Life is full of beauty. Notice it.: Hashing! On-on!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Hashing! On-on!

Nick, Jessica, Mark, and I officially completed our first hash! Hashing is a hike that takes place somewhere on the island, where hundreds of people (locals, students, visitors, and children) all participate. It is a huge event, that takes place world-wide! We were very excited to be able to participate in our first hash, and the experience did not disappoint! Every aspect of hashing was pretty awesome. There is no way that I can even begin to describe how amazing and fun of an experience that is in this blog post, so the best thing I can say is to go out and experience it for yourself. You will not regret it.

Nick and I started out our first hashing experience in a rather unique way. We have not yet mastered the bus schedule here so we missed the 12:45pm bus and much to our dismay realized the next bus would not be arriving until 2:00 pm. This was very unfortunate because we were supposed to meet the group in downtown St. George at 1:30 to head to the hash.... so that being said, we really had one option... to walk. In our minds, while this was not ideal, it was not overly hard either. We'd walked to our friend's house, which was on the way, so we figured we could make it and still get to downtown on time. Well, let me just say it was NOT a short walk. It was around 4-5 miles (from the University Club in Lance Aux Epines to the the Texico for those of you on the island!), in blistering sun and heat. nice. Nothing like a 4-5 mile walk before hashing-- nice little warm up! We were super worried we would miss the bus in downtown but luckily Grenada time worked in our favor and we made it!!

The hash that we participated took place in St. Marks, which is one of the highest points on the island. Although, the drive was long (over an hour) it was worth it, and it was fun to be able to see different towns and parts of the ocean along the way. We lucked into grabbing a van with some wonderful British people because they had extra space and saved us from the side of the road where we were desperately trying to catch a bus to the hash! The starting point on the hash was unbelievably gorgeous!! The hike itself was about 1.5 hours long, and you may chose to either run or walk. We chose to walk, and I was really glad we did. 1) because this girl is NOT in running shape, and 2) because it allowed us to go at our own pace and stop and take pictures and enjoy the scenery whenever we wanted! The way hashing works is that after you decide which trail you wish to follow (the walkers trail or runners trail) then you follow piles of shredded paper that point you in the right direction. Piles of shredded paper mean you are going the right way, a circle of paper means there are several different trails and you have to find the right one by picking a trail and hoping you can go about 10 piles of paper without finding a paper X meaning you went the wrong way and need retrace your steps back to the circle to try another path. It's really fun, I'll post a link at the end of this that will break down the rules a little more! Upon finishing the hash, you end up back at the starting point, where there are tents filled with food, drinks, and basically an after party! It was really very, very cool!

This link describes hashing and the rules, so if you like hiking take a look! It is a great way to explore the island (or any place you are visiting that participates in hashing! Seriously, it is world-wide, and something I will def look into when I travel from now on) http://grenadahash.com/hash-faqs