Today, actually yesterday, began our 2nd of Jesuit’s epic, 3-week journey into the wonders of marine biology. Everyone was thinking, “this is it,” “today is the day;” at least that’s what I was thinking. My steps into security were exhilarating, as this was the barrier between all the parents and my first real international experience in my life. I was so excited for it that even the Mcdonalds in my stomach couldn’t weigh me down. After 5-hour flight in which I couldn’t even sleep that much because of excitement, we got off in San Juan for a little break; however this break would be one that almost closed the curtains on my trip. In front of the Domino’s pizza store, I ordered and didn’t realize the time that had passed. With Mr.Kirby’s shouts, “we’re getting ready to board!” a group of us anxiously grabbed our pizzas and ran down, along with some guys from Subway, to the boarding gate and safely made it on the small jet that took us on a 20-minute lightning flight to Beef Island. From here it was out of the frying pan and into the fire. As we stepped out of the plane we were swarmed in a sea of humidity, biting mosquitos, and a light downpour which would later become torrential. After passing through a few layers of customs we made it safely out and finally got to meet our Dive BVI partners, Samantha and Andrew, and then Jeff and Casey. Running through the rain, we made it onto Jeff’s boat; and one rocky, but seriously sweet, ride later, we had finally arrived at our home for the next week, Virgin Gorda. My acclamation with my room was great at first, I loved the way they it was styled in this envirionments, but then I saw the flying bugs in my room and I knew I’d have to be battling them for the rest of my trip here. I awoke the next morning sweaty, but ready to take on the day. After regrouping, we took Speedy’s taxi service to one of he hotel conference rooms where we enjoyed breakfast followed by a long, but very informative talk by Casey and company about what we would be doing throughout the week. We broke for 30 minutes by the pool before lunch, which was really relaxing, and then briefed for our first dive out in Pond Bay while eating a delicious lunch. On the boat Casey and Jeff were very nice and helpful with introducing all of the equipment to us. The dive was a fairly shallow one, 11 feet or so, and we mostly just worked on basic diving skills and did some buoyancy practice. After the dive, we ate dinner on the beach cookout style. All in all it was an exciting beginning to a great journey.
