Jamaica has been good to me thus far; the weather is always nice even when its cloudy it’s still warm. However, the days here are long and exhausting, being here only a couple days has easily felt like weeks! The second day here we took a snorkeling tour of part of the bay and saw so many colorful fishes, sponges, corals and so much more. By the third day the certified divers were able to go out and do their checkout dives, which was SO fun because we went to 60ft and swam around Eco Reef.
I did not provide a caption for my photo so this is a request for Sandra’s mom to post a blog comment containing an embarrassing story about Sandra.
Later that night we were able to go night snorkeling for the first time and got to see all the nocturnal creatures that only emerge the waters at night. I was a bit nervous since there are many diadema (urchins) feeding at night, and my flashlight died 10mins into the snorkel when I was far from the dock and it is pitch black under the water at night. Luckily, we never snorkel or dive alone and my buddy’s light led the way for us both. I was also able to catch two balloon fish with my hands to bring back to the wet lab for my lab group and the rest of the class to see. The fourth day was also spend snorkeling in the morning and the divers were able to go out with Professor Peterson and see some new things, my favorite were the neon sponges that had bright blue fish around them.
Sandra’s temporarily captured burrfish in a wet lab aquarium.
The lectures here are interesting even though we have three a day and it is a lot of information it is in things we are got to see every day. The people here are also very nice and the ladies that cook our meals in the kitchen are beyond amazing and very accommodating. This has been a great experience so far and I can’t wait to see what is yet to come in the days to come.
-Sandra