un peu de la geographie

I realize that a lot of my posts would make more sense if you had some idea of the geographie of the island, so i have provided you, out of the kindness of my heart, with a map, along with some notes on key places:

St. Denis: The capital, where i flew in and stayed for the first week.

St. Leu, on the west coast: Where i work, and also the surfing and paragliding center of the island. The first day i went to school i was driven around the city by three different people, two of whom felt the need to point out "the wave" of St. Leu. The world surfing championship was held there two or three years ago.

St. Louis: or rather, just above St. Louis in La Riviere is where i live now. It's an old sugar cane center that has a reputation for being kinda sleepy and kinda poor.

St. Pierre: "The capital of the South" is the only city with real nightlife on the island, and it's where, today, vanessa and i decided to rent rooms for the next nine months in a house near the center of town with 4 french boys. YAY!!!!!!!

Les Cirques: Cilaos, Salazie, and Mafate are the large rings of mountains that make up the center of the island. Cilaos is where we went hiking last week; Mafate is where we might be (potentially foolishly) doing a night-hike tonight.

Piton de la Fournaise: THE VOLCANO!! :-D.

so now you can have a better idea of what the hell i'm talking about - Enjoy!

love y'all.