Today on my first day at the British Virgin Islands, I learned new information during scuba diving, snorkeling, and visiting the Bathes. This morning after eating breakfast my scuba team and I went on the Sea Monkey with Cassie where she showed us new techniques and information about the ocean. She showed us what fire coral looks like and to stay away from it and she showed us how to properly get off and get on the boat. Also she took us through the chimneys where you were basically slithering through two walls and seeing a lot of beautiful creatures. It was definitely a great experience. Overall to me, the most interesting thing she told us was the difference between the squirrel fish and the soldier fish. Looking at the fishes without knowing about the soldier, you would think it was a squirrel fish because of the big eyes on the fishes, as I did. But she then described to us that they are two different species. The soldier fish has a band, which are stripes, on the back and the squirrel fish does not. Also the soldier fish has an extra dorsal on the top, and the squirrel fish does not. Next during snorkeling to and from the Bathes, I realized and many others did as well, that when people snorkel for a long a time and for a long distance places on their bodies chafe, meaning it gives them a rash because something was running up against their skin. A lot of guys, including me had or nipples chafe after coming back from the Bathes from snorkeling.
Lastly when visiting the Bathes I learned a lot of cool information and ideas about it from Beth, our instructor. First, I thought it was cool and fun when Beth told us it was tradition to have someone throw a rock into a hole on the boulder before entering and having everyone try to throw rocks into it. Also I thought the information about how the name came to be was interesting. About how the slaves coming from Africa would stop in these boulders and bath before going into slavery and was really cool. Overall, I though today was a very fun and insightful first day, I leaned a lot and saw a lot of interesting things. I hope the rest of the week was as good as this one.
