BEST.DAY.YET.
Schedule for the day:
Breakfast
Service project
Lunch at Mad Dog’s
Chill Time
Baths
Snorkel to Guavaberry Springs Bay
BBQ on the beach
Night snorkel
Now tell me this was not an awesome day, because I was by far the best day regardless of the fact that we didn’t even go scuba diving. So the first thing on the schedule is obviously breakfast. Waking up was pretty peaceful once again, without any animal harrassing me. Luckily, we didn’t have to walk too far from our huts to reach breakfast, as this morning it was served right at Mr. Kirby’s and Doc’s hut. Casey was there helping everything run smoothly like she always does, and she brought the best sorts of breakfast food that she could find. This time there was even carrot cake! While breakfast was great, we had to quickly move to our service site as we were going to do service this morning. For service, our group was going to paint the concrete fence around the community center in Virgin Gorda and help with the landscaping as well. I literally performed almost every type of job available. First ideas a sweeper; then I was a painter; next I help to level the soil that was being placed in the planter; then I went back to painting. It was all just crazy but of course a GOOD kind of crazy (I mean is there any other kind?). The sweeping was probably the hardest job since there were gallons on top of gallons of sand on the sidewalk which was far from the road where we had to sweep the sand to. Mrs. Kirby did an excellent job taking over for me in this position though. Although this was the hardest job, the most interesting was of course the painting. There were about 12 people painting the walls, and paint was getting all over the ground. Paint also ended up on my shoes, on my shirt, in my hair, and on my shirts, but that is quite beside the point. People where putting other people on their hands and shoulders to reach the highest parts of the panels on the wall. Although the work tiring, it was so satisfactory to see what a great job our group did. While I heard some people asking about revive hours, I knew that I didn’t even care about getting credit; I really hoped to just help out the community because this program, VOICE, is always in search of help. I am glad that we were able to step up to the plate, and I think we nailed it. Probably the most difficult part of the whole service was trying to get the paint out of my hair and off my legs, but that is definitely a whole other story. After a quick break from service, our group headed up to get lunch at Mad Dog’s, where we would order off the menu. I really miss Mexican, so I decided to opt for the quesadilla. We literally spent an hour and a half to two hours relaxing during lunch. We played games, such as frisbee and sack toss, and we got on the Wi-Fi for some Facebook….I will be honest. After Joe and I annihilated every team in sack toss, we headed back to our houses where we would relax for another two hours. THIS DAY WAS CLERLY FOR SOME SEVERE R&R….IT WAS GREATLY NEEDED. Around 3:45, we all met down by the cattle guard to walk up to the Baths, where Casey met us. She would be our guide through this very interesting attraction in the BVI. The baths were extremely beautiful! They had such a history behind them as well, which added to the wow factor! Casey even said that the Baths were the most photographed place in the BVI (I definitely added to this statistic with many photos myself)! Nevertheless, the path eventually let out at Devil’s Bay where our group reassembled in order to snorkel over to the beach of our resort. During the snorkel over, we saw many of the same marine organisms that have always seen during the day, nothing new; however, it was even more beautiful than previous snorkels because of the interesting swim-throughs under the water. We swam all the way to Guavaberry Springs Bay, where we met up with Jeff and Dixie, his and Casey’s dog. Our group basically spent the next two Boursin the water and on the beach, wrestling, wading, swimming, throwing frisbee, and running with Dixie. This was probably my favorite part of the day because everyone was just having a great time and playing around with smile on their face. I recorded a lot of videos, but I cannot upload those sadly. Later, Jeff had cooked us an entire meal of hot dogs and hamburgers along with a setup of tikis and tables, a typical beach arrangement. His food was so good and the sun was setting just in time for us to eat on the beach! As a side note, Laura showed up with husband to complement me on my blog, but I think to also take pictures (actually I think it was just to take pictures). She got lots of good pictures of our group eating on the beach, while the sun was setting. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen! It was probably the most fun day as well. After a couple hours of sitting on the beach as well, it was time to start packing up…or was it?! Next, we had the opportunity of a lifetime (YOLO I like to call it)! We had the chance to do a night snorkel. Now, I am not generally a night person, as I am slightly frightened by the combination of marine life and the dark, but I still pounced on the opportunity, or rather was persuaded into doing so. Casey lead the dive, and boy did we see way different creatures at night than we did during the day! We immediately saw a squid eating a Blue Tang. While we were swimming with our flashlights, some fish were more sensitive than others to the light, meaning they would run away, while others seemed to follow our path, there were lots of minnows hitting my body as we trekked on our dive, and some fish even darted right towards my mask before swimming away again. Next, we saw against tarpon, just casually roaming the seas. It was the largest fish I saw today. There were literally thousands of black sea urchins (which I despise) that had come out of their pockets in the coral to bask in the darkness. Finally, on our way back to the beach, we finally saw a tiny octopus! I was so glad I finally got to see one. Wile the sea at nit was generally quiet, we got to see a whole different set of organisms at night that had not been present during the day. It was quite thrilling. Even more, there were millions of stars in the sky shining so bright that it actually lit up the whole sea.I am so glad I chose to snorkel at night! I am so sad that tomorrow is our last day, but I am really hoping to make the best of it!
