to visit one of our volunteer friends who is placed in Region 6. About a 4 hour travel from Georgetown. She lives on a beach that you can actually swim in and says that it is truly gorgeous. We are very excited about seeing a different part of Guyana. Those of you who have gotten excited about talking to us on Sundays (which we love, by the way!) we won't be around this Sunday as we will be travelling all day. So, catch us the next weekend. I will be giving my workshop to another group of teachers in a nearby region on Monday. Here is a picture of what a classic Guyanese workshop looks like. The other "Whitey" (A totally acceptable and widely used term to descirbe anyone who is white) is Ann, the other volunteer I work with at NCERD.

We hope everything is going wonderfully at home!

Jessa and Blake

Hi friends and family!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful and delicious Thanksgiving. We certainly did celebrating with our friends here in Guyana. Our meal was complete with turkey, stuffing, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, deviled eggs, apple pie, and wine! A phrase we have come to know well here is, "It isn't wrong, just different." So, although there were some very important parts missing in our celebration (old friends and family) we had a wonderful time.

We also wanted to include some more photos in this posting to show you a little of what life is like here. Sunday has come to be one of our favorite days here. We try to start it off with some instant coffee and french toast. A wonderful routine! Then it's on to washing clothes and cleaning the house. After we have finished with the chores for the day, we relax, watch the news and head out to Oasis where we complete E-mailing and talking with our families on Skype. If any of you are interested in chatting with us some Sunday, Skype is a free download found at www.skype.com. You simply download the free software and as long as you have a microphone and speakers on your computer you are in business. It's free talking from computer to computer and has been a great way for us to keep in touch with what is happening at home. After Oasis it's back home, perhaps for a haircut which takes place on our front porch, one of the coolest places in the house. Then perhaps a movie and then bed, by 8:30 PM of course. :)

This Friday we were excused from work to go away for a VSO volunteer forum. This meeting takes place every 3 months and is a time when the volunteers can touch base with each other and the office staff about any concerns or issues. One of the major conversation topics this time was if the volunteer allowance we are currently getting paid, (45,000 Guyanese dollars/ 225 USD per month) is enough for us to live on. Blake and I are getting by just fine because there are two of us and we are able to split some bigger costs, but the single volunteers are certainly struggling. So, cross your fingers for us! :)

I am giving my first Guyanese educational workshop on Thursday. Yet another reason to cross your fingers. We are going to essentially be teaching the first grade head teachers in Georgetown what phonics is and perhaps touch on how to teach it to their kids. The education system here is an interesting one in that as you graduate what we would know as high school, except at 16, you are given a series of tests. If you do well on those tests then you have the opportunity to go to either Guyana University or the Teacher Training college. If you don't do well on the tests then you go directly into the classroom and begin teaching. The official title of these teachers is "unqualified teachers" and the schools are filled with them. There is a severe teacher shortage in the country, so it is very hard to find a solution to the problem. Consequently, you end up with schools full of teachers not much older than their students who may not know the material they are teaching, much less how to teach it to kids. So, Ann and I are going to pick our battle and try to make sure the teachers at least know what phonics is and then move on from there.

Things are going well here. It is still hard to think about the holidays coming up considering the weather. We talked about how we would be able to get in touch with our families on Christmas Day because Oasis will be closed that day. We were thinking that maybe the wireless signal would still be working and we could "huddle up outside the building and use the signal." Then we had to remind ourselves that there would be no need to huddle as it will still be 90 degrees outside. YIKES!

Blake is knocking everybody off their feet at the VSO office with his great ideas and attention to detail. We are starting to think about the other opportunities that might be here after this short term placement ends. Habitat for Humanity is here and with all of the severe flooding of the past years, there should always be work to do.

We love the updates (even the football updates) so keep them coming! We have gotten several requests, so again, here is the address that we can receive letters,etc. at:

VSO c/o Jessa and Blake
PO Box 12199
Georgetown, Guyana South America

We also now have a telephone if anyone gets the urge: the country code is 592 and our number is 227-7241. There is no city or area code.

I think you have to get a calling card or something in the US but i'm not sure. You may even be able to just dial from your home phone but I would check the cost first.

We will keep checking in!

Jessa and Blake

Happy Thanksgiving from the developing world. Jessa and I are missing home like crazy this week but are very excited about spending Thanksgiving in Guyana. The Guyanese people don't celebrate Thanksgiving but most of them have heard of it because they all seem to have relatives living in the United States. That's actually a major problem here. There are as many Guyanese living abroad as there are living in Guyana. There is a massive "brain drain" in Guyana. Anyone with skills, training, or education leaves the country for a different(better I'm not always sure) life in the US, Canada, or the UK typically. Just a few years back Guyana led the world in percentage of highly educated persons migrating abroad at 89%. Shocking huh? Anyway not trying to be a bummer on thanksgiving just thoughts.

We've got big plans tonight. First we have to finish a day's work. No time off for Thanksgiving here. Then we are attempting to re-create our mother's dishes with another American VSO couple from Chicago tonight. We will see how the green bean casserole turns out, it's still up in the air. I don't think we will screw up the mashed potatoes or rolls from the bakery, but you never know. We also were able to purchase a few bottles of affordable (probably not very good) red wine. It should be a blast, no football though, we will just have to imagine.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving is wonderful and full of adventure just like ours.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Blake and Jessa

Greetings from Georgetown!

Everything is going great here! We have gotten our first taste of the rainy season that doesn't officially begin until December. Although, the locals say that the weather has been unpredictable for the last few years, much like at home. The rain here starts almost as soon as it gets dark and seems to rain through the night. It rains so hard that it almost sounds like someone is continually emptying buckets of water outside the window. Apparantly it normally stops during the daylight hours as the hot sun burns the clouds away. In some respects the overcast days of the rain are a welcome relief from the heat. On Thursday night however, we woke up to the rain and our sheets were soaking wet from the humidity of the rain. We actually had to turn off our fans that are always running as we were shivering! I also ended up having to take a cab to work because the rain hadn't stopped by the time I had to leave. I am still pumping myself up for the 41/2 mile biking commute during the rainy season. I am confidant that I will be able to bike rather than catch a cab, minus the most severe storms, even if I have to leave a dry change of clothes at work to change into! It's like a personal challenge.

We have been to 2 dinner parties this week in which local Guyanese women have offerred to cook us local Guyanese cuisine. One woman is the downstairs neighbor of some of our VSO friends, Cecelia, who says that she loves taking care of VSO's when thye come and has been working with them for years and years. She does tons of laundry for 500 Guyanese dollars (about $2.50) and mends clothes practically for free. We are lucky enough to have our own washing machine, but about halfway through filling and lugging buckets of water to the washing machine, don't think I don't think about Cecelia! The other party was catered by one of the local Guyanese staff at the VSO office. These parties are great ways of getting familiar with the local foods and some vegetables that we have never heard of. There are many staples in Guyanese cooking; potatoes, cassava, yams,rice, and curry. These are often mixed into salads or casseroles. Cecelia has offered to give the VSO's cooking lessons if we are interested and we are both very keen to learn more about it. There is also alot of chicken and fish included in the meals here. We have been a little hesitant to buy and cook fish ourselves at home as we are a little wary of the freshness factor. There is a man who walks up and down our street with buckets yelling, "Fresh Fish!" We are not quite sure whether to believe him or not, although we have been told that the fish in the buckets are not only fresh but still alive!

Blake starts work at the VSO office tomorrow morning and is very excited about the new challenge. He will be working closely with the program director of VSO Guyana and will be able to use his marketing skills and business degree. He will even have his own desk. As a perk at the office the staff makes fresh fruit juice everyday; cherry, pineapple, guava, passion fruit! Delicicious! I have to admit I am a little jealous!

We keep very bsu thorughout the week with Monday night, yoga night. (or for Blake and the other boys Monday night football.) and Thursday night sign language class. In January we will sign up for free Spanish classes at the Venezuelan institue which will take up 2 nights a week. With cooking classes from Cecelia on the way we are very busy here. With all luck we will come back home, flexible, tri-linguial, and culinary geniuses!

The house is great and we are settling really nicely into our daily life here, with the definite moments of missing people, places, and AC back at home. We love all of the updates and checking in everytime you write, so please keep the E-mails coming! Our pidgeon holes are still sadly empty, so if you feel inspired to compose a letter, poem, or picture it would be most welcome! We will write again soon and post more pictures of daily life here in Georgetown.

VSO Guyana
CO/ Jessa and Blake
PO Box 12199
Georgetown, Guyana
South America

I think we've have been slipping in our committment to update this blog, but I am back on top of it with a short posting today and another very soon.

Things have been great down here in Caribbean South America. We are all settled in to our home which turned out to be surprisingly nice and I think I have even forgot what warm water feels like. Jessa started work last week at the NCERD (National Centre (yes that's how it's spelled) for Educational Resource Development) and it is going okay. Things move slowly here. We were told that 100 times but she is seeing it first hand. There have been several days that she has done literally nothing but luckily she is working side by side with another volunteer so they can share in the boredoom. As of yesterday though, things were starting to pick.

For me, I've been okay. I actually am off to a assessment/interview/meeting at the VSO office for a short term 3-month placement. I will be doing some communications and marketing type things for them to help in promoting the program, at least that's what I think I will be doing. So I've been a little bored in the meantime, but plenty of cricket on TV to keep me occupied.

Otherwise, things are good. There are lots of other volunteers here that are becoming good friends and we look forward to fun times to come. I've gotten used to shopping for fruits and vegetables at the outdoor market and I really like it. We bike every where and it's hot but I will take that over the rain. I don't look forward to the rainy season, apparently it's kind of miserable. We miss home for obvious reasons, but we are loving the experience.

We will write more soon.

Blake

Hi everyone!

We just wanted to give you some pictures so that you can get an idea of the things that we are talking about and where we have been for the past week.

We have been spending most of our days at the VSO office in Georgetown where we have been receiving and trying to process loads of information about many important topics such as the history and politics of Guyana, safety around Guyana, staying healthy, how to use a mosquito net and water filter successfully and many other equally important things. The VSO office is a very comfortable place with air conditioning (a luxery), a library of books (which is great because books weren't included in our "must have" weight limit), internet, and pidgeon hole mailboxes where our mail will be delivered. It will be easier to have all mail delivered there than to our homes, so if you are so inclined to send a note we would love to have it! There is nothing sadder than an empty mailbox. The address at the office would be:

Jessica Hoffman/ Blake Hutson
VSO office
106-7 Lamaha and Carmichael
Georgetown, Guyana

We have been spending our night at the Rima Guesthouse, a very comfortable and clean guesthouse very centrally located and around the corner from the VSO office. We have a very comfortable room with a king size bed, a mosquito net, a fan, and a sink. The bathrooms and cold shower is shared between 16 volunteers which proves to be a logistical nightmare in the mornings! We have breakfast, (normally eggs, toast, fresh squeezed juices, coffee, and fruit. You would not believe the fruit and fruit juices here!) and dinner (normally fish, chicken, rice, stir fried vegetables, and potato salad) at the guesthouse and lunch is ordered to the VSO office. We are eating incredibly well here!

This weekend was the home stay with currecntly serving volunteers. We toured the city, saw the important sights like the grocery stores and farmers market, and walked along the sea wall. the "beach" here is not much to see. The water is dark brown and so dirty that even the Guyanese don't tend to swim in it. There is also an incredible amount of trash around the city. It would be a great opportunity for a recycling project. Despite its flaws though the sea wall goes on for a long time following the coast, is a great place to run, and has a lovely breeze off the ocean.

On Sunday night, the currently serving volunteers hosted a pot luck dinner party for the new volunteers in the courtyard between a couple of VSO houses. It was wonderful! There was even a surprise birthday cake for Blake which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Tomorrow we leave for the Shankland "resort" for some more bonding time and a Creolese tutorial. Then it is back to the Rima for one more night before we meet our employers and they take us to our homes on Friday. We are "borrowing" internet from the bar across the street so our family room looks like an internet cafe every evening. We would love to hear from eveyone!

Here we are in Georgetown, Guyana. The flight was uneventful and we actually made it under the baggage limit. This is of course after several rounds of "what do we not absolutely have to take?" As we passed through customs, the guard asked us how long we would be in Guyana and what we were there for. "2 years" we replied. "We are volunteers with the VSO". The guard looked at us and smiled and said, "Thank you so much for being here." It was a really wonderful way to start our adventure into Guyana.

Roy, the longest worker at VSO Guyana having been there for 16 years, picked us up at the airport. We threw our bags into the back of the truck and headed out to Georgetown. Roy was a wealth of knowledge and told us all about the sights as we sped by them. The country is building a huge new cricket stadium for the World Cup cricket games that will take place here next year complete with an "olympic village" for the players and their families. Guyana also boasts the longest floating bridge in the world. As we drove into town the students were just getting out of school, so the streets were lined with little ones all dressed in their school uniforms. Roy, of course, showed caution as he passed by slowing at least 1 km/hr while telling us about the driving in Guyana and how if you were to actually obey the ridiculously slow speed limit then it would take you 2 hours to get anywhere. He also mentioned that he always drove more respecfully when he was first introducing people to the country. This statement was concurrent with speeding past walking children and a horse drawn cart that was moving too slow only to vere back into the correct lane (on the left side of the road) to avoid a head on collision. I would hate to see his regular driving!

We arrived at our destination, the Rima Guesthouse where we will stay for the next couple of weeks during our in country orinientation which involves seminars on safety, Guyana's history and political situation, etc. The town so far is quite charming with wooden buildings and tree lined streets. There are of course more dangerous sections and areas we have been told to avoid completely. Because we are right on the equator the sun comes up completely here at 6:00 AM every morning and goes down completely at 6:00 PM. It makes sleeping in very difficult!

There are 16 other VSO volunteers that have come in our group. We double the existing volunteers in Guyana. The people are really wonderful and from all over the world. There are 3 other couples here, 2 around our ages.

Blake had a wonderful birthday yesterday. Everyone did something a little extra to make it really special for him. There was a homemade card signed by everyone at breakfast and a chair especially decorated for him with a sign and plastic flowers at lunch and dinner. It was a really lovely gesture and bodes well for the coming years.

We will write again soon with further updates. We hope to move into our house on Friday. We haven't seen it and have no idea where it is, so cross your fingers! We miss you all and would love to hear what it going on with you...so, please write soon!

The long wait is finally over as we are off to Guyana today. We have been anxiously waiting to leave and it's a little hard to believe we will be there in a few hours. We've gotten lots of questions about what it will be like and what we can expect but the only answer we can for sure give is that we expect someone to pick us up at the airport. I guess there is an off chance that could fall through as well. We really are in for a big adventure this time.

Well, that's all for now. We promise to keep in touch and share the good times and bad times with you all. Please keep the comments coming as we love everyone of them.

Blake and Jessa

So here it goes. We haven't posted in quite a while so there's a lot to catch up on. We are now back in Port of Spain, Trinidad after spending three great weeks in Tobago. We have just one final week left until we leave for Guyana, very exciting.

We left off in Castara on our way to the town of Plymouth. Castara actually turned out to be probably the nicest and most relaxing place we stayed because of our proximity to the beach, the very small size of the village (less than 500 people), and just the general atmosphere.

Anyway, we actually ended up in a little town called Black Rock instead of Plymouth, they're pretty close together but Black Rock is where we layed our heads. That was really the big problem with Black Rock now that I mention it. We got a place at this very charming guest house called Auldwyn Lindsay. You can see from the picture that it looks great, kind of set into the natural scenery with cherry trees, a variety of interesting birds, and a private patio. The place had a kitchenette, two rooms, cable tv, and warm water. What it didn't have was air conditioning (or air con as some British people we met called it). Now you're probably thinking that if these two can't deal without A/C for a few nights then they are in big trouble for Guyana. You have to understand though this was a unique situation. So with no A/C you have to sleep with the windows open, not really a problem, actually sounds kind of nice, we had even done it before in our first very run down room but may a remind you this place was set in a very "natural" environment. I would guess that somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 - 100,000 insects of varying sizes shapes and colors spent the night with us that night, and being stubborn or ignorant, I'm not sure which one, we opted against using the mosquito net. So your thinking one bad night with bugs, no big deal, but it goes on from there. Now I can't say for sure if it was a specific bug, several bugs, a reaction from the wild key limes we picked off a tree on the side of the road, or a combination of both, but I woke up at 6:00am with the right half of my upper lip swollen to about twice it's normal size. This was very dissapointing and to add insult to injury Jessa thought it was kind of funny. We decided to give it a day and see what happened. Luckily it went away, we both had a laugh, used the mosquito net that night, and made our way to Bon Accorde the next day.

Black Rock turned out to be a bust almost completely. We were hoping to see turtles hatch, but it was a little bit to late in the season. We did however have a pretty good time the first night as we ended up at a bar helping a local celebrate his birthday. His friends called him "Fari" like rastafari, and they were having a BBQ and we were offered some really good local food for free. A mixture of lentil beans and dumplings. It was absolutely delicious! We were also nominated to buy the birthday boy and his cousins a beer in celebration which we graciously agreed to.

We left there for Bon Accorde which is in the "lowlands" part of the island, kind of the busier more tourist oriented area. Our previous stops had been much more off the beaten path with very few, if any, other tourists in sight. We got a place for three nights at a little guest house called Merle's House. It was nice but to far of a walk from the beaches, so we moved to Crown Point where we spent 5 nights at Mike's Holiday resort. (They use the term resort loosely in Tobago. ) Mike's was great though. It was very close to Store Bay which had crystal clear waters, a little busier, certainly not the desolate beaches we had gotten used to, but still lots of fun. We met Dexter at this beach who told us about his tour company "Island Man Tours". They do these all inclusive, semi-private all day tours for $75 USD. We thought it over and decided it would be a great thing for our last weekend in Tobago and went ahead and booked a trip.

The tour turned out to be great. We took a small boat out with 3 other tourists and a two man crew. It was nice because we got to see the island from a different angle. There are so many beaches that are only accessible by water and these are truly the nicest beaches. There's white sand, yellow sand, and even black sand beaches. Just stunning. We got to do some great snorkeling at places you can only get to by boat and we saw fish and coral of every color in the rainbow. This was my first time to snorkel on a reef and I was just amazed. After snorkeling we went to a beach where the crew knew we could find a sting ray. This was a incredible. We got out of the boat and played with the ray. I am sure everyone is thinking were crazy now but the guys new all about the "crocodile hunter" and actually gave a speech about how it is perfectly safe. The first ray, Nemo, no longer had a barb as it had been broken off by someone. They said that people sometimes break off their tails for sport. Kind of sad. It was a very friendly sting ray and kept coming back for us to touch it and play with it. We took off from there to another beach you can only get to by boat for a BBQ they had set up for us. We had some great local food, rum punch, and relaxed for a while. Another sting ray showed up there and it was even friendlier than the first. We finished the day with a trip to the nylon pool. The nylon pool is in the middle of Buccoo reef off the coast of tobago out in the ocean. It's actually decomposed coral which is like coarse sand. You can stand up in it and the water is only waist high while you are way out in the ocean away from shore. It was a very unique experience.

The next day we packed up and headed back to Scarborough to catch a ferry to Trinidad. This time we opted for the quicker ferry, just under 3 hours, and it was actually pretty nice, complete with an on board movie. Very fancy!

Now were here in Trinidad, lounging our last few days away as we prep to head to Guyana. We have some idea of what to expect but really no idea. We are very excited, anxious, nervous, but nonetheless ready to jump head first in to a new adventure.

We have loved the comments from everyone so please keep them coming. Sorry if you've checked the blog over the past two weeks and have seen no new postings, we got a tad bit lazy in Tobago. Hopefully lots of interesting stories to come.

Blake and Jessa

We are on the move again! We are en route from our little paradise of Castara for the town of Plymouth. We are hoping to spend some time on Turtle Beach and perhaps see some of the hatchling turtles make their way to the water. Again, not quite sure what to expect when we get there but are excited about seeing something new.

We spent six wonderful, relaxing days in Castara another small fishing village on the Carribbean side of the island. Life seems to move at a much slower pace here than back at home and it has taken us some adjustment time to get in to the groove of "liming" away our days. We are now quite proficient at waking up late, laying on the beach for hours, swimming carelessly, and taking it easy. We met a Swiss couple who was spending a couple of weeks in the tiny village before they head home after a year of doing volunteer work and travelling in Cusco, Peru and throughout South America. It was really encouraging and interesting to hear their stories! The man who ran the "beach resort", Ancle, had travelled to Guyana before and said that although it was severly underdeveloped it was a beautiful and had a lot of potential. Very exciting!

Once again, we have a ton of good pictures to show everyone but are unable to post them while we are on the move. We will have them up and running in a couple of weeks. Hope everyone is doing well and that those of you who attended ACL are recovering nicely!

Love you all and we will write again soon!

Jessa and Blake

Hi Everyone,

We hoped to post more at the beginning of the trip but there was no internet access in the last village we visited. So here we are now. We left Charlotteville today and are now in Castara. Charlotteville was great. It's a small fishing village on the north end of the island and is really charming. It has one main beach, Man-O-War Bay, and a secluded beach called Pirate's Bay that you have to hike to. Both are beautiful but Pirate's bay was stunning. It's real desolate except for a shack where Sun Sun rents chairs (but he's never there) and another shack/house where Jungle Man lives. We got to know him because I helped him carry a big board that he is going to make into a wood carving table up to his home. He was interesting and insisted on giving us something for our troubles, we accepted a bag of chips even though we didn't want to take his food but we were worried he may take offense to our decline.

I can go on and on about Charlotteville but the sum of it is, this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, it's better than a post card or an island movie. The people are so friendly and even anxious to offer assistance.

We plan to attach pictures at some point but the internet is to slow for now. We will write about Castara later (that's the beach I can hear out side our door right now), but it's great so far.

Keep the comments coming when you can. We love them.

Blake and Jessa

Hi everyone!

We spent our first night in Port of Spain, Trinidad on Monday night at a Marriott Blake booked with his points...Thanks Smuckers! It was nice, although Port of Spain is a bustling, busy town and not very eye appealing. We left the next morning on the ferry for Tobago.

We opted for the "slow ferry" and were told 8 hours. Hmm...so we spent the extra 4 dollars and sprung for a cabin. It was simple and nice to have some of our own space. The ferry itself was a nice surprise with a comfortable deck, complete with a bar where we taste-tested Stag, the second best TT beer. (We prefer Carib.) After only 6 hours, we made it to Scarborough, Tobago where we knocked on the door at Jacob's Guesthouse (9:00 PM) and asked for a room. They showed us to our incredibly simple accomodations for the night. We got what we paid for at $20 a night. We learned that we are able to sleep comfortably with no AC, in super high humidity, with only a single fan for breeze. Guyana here we come! Apart from the roosters, blaring music, tropical birds, barking dogs, and torential rains the night was very peaceful.

We are now waiting on a bus to head out to Charlottesville where we are hoping to spend a week on the most beautiful beach in Tobago, Pirate's bay. We are very excited!

We love the comments and personal E-mails, so please keep them coming! We will post pictures when we get the chance. Love you guys!

Well the first phase of our trip begins tomorrow morning when we board our plane to travel to Trinidad & Tobago for a little island adventure before we get to work in Guyana. As you may or may not know we were delayed leaving to Guyana because of "issues with the upcoming general elections." This was very disappointing as our original August 5th leave date was postponed until October 10th. Many of you might wonder why you attended a going away party for us over a month ago but we didn't see a reason to cancel a good party. We have certainly found a bright side though, and will be spending a month on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. We will make sure to post good pictures and stories of this trip over the next few weeks.

But for this post were saying goodbye, to family, friends, and co-workers who we will all miss beyond words. Tomorrow morning we will close one huge chapter of our lives and open a new and exciting one. We look forward to staying in touch with everyone and sharing stories back and forth through this blog, e-mail, and if available the random phone call.

I think you should be able to post comments and replies to these postings, if not I will work out the kinks at some point.

Please help us stay in touch with your lives as we share ours. Here are a couple pics of our last night.

Miss You Already,

Jessa and Blake