I sat on our balcony for hours reading “A Study in Drowning”  [Ed note: this is not a class assignment…] after returning from an exhausting day out in town. The bay slightly peeked through from behind the trees and you could see when the color faded from the sky as the sun finally set. I haven’t really picked up that book since I was in the airport and it was nice to finally find time to read again. We spent the first day we’ve been out of the lab since we arrived hiking Dunn River Falls then walking around Ocho Rios. Our three hours in town slipped by quickly as we ate lunch overlooking the ocean, went to the supermarket to buy some local snacks, and spent our last 15 minutes before we had to head back to the bus in the straw market with people calling you into their shops to sell stuff like beaded bracelets, paintings, and conch shells.

After going to the starting point we climbed in the water on the rocks of Dunn River Falls

After dinner, some of us went out night snorkeling to end the day. Nutter Butter and Egg Bagel headed in early but I followed Avocado, Guava, and Daikon out further into the water where we saw a baby octopus and a berried anemone. My favorite part of going out at night is when you take off your slightly fogged goggles and see nothing but the clearness of the moonlit bay against the horizon. And you turn the other way and you’re in the middle of the ocean looking back at a lit up coastline with faded music blasting in the distance. It was a really nice break we got before going back to doing transects and other assignments.

Discovery Bay at Night

Crystal