Friday may have been the most relaxing day by far. It really was like a vacation day. Drove to the northern most tip of South Caicos and relaxed with some friends on the sandy white beach and crystal clear waters. Of course to get there we had to trek through a forest of mangroves and an army of Upside-down Jellyfish. Also found a very nice conch shell that I'll be bringing back. They're fairly cumbersome so I'm probably only going to bring back the one. Saturday was one of the coolest days here. Went diving and swam with a Reef Shark and a Green Sea Turtle. Saw another Crinoid as well. And since it was Saturday, that meant Community Outreach. So Ben, Michaela, and I went down to the southern tip of Long Cay to go Lionfish hunting. They're an invasive here and eat the larvae of all fish. We didn't actually find or capture any but that was okay since I was able to swim directly above an Eagle Ray. This was my first time seeing one and it was beautiful. It was about 10 ft long and had spectacular coloration and markings on it. Got back to the center and went on another dive. Now, one of my first dives in TCI ever, at one of our safety stops I was playing tic-tac-toe with a friend. Inadvertently one of us dropped my pencil and it was to be forever lost in the Caribbean. As we are descending this latest dive I spot something out of place laying in the sediment. IT WAS MY PENCIL. I FOUND MY PENCIL THAT WAS LOST TWO WEEKS+ AGO AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. I was estatic.

Did our first transect yesterday. Right at HDL. One person lays out a transect tape 30 m and takes so basic measurements: depth, temp, etc. One pair of people then swim along transect recording all the fish they see. Next pair records all the Sea Urchins they sea. Last pair has a 1 sq. m quadrat and gives rough estimates of benthos composition every 5, 10, 15, ..., and 30 m. I was with the benthos team. After data was collected and inputed we took an optional snorkel at the south end of Long Cay. Swam with another shark, that was cool. But the highlight may of been seeing a lobster carcass being feasted upon by all the reef fish. That was really cool. Also, the head alone of the lobster was over 12 in. Finally after dinner, the divers went back to The Plane for our Night Dive. This may of been one of the coolest things that I have ever done. Saw two spotted moray eels, lobsters, sleeping parrotfish, shrimps, a Crinoidea, all types of small stuff swimming in my face, and something very interesting. I forget the name but imagine a translucent cylindrical creature with a hole at each end the size of a twinkie. It wasn't a jelly, but you could watch it munch on stuff and see what it had eaten, still alive, in its stomach. We then knelt on the sediment and turned our lights off. At this point we started waving our hands in the water in no particular sequence and the sea started to light up. Little bioluminescent creatures giving off a neon green light in the darkness. And finally, since this was my fifth dive of the advanced course, I'm now Advanced Open Water Certified, yayy!!

Reef Fish ID test on Monday. Much tougher than the Coral Reef ID test. Didn't get as high of a grade as the Coral test but still got an A. (Damn those Parrotfish!!) Rained for the first time on the island today. And it rained hard. Real hard. Today was the "other" Tuesday so our food shipment came and we had to carry it in while be drenched in the rain. We were assigned new groups today for the research project that we'll be doing for the rest of the duration here. Creating transects and seeing if there are differences in numbers of fish species in and out of Marine Protected Areas. Other than that, 14 page paper due tomorrow evening. Pictures will still be continually added to Facebook.

Wreck Dive and Deep Dive completed. We went back to "The Plane" again and drew a map of the area and measured the dimensions of the plane using kick-cycles. Pretty simple dive. We finned around for a bit after that, found some of those shrimp from the tank in Finding Nemo and found a Hornhead Crab (I think is what it's called). In between dives we did the Community Outreach Program again. I signed up for Environmental Education this time. Basically one of the teachers here on the island is trying to write childrens books for mathematics and other TCI-type activities that teachers can use in the classrooms. So we worked on that for a few hours. Then our Deep Dive came. I don't think we actually got to 100 ft, I think my depth gauge said 98 ft, but it was still deep regardless. Once we were at depth, Annie, the divemaster, asked each of us a question to see if we were still coherent and were not suffering from nitrogen narcosis. Some people got math problems, I got "Spell your first and last name backwards." Will, the other instructor had brought down a water bottle with him. When we were at depth, Will filled it in with some air from his tank. By the time we got back to the surface the bottle was about to burst. One more dive left for my Advanced Open Water certification!!
As soon as we got back to the center everyone packed up and we went camping for the night. The best part of the night was playing whiffle-ball... playing whiffle-ball against people from England who aren't even familiar with the game of baseball at all. But when it got too dark we gathered around the campfire, toasted marshmallows, and listened to Will and Michaela play songs on their guitar.

Haven't written anything in a few days. Probably because of a test and paper due next week. But I did get an A on my Coral ID Exam, yayy!! I've started doing my Advanced Open Water course here. On Tuesday I completed Underwater Navigation and Naturalist. This Saturday I should be doing Wreck Dive and Deep Dive. Our fifth and final one will be next Tuesday, I think, and it will be the Night Dive. During the Naturalist dive one of the students turned his tank too tightly and ended up having to use the buddy breathing system. Everyone was fine in the end, but the buddy was more shook up about the event than the guy who needed oxygen. Our Reef Fish ID Sessions are a little bit tougher in the field than our Coral Reef ID Sessions since the fish can swim away. The solution to that is when we bring what looks like car antennas and point from a distance at fish. Occasionally the fish will come closer and try and nibble on it.

Lazy Sunday

All the staff and teachers take a break on Sunday. The students are the ones who are responsible for making brunch/dinner for everyone. No assignments on Sunday, just do what you wish. Coral ID test tomorrow so lots of people were studying. Started off the day with a swim off the dock and snorkeled later. Saw a flounder, spiny lobster, fireworm, and a moral eel. Ended the day with another student and me playing Ultimate Frisbee with over half the staff at the cricket field. Back to work tomorrow.

On Saturdays there is nothing school related that we do here. It's mainly the staff taking us out twice a day to either SCUBA dive or snorkel. First place we dove to was called "The Arch." We were down at about 45 ft and swam under what looked like an underwater bridge. Very cool. Also along the trip we saw a stingray lurking in the sand. This thing was huge. Like the diameter of it was well over 8 ft. Saturday is also "Community Outreach Day" where most of us do activities with the local children such as giving them swim lessons or teaching them about the environment. I on the other hand was assigned to invasive removal and had to cut down trees with Tim. There are some invasive pine trees on the island that are a nuisance. The second dive was at "The Plane." Back in the 70s when South Caicos had heavy drug trafficking a plane with drugs crashed nearby. So much cool stuff around there. A barracuda swam with us for a while and we saw two sea turtles at ~58ft down.

We've done so much snorkeling here. We go out at least twice a day and visit various reefs and mangroves. But these are more for business than pleasure. Our first ID test is this Monday and on the list is >20 species of coral and several species of algae, plants, and marine organisms. Tomorrow I'll also be SCUBA diving for the first time here. I'll be having two dives tomorrow and I think that one may be a wreck dive. Also went to the local bar with some friends for dinner and had conch for the first time. Delicious.

FB

H'okay, so, Facebook has a really efficient way of uploading pictures even with a slow connections so I'll just put a few highlights here and put the rest on Facebook.

Class!?!?

Today started off with class for four hours, yayy!!... Lots of marine organisms and coral to memorize, like, lots. Then we jumped in the pool and the divemaster here made sure we all retained our basic SCUBA knowledge and did a few exercises. A mask-removal-and-clear is a lot more annoying in saltwater as it leaks into your eyes :( Finished off the day snorkeling around the center.

And before you ask, that's a sea cucumber. ;)

First Day

Today started out with making sure every one was fit enough to swim in the sea. Consisted of swimming 200 yards to a buoy and back in open water (with the waves playing with ya) and treading water immediately afterwards for ten minutes. Later we took a tour of the island and got to see the how very different our ways of life are

Our Prop-Plane

First Wave of Pictures

Internet is really slow here so I'm only able to upload a few photos at a time. Maybe I'll just show 2 or 3 highlights and then have a link leading to my Flickr account.

Made it to South Caicos

Made it to South Caicos, w00t!! It was so crazy watching the ocean turn from a deep blue to an azure blue-green color in an instant. Made it to the island in one piece, along with all of my luggage. The center has an amazing view of the water. There are also tons of lizards, geckoes, and skinks running all along the island. There's been some problems with the internet connectivity here so I'll probably add photos tomorrow.

Provooooo

Made it to Turks & Caicos, w00t!! Been sittin' at Providenciales Airport for the last few hours waiting for the last and final plane to arrive. Pics of the trip here to come up as soon as I get to South Caicos.

And I'm Off

Today's the big day, off to Turks & Caicos!! Flying out of Dulles, stopping at Charlotte, then landing in Providenciales. From there I have to take one of those real small planes that you have to start the propeller by spinning the blades.

Packing

Packing, ughhhh...

So much to pack and so little space.