Well it’s been a week now and I find it hard to believe how fast time is passing here. Most certainly though adapting to “Jamaica time” isn’t very hard and I think I have done pretty well adapting. In the past week more than I can even begin to explain has occurred but the most interesting note for me is getting SCUBA certified. I have snorkeled all my life and thought that was pretty cool, but I think getting SCUBA certified was one of the best decisions of my life because that is better than snorkeling in almost every way. Being right there near the bottom with the corals, various fishes like the yellow stingray, squirrelfish, and four-eye butterfly fish, and inverts like the spiny lobster is just outstanding. Being certified will also make my project easier because I will need to be placing tiles on the bottom, and ensure their stability by getting them into the bottom, at depths of 10 feet or more. This is something I can use for the rest of my life and won’t have to renew so it was worth the trouble to go through.

An Indigo Hamlet doesn't really blend in well on the open sand.

On another note, our trip to Ocho Rios today was another experience entirely. It was a very good way to get a sense of what locals are like and how much they depend on tourism. It was fun though, because we had some delicious jerk chicken sandwiches, and topped that off with some Jamaican ice cream, which melted immediately, but was very good. Oh yeah, and the best part I almost left out, which was Dunn River Falls! We got to climb a waterfall as many times as we wanted! That was very interesting because the biggest obstacle was the fat tourists who all made like a 20 person holding hands chain…they were being safe, so if one person fell…everybody else does. Anyways it was a bunch of fun because I went up 4 and a half times until we had to go. The freshwater felt great to get a good old wash off the salty body.

Michael Fogg