Yesterday, our group had quite the schedule with activities ranging from scuba diving to a lovely sunset dinner. Our day began at dawn with a nice scuba dive at a reef called Pear Tree. One of our instructors took my small group out to explore the reef while our other professors had some work to do on the reef. Pear Tree was very beautiful because of the intricate valley ways that were formed between each coral outcrop. Due to strong currents and erosion, a large variety of valleys covered the entire reef. I love these formation particularly because I love to swim through them. These pathways were not as magnificent as the swim-through at Rio Bueno but they were very impressive.

Once we came back to the marine station we all split our time between a little sunbathing (for some people too much), tether retrieving and just snorkeling through Discovery Bay. At night however, we were able to walk down the road and get dinner from a jerk chicken restaurant. Jerk chicken is a heavily seasoned piece of chicken that is a trademark of Jamaican cuisine. Everybody pretty much got the same thing and the food was absolutely delicious (I honestly wasn’t surprised because all the food on this island is delicious).

After we had dinner we played our nightly game of “Hate Your Neighbor”. This card game is basically the game UNO but using regular cards instead of UNO cards. The game is always so fun and I was laughing so much that I quickly got very tired and was ready for bed. However, before I could get into my nicely elevated top bunk, I had to prep the defenses of my room against the impeding army of fire ants that had taken residence directly outside our back door. I highly dislike ants, so I took every measure possible to hinder their entrance into out rooms (particularly my bed since I’m closest to the back door). These included spraying bug repellent all over the back door, moving all my stuff inside, locking the back door (this just made me feel better) and of course, I slept on the top bunk. Thankfully they did not come into our room last night but they are still outside at the moment….to be continued!

A beautifully formed coral valley at Pear Tree Reef          

– Mike