Over the past couple of days we have been doing a whole lot of driving around on scooters. By now we have essentially driven by every part of the island. And i have inhaled far too much exhaust. On Friday we took a group drive into the capitol city of Hamilton. We wondered around for a short amount of time, ate lunch on the waterfront and then headed back to BIOS. We then took a boat ride out off of St. George where we snorkeled amongst the cup reefs. We ended the day by eating out at the Swizzle Inn and then enjoyed a few drinks with the other BIOS residents at the Passing Wind.
On Saturday we were given a day off to do what we pleased. We all began the day by riding into Hamilton. Some of our group split off and headed towards the beaches. I stuck around with Harry and Tact to explore a little longer. We visited the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity which was quite spectacular. I walked around that for a while and enjoyed the serenity and peace of mind that the cathedral provided. We then walked around Hamilton for a bit more and ended up visiting the Bermuda National Gallery which is located in the City Hall and Arts Centre. There were several documentary photography exhibits on display that were very interesting. They varied from documenting the lives of sex-workers in Cambodia to the side of Islamic culture that is not portrayed in the mainstream media. We then departed from Hamilton to visit the South Shore beaches. Eventually we met up with the rest of our group and toured the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse which is the tallest point on Bermuda. The view from atop was amazing despite the gusty wind. After the lighthouse we made our way back across the island to BIOS. During the evening a small group of us took a taxi into Hamilton where we sampled the night life.
Today we headed back to the south shore and stopped at the Warwick Beaches which are by far some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to. While there we collected samples of the sand and identified forams, limpets, bivalves and gastropods within our samples. We then continued along the South Shore and stopped at Church Bay. While there we were able to examine up close the development and stratigraphy of the lithified dunes that compose the island. Also while there we found a couple Portuguese Man o’ War sails that had washed ashore. I tried to turn one over with my shoe in order to get a better view, however I ended up popping it which frightened me greatly as I did not want to get stung by the exploding particles. After we left Church Bay we continued down the South shore until we reached the end of the island at the Royal Navy Dockyard. From there I headed all the way back toward St. George, and made a stop at a fried chicken joint with Luke. All in all each day has been radical.