Today was a long day. We woke up at 6:30, which was sleeping in from the day before. After we showered and got into our dive gear we walked down to the fence for Glen, our taxi driver, to pick us up and take us down to the water. We ate breakfast at the yacht club which was very good and had amazing coffee, which is surprising because I usually hate coffee. After a big breakfast we started to head out to our first dive site through the islands and the light blue water. Jumping into the ocean for the first time was amazing. I saw about 10 fish almost instantly right at the bottom, 25 feet away. We went through drills and swam around for a while looking at coral and different sea creatures. I saw a lot of parrotfish and shrimp. After we got back up from out dive we head back out to our second dive site. This dive site was much better, in my opinion. We swam through crevices and under a tunnel which was lined with different types of sea plants. On this dive we got to see a lot of sergeant major and blue tang fish. When we got back to the top, after 40 minutes, we started to go back in for lunch on the beach. We got to play frisbee and swim out in our snorkeling gear. When we were done the whole group head out on a group snorkel to the baths. The baths are a large group of huge boulders all together to form caves with water from the ocean in it. We got to climb through them and learn all about the history of the baths. The instructor also let us climb a humongous group of rocks put together to reach the top. I was barefoot so it was not my smartest choice to be jumping Boulder to Boulder, but I survived. After our adventure we had an exhausting snorkel back. We did get to see 2 barracuda on the scuba trip. Once we climbed up the sandy shore, feeling gross and sandy, we got to go to our cam in and finally shower.
For day one, I learned more than I thought I would. We learned all about the history of the Pirates and how the islands were named. The dog islands were named because the pirates, in the 1400s, would go by looking for more land and they heard barking. These Pirates were recruited by either the British, the French, or the Spanish too either kill each other or get more land. They thought these were dogs barking and were too scared to go on land. But, in reality, they were Caribbean monk seals barking. Unfortunately these seals are now extinct due to hunting. I also learned all about the baths. The baths were named in the time of the slaves. This was because the Pirates would put their slaves in these caves to bathe. And after they bathed thee slaves were taken to town to be sold. Also into the cave, tribes would sleep in there because of the warmth of the rocks at night and the cooling system of the breeze in the day. Our instructor, Becca, whom is very nice, pointed out all different kinds of fish and corals.
Tomorrow during the day, I am looking forward to more diving. I want to go see more fish and habitats. I am also looking forward to getting started on our project. Our project is very interesting and I look forward to how we are going to plan out how to get data. The thing I am most looking forward to is the turtle catching. I am very excited to see how we are going to catch the turtles and how to tag the turtle.
