The touch-sensitive plant.

Yesterday we went to Cranbrook Gardens, and afterwards the Ultimate Jerk for dinner. It was only the second time we have left the Marine Lab since arriving in Jamaica on the 13^th. The first time being Dunn’s River Falls, and Ocho Rios. The Garden’s were beautiful, with a wide variety of plants, and a few peacocks wandering around. One of the most interesting plants we saw was a sensitive plant. Whenever you touched one of the feathery leaves, that particular leaf curled up, and pulled away from you. I’d heard of these plants before, but never actually seen one.

The river through the gardens.

We walked along a path beside the river, where there were many tree snail shells, just lying on the side of the path. At the end of the path beside the river was a small pool of water that most of the class decided to swim in. The pool was blocked at one end with a log to prevent anyone from being was downstream, and to help form the area of calm water. On the way back to the bus we collected more mud in our shoes (the path was muddy and very slippery), and when we walked through the field with the sensitive plants, found it had been taken over with insects. No one stayed very long after that!

The swimming pool at the top of the hike.

After everyone had washed the mud off, and/or changed, we got back on the bus, and went to the Ultimate Jerk for dinner. Most people had to wait for the chicken to be finished, as the delivery had been late that day. The wait was only about 20 minutes. I had a plate of jerked chicken, rice, and peas. It was delicious, the chicken was spicy, and fell off the bone. It was only $5.00 a plate, and more than worth it. I considered getting a second plate to take back to the lab with me, but didn’t. After dinner Mr. Scarlett (our boat/dive leader at the lab) recommended a place in town for dancing. Everyone went there, but Mei, Joe, and I stayed on the bus and slept. We could still hear the music from across the street though, it was fun and upbeat.

The world famous Ultimate Jerk restaurant.

We were back at the Marine Lab by 9:00 that night, as we have a lot to finish in the couple of days we have left in Jamaica. This morning I went on another dive. It was to one of Mr. Scarlett’s favorite dive sites, the Caverns. I didn’t actually see any caverns (at least not large ones), but it was a beautiful place to dive. Afterwards Mr. Scarlett poured water over everyone’s heads, to ‘baptize’ us at a new dive site. This was even the first time Brad, Joe, and Amber had dove there, which I think was the main reason we were baptized at all. It was a fun dive, but now it’s time to get back to work again, analyzing project results, and collecting more data.

Underwater at "the caverns".

Megan