Today was very eventful and tiring. We woke up very early this morning thanks to Doc screaming at us to wake up…..that was nice. We then ate breakfast. After estima we met our diving instructors at the pier and boarded the boat. This diving sigue was very far out, taking us about 30 minutes to get there. We first did a dive for fun. This dive was the deepest dive, it goes to 91 feet, according to our dive instructor. This dive was much more various when it came to coral and fish. Our diving instructor told us that the reason why we found a larger variety of fish and coral. The current that runs along the coast brings in lots of nutrients, allowing numerous species of coral to grow attracting many fishes. We saw many schools of blue tang and parrotfish. I also saw a stingray spring up from the sandy bottom and swam away. Our diving instructor also pointed out a lion fish. We learned that they aren’t natural to the area. We found a pufferfish as well. But by far the coolest thing we saw was the numerous sharks. We were at least 4 feet away from them. The diving instructors told us that they usually follow the divers because they used to feed them. As we were ascending I began coughing, that gave me a little difficulty, but kind freaked me out. But overall the dive was by far my favorite. After that we then started our experiments. We went around the shore to a shallow coral reef with numerous stag horn coral. This was perfect for our project because we are testing the amount of fish, including parrotfish, blue tang, and damsel fish. We set 4 markers to marke the perimeter of the amount of coral. I was responsible for recording the number of damsel fish that entered the marked area. I found that damsel fish were far more scarce than parrotfish and blue tang. I thought our first project dive went really well and I’m very confident about the future outcome for it. After 4 observations, we headed up to the service. We then rode back for lunch in the beach. After lunch we chilled in the water for a while, throwing the frisbee. Soon after lunch we began these games that the instructors set up. We divided up into teams and then started our first game, dodge water balloon. My team unfortunately came in last but we finished 3rd in all of the other games, the pictionary game, the night dive, and the relay race. The relay race took a lot out of me, I really just wanted to sleep right there in the sand. But Doc didn’t care he told us to run up to our houses, shower and get ready for church. Not that I don’t like church but I was really more interested in taking a nap. Obviously we were really tired because in the middle of mass I saw a few of my classmates dosing off. It kind of looked like all of them were nodding yes. I cheated a little and closed my eyes pretending to be deep in prayer. But I was glad we went because the church was perched on top of the hill that overlooked the entire island. After mass we rode in the taxi to this really nice restruant where we saw a fire show. One of the dancers got very close to us and also set part of the deck on fire. I thought that it was a great way to end the day. Can’t wait for tommorrow.
