January 3rd Tuesday… Our first full day began with pancakes, bacon for the meat lovers and lots of fresh pineapple. Our orientation lecture segued quickly into the history etc of the coral reefs we were about to swim over. Our friendly dive master Anthony oriented us yet again and we were clumped into those who were already SCUBA certified, those who wanted to be or would be soon (myself included 1st checkout dive at 7am) and those who will snorkel. That accomplished we signed our releases and finally got wet. My roomate and snorkeling partner Elisabeth and I spotted a trumpet fish, many donkey dung sea cucumbers (according to the book), the ominous spiny sea urchin diadema, and fish too numerous to mention. We were scattered, dazed and quite hungry when we returned for a lunch of baked mac and cheese for me and ham for the rest. An afternoon lecture by Brad on ecology was followed by another snorkeling session. This is the one where you become aware of how well or poorly your gear fill. You would be amazed at the difficultly of getting into a wet wet suit. I took a collection bag and soon had two bivalves, four types of sea grass and two worms which escaped quickly from the bag. I spent our first spare hour with my text book and a bit of fiction then set about identifiying what i had seen (I’m up to 16 or so). Dinner was potatos green beans, and a gnochi bean thing for me and goat stew and bony fried fish for everyone else. A few brave and tireless souls (Justin and Brian) returned from a night dive with a shrimp and a fabulous octopus. Its nearing ten now and i cannot wait to climb into bed. ps. no sunburns yet. -brooke