summer adventure and hike event

the summer adventure and hike event happened about a week and a half ago, but forgot to write about it.  it was organized by the waitukubuli national trail project.  waitukubuli is the kalinago word for dominica meaning "tall is her body", so named for dominica's mountainous terrain.  the trail consists of segments across the island.  the project has been making new trails and fixing old ones.  it should be really great for locals and tourists, since most tourists who come here are pretty outdoorsy.  i just spell checked and outdoorsy is actually a word.

so the event took place in sylvania, not far from the roundabout for those of you who've been here.  it was incredibly well organized.  i was completely impressed.  there were a few competitions taking place.  the first was the iron man, or negre mawon, race.  negre mawon is the creole term referring to the slaves in dominica who escaped and ran into the rainforest to live.  this race was for two people and the winner was the team with the fastest time (our friends judy and zack won).  the fun challenge is the race the rest of us did.  i didn't have a team, so i found one there.  they were four dominicans who were all part of a hiking club and older than me (30s and 40s).  one guy was named dodds!  they were all cool and i had a lot of fun with them.  our race involved little obstacles along the way, like a puzzle, a rope maze, and a stretcher carry (our stretcher broke, we had some trouble w/ this one).  we didn't win, but it was fun!  the rest of my team:

completing one of the challenges:

literally running through the woods.  no time to stop and take pictures, but kind of came out cool though: