I left at 6:15 from Chicago (after getting up at 3am) to Jamaica and got to Curacao around 4pm. (Their customs is a joke - their immigration line took maybe 5 minutes and then they just ushered us all through once we got our luggage. Ashley made me so concerned about having open cheese and I threw it out for nothing). We were picked up by our three professors (Bruce, Patricia and LeeAnn), LeeAnn actually met us in the Chicago airport, and brought to our "resort" (Palu di Mnagel). There were 28 people total, 8 from Alaska and 20 from Illinois. Turns out our place is going out of business - we were the only ones there. It was a bunch of little apartments. I was in a room of four and there were 7 rooms of two. We had our own kitchen, living room, balcony, bathroom and two bedrooms. We basically dropped our stuff and went down to the pool where we had beer/coke/cheese and just found out the game plan. I was so hot because I had jeans and a sweater on and they wouldn't let us change. We went to the grocery store, it was so crowded because it was the night before the holiday. They have almost every American brand (the import all their fruits, vegetables and meats) but there were so many people, insane.
Anyway, even though we had all that food, a group of us ended up walking down to this Chinese place. It took forever (there were 16 of us) to get our food and it wasn't even all that good. I ordered chicken fried rice and there were way too many bones and pieces of cartilage. All I wanted to go was go to bed.
So December 31st, we went out to our first soil deposit, one of the quaternary terraces, to look at rocks. It's where I had my first experience of climbing loose sediment. Then we went to Christoffel Park to climb Christoffelberg (375m). I made it about halfway and then I couldn't breathe, my head hurt and I thought I was going to throw up so they made me stop and my professor (who was at the top) came back to walk me down where I waited for 2.5 hours till the group came back. That was embarrassing and boring. There was this Asian lady who came back down and she talked to me for a while, till she because infested with bugs and left me. Then I only had the birds that I named Petry and Ducky. Anyways, since it was New Year's Eve, the park closed at noon but they told us they'd leave the door open. They did that, but they forgot to leave the gate pole up so everyone pushed it up so the vans could get under it.
We went to Boca Tabla to look at more Quaternary terraces that had heavy deposits of limestones right on the beach. This is where I was told if I fell, I'd be out for the rest of the trip. Then we went to Kalki Beach at Westpunt to snorkel except it rained so the sediment was loose and you couldn't see anything.
For the night, we went to Carmabi (the research Institute our professors were staying at). It's right on the beach next to a hotel except we had no light. After everyone had grilled their food - in the rain - they drove us back to the hotel (11pm). They called some taxis to drive people downtown (since they were not legally allowed to bring us themselves) but they didn't show up till 12:30 and by then I didn't care. A bunch of us sat out and watched the fireworks from every angle. They basically lit off fireworks for three days straight and at the end, they were more annoying then anything.
On January 1st the only constructive thing we did was snorkel off the water plant. It rained so I didn't bring my camera but of course you could see everything. This was where there was heavy coral damage, bleaching, white box, black band because that's where the sewage runs off. I guess humans are safe as long as you don't drink the water.
The next day we went to look at the Seroe Domi ormation (where we drove the wrong way on a one way street). We specifically looked at the Seru Mansinga which has the only preserved coral reef. Then we went to the Seaquarium, had a tour and then snorkeled off their preserved coral reef. The current was so strong, my buddy (Vicky) and I got pushed really far and we of course got yelled at. I felt like I was looking at the same coral over and over again so I just got out. All anyone could say was "Just keep swimming" from Finding Nemo.
On the third of January we went to look at another section of the Seroe Domi Formation and then went to look at the Landhuis (plantation house) which seemed completely pointless because the entire inside had been redone to become the security headquarters for the area. Then we went to St. Michielsberg (100m) where we climbed this hill that was basically straight up. It was literally rock climbing. I was almost to the top, but some people stopped and I couldn't get around and my professor just said to stop so I did. It was so hard to get down, especially because of all the cactus. I fell once and thank god Tom was there to grab my arm. Sort of hurt, but I suppose the rolling on rocks and bushes would have hurt more.
On Sunday we went to Groteberg to look, again, at soil on the quaternary terraces. It started raining so we left and went to the Place of Hato. Where were supposed to go to Talfelberg but they wouldn't let us in (and I guess our group didn't want to try and push up the gate's poll with someone watching us). So the Plane of Hato was basically this huge cave with bats that the slaves used to run away to. There were some Arowak Indian paintings, but nothing terribly impressive. Our next stop was again, more soil deposits at Zuurzak and then lunch, followed by snorkeling at Snake Baai. I convinced Hector (our Spanish exchange student) to let me bury him in the sand. I did not do the added body parts. We tried to do a night snorkel to try and see the corals feeding but you couldn't see anything and I guess the current started getting strong because they told us to swim in. The only thing I was able to see were the bioluminescence.
Our last day of exploring the island was called the "Antillen day" because everything went wrong. Our hotel told the professors they only wanted our payment in cash, not credit cards ($6800). We spent the morning at Carmabi while they tried to straighten it out. Then we went to St. Annabaai downtown to look at some more rocks. We walked through town to try and find a place to eat lunch, we settled on the shade at the Curacao Gardens. The owner came and yelled at us for sitting on private property so we just went back to our place to eat.
That evening we were supposed to go snorkeling but we had to get gas. Turns out two of the vans had the wrong gas pumped in so we spent the next hour pushing them and dumping it out (the environmentalists of the group were not happy). Beacuse the snorkel site was a half hour away, we just went back to snorkel at Carmabi.
That night we all were going out to dinner for our last night at Rystafel, an Indonesian place. A bunch of us bought sarongs and put flowers in our hair so we'd match (even though no one on the island dressed this way). Dinner ended really late but we were going to go to Mambo Beach except we had to go back to the hotel to drop someone off (she broke her toe earlier in the week and it was swelling). I was in the professors' van, they made us sing because they refused to put on the radio. Regardless, Bruce was a crazy driver and as soon as we got into the parking lot, the transmission fell out so that was it (I'm sure it had nothing to do with his stopping and going in the middle of the road on purpose). Everyone ended up coming to our room (like every other night) and just drank and played cards till about 1am.
I got from Curacao on Tuesday (getting home at midnight). I physically left Curacao at 4pm even though we left our hotel at noon. Our group was the only one waiting in line for AirJamaica - and they didn't open until one. We all went and spent our remaining gilders at the stores and then waited in line for security. It was horrible. All these people saying good-bye and trying to form this single line to go through the one security machine. I t think it took over twenty minutes and when I went through, they didn’t even look at my bags. The terminals were so crowded, then you walk out on the runway to the plane. When I got to Jamaica, I had rerouted my plane to Miami and I only had 30 minutes (really only 15 minutes but bother planes arrived/left late), but it's not like I had to walk far, from gate one to two. My professor, he's so not here I guess is the way to put it. My group was saying good-bye and I handed him my field notebook and he's like, I don't want that now, give it to me in Chicago. (I think that would have been a very smart thing to do, wait the three hours, get to Chicago at midnight, go through customs and then fly back to Florida...) My flight was very short but I hate customs. It was so crowded and took forever. I don't know what the problems were but it took me a half hour to get through with like five people in front of me. Then I waited an hour for my bag never to show up (and so many people lost them). It seems as if it'll forever be lost in Jamaica.
So that's about it. The people were great and I had lots of fun (despite being eaten alive by mosquitoes) but I'm glad to be home. The rock parts just bored me to death. I was known as the "aggressive cynic" but I guess people didn't care because they still talked to me (maybe not by choice). I complained about everything and even though not everyone was a geology major they had some background in science (or at least enjoyed science).