Jellyfish!!!

I went back to the Owia Salt Ponds with a few friends at the end of May. I blogged about my first time going back in March. While swimming, a friend of mine wanted me to join him on a rock. As I began to climb it, something stung my leg and it started burning really bad. I was in the water for 30 minutes before this happened. Someone had to help me back to shore.

When I was finally out of the water, I saw this:

It felt like I got stung by 5 bees, it hurt so bad. Two of the men from the Owia community approached me when they saw I got pulled out of the water. They saw the welt on my leg and said that I wasn't supposed to go near that particular rock. One man said that the yellow seaweed on the rock is alive and can sting you. The other man said that something on the rock comes out to sting you.

I waited 20 minutes for the pain to go away and ate lunch before getting back in the water. I stayed away from the rock for the remainder of the time that I was there and walked back home. Although it happened, I still had a good time!

When I got home, I googled "seaweed that stings you." This article came up with photos of the same seaweed that's on the rock. However, it has something attached to it.

According to the article, this is a Hydroid. Hydroids are colonies of tiny inverted jellyfish that attach themselves to seaweed. I don't know how many stung me, but it was definitely more than one.

Here is a photo of the sting that I took the next day.

One week later.

One month later. It took a month, but it's basically gone now. 

A fellow volunteer had a friend visit her from the U.S. and I made sure to tell them both to stay away from the rock! When you get in the water and it starts to get deep, it's on the left side. You'll know because it's half up out of the water and on the right are huge rocks that people dive off of. Either way, it's still a beautiful place to go to and swim. The scenery alone will calm and relax you. 

Rainforest with a side of Petroglyphs

It's been a while since my last blog post because I have been busy. The students have finals this week and school is almost over, so I have time now to post.

Two things that I did in April were going to see a petroglyph and walking through a rainforest with some friends. The petroglyph I went to see is called Rutland Vale which is located in a community called Layou. First we went to a room with pictures of petroglyphs in Barraouallie, Petit Bordel, Buccament and other communities here in St. Vincent. They're beautiful and I'm hoping to see the other ones before leaving the island.

 

The scenery around the petroglyph is breathtaking. You have to cross a stream to get to it by walking over rocks.

Here is the Rutland Vale petroglyph. If you look closely at the picture, the drawing is at the top of the rock, on the left and in the middle.

The next stop was the rainforest. Vermont Nature Trail is a tourist site here in St. Vincent. I haven't gone to a nature trail since my camping days as a kid.

 

It took us 2 hours to get through the trail, but probably would have been less if 1) it hadn't rained that morning and made the path muddy and 2) we didn't stop to take a lot of pictures and videos. 

  

 

One of the times we stopped, I channeled my inner Tarzan. 

The first half of the rainforest has planted trees and the second half is just the rainforest itself. I was hoping to see the Amazona Guildingii which is the national bird of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However, I could only hear the sound they made. The trail isn't hard to walk and has a few resting spots. Surprisingly, I didn't get bit by any mosquitoes.  

Overall, it was a great day. I had never seen a petroglyph or a rainforest in person. Now that I have, I plan on going again some day. If you ever come to Vincy, you have to visit both!