The past two days have been very
exciting here on the island!! Yesterday morning was a great dive for all the
divers on the trip with, finally, calm waters and perfect weather. As the
morning ended we were off for our second field trip. This time we went to the Cranbrooke Gardens. The bus ride to the gardens was
exciting, with an almost hour long stop at the ATM, for some much needed cash,
and Max, Josh and Jason shouting half of the lyrics to every song they knew. On
arrival, everyone was ecstatic about the peacocks and we could hardly organize
for a group picture. Finally we were off for our walk through the botanical
gardens and up to the waterfall. The walk was beautiful and we made it to the
waterfall after about 45 minutes. We all stripped down to our bathing suits and
entered the chilly water. Everyone soon forgot about the cold water as we all
were jumping of the rocks and swinging on vines. All this soon ended when Josh
and Max smeared mud on Professor Joe’s back and started a wild goose chase in
the water pool.[Ed: I prefer to think of it as a demonstration of predator-prey dynamics…]

At last we were on our way back to
the bus with a small stop at the gift shop. When we arrived back to DBML many
of us were back to work on our projects. My partner Ian and I were running
around collecting more algae and trying to weigh old algae before our access to
the only balance at the lab was shut down for the night. Rachel and Megan were
off for a nice long swim to the back reef to collect their samples. The night
included Jason, Margaret and Sumo going for a night snorkel, and most everyone
else just relaxing and going to bed early. This morning we all worked on our
projects and went snorkeling. Time is quickly running out here in Jamaica so
everyone is spending most of the final days collecting data for their projects
and enjoying the last of the warm weather.  
   

The bus ride to the Cranbrooke Gardens         

Male Peacock showing off his feathers

– Debbie