Blue skies, sunny beaches, curious fish, and friendly people: all signs indicating that I am back in the BVI. After the long flights and wait times in DFW and San Juan, Puerto Rico, we finally landed in Tortola yesterday and were warmly greeted by Casey and Jeff of Dive BVI. Following the cordialities, we were taken by boat to our island Virgin Gorda, granted a pizza dinner, and given time to settle in and rest for the next day (Today). Waking up, I was eager to begin the week and hoping to build upon the experiences I gained last year. I knew what to expect from the trip; however, I was still pleasantly surprised from day one. Today, we went on two dives and a snorkel trip. The first dive was a checkup to help us get reoriented with diving, and the second dive involved traversing around a sunken plane and swimming through it. The second dive really interested me because the site itself was an artificial one, meaning the plane was sunk on purpose to become a reef. Even though the reef was artificial, a great deal of biodiversity was still present around the plane. Corals were growing on top of the plane and fish were swimming around as if it were a regular reef. Although a small example, this plane reef demonstrated to me how reefs can successfully be rebuilt in a variety of ways. Following our second dive, we ate lunch and headed off to our snorkel trip. The snorkel expedition began at the baths national park, a park marked by giant rocks that were formed through tectonic plate shifts. We hiked through the baths until we made it to the cove, where we began our snorkel. Swimming back to the beach at Guavaberry Springs, (the place we are staying at) we noticed fish such as blue tang and organisms such as sea urchins shifting about the giant rocks on the sea floor. A cool thing I noticed about these rocks was that corals were growing upon them and supplying a habitat to the species around them. To end the day, we ate lasagna on the beach. I am glad to be back in the BVI and so far our trip has surpassed even my raised expectations from last year.
