I'm a REAL diver!

The last week of this trip, I made the decision to take the PADI certification course and get my Open Water Diving certification. I was wrought with anticipation in the weeks beforehand, pretty afraid to take the plunge (literally, though...). Living in South Florida, I could definitely use the certification to explore some cool places. Diving certification is also required for some marine scientific research, including one of my personal favorites, marine natural product chemistry. The little person in my head said, "JUST DO IT, AYA." Naturally, as one normally does (hmmm??), I considered the words from that little person in my head, and decided to begin my diving course.

Upon entering the water for the first time with all of my gear, my claustrophobia gave way to curiosity. Breathing underwater was a lot less strenuous than I would have thought. As Dani, my dive buddy, and I descended deeper, we were able to see the sea life at a whole new level. When I was once looking at everything from above, downward, I was now able to integrate myself into the reef and swim among the corals, fish, and plethora of other organisms. To be brief, it was SUPER COOL.

Now, after a week of reviews, quizzes, skill practices, the final exam, and—best of all—4 dives, I took my final exam. Overall, it was such an adventure to learn all about diving. I feel like I have been introduced to this new, magical, underwater world. I am very excited to continue to explore, now as a certified open water diver!

-Aya

Goodbye Cayos Cochinos

Today is the last day here and while I will really miss it here, I am definitely ready to go home. I can't wait to eat ice cream and cuddle with my cat. During this trip I made new friends, grew closer with old ones, climbed an abandoned lighthouse, saw the Milky Way, swam with a turtle, saw beautiful bioluminescence, stared down multiple barracudas, cleaned up trash with local kids, and so much more. I know a lot more about marine biology and I'm even more confused about what I want my AOC (major) to be. I'm so grateful I was able to come to this magical place, despite all the problems I had along the way. Now, cool marine things!

 this thing was bigger than a basketball

 what even

 this shrimp was blue that's lit

 lol I finally got a picture of the queen angelfish even though they are everywhere

when these guys swim by in schools it's so cool to watch them

The last day

So today was the last day here on the island, the trip went by much faster than I thought I would.  I was happy with the progress I made and thrilled to have seen such a dense amount of natural beauty here.  To be fair, I will be very happy to head home and see my family, dog, and boyfriend.  The next step in this journey is to begin to piece together my thesis! Wish me luck!

So today is the last day..

I am going to be completely honest for a second. The first day of the trip had me freaking out. I was in a hotel with a group of people I didn't know that were all older than me, and on top of that it was my first time away from my family for this long in another country. So to put it simply I was terrified.

Long story short, I was homesick for a while. I wanted to go home, I missed my mom and my dogs, and I was not adjusting very well. But slowly, I learned how to be more independent and take care of myself, and shortly after arriving on the island I began to have the most amazing time.

Not only did I learn an incredible amount from the lectures and group activities, I truly learned so much about things that interested me- parrotfish and octopuses and corals- by being able to observe them and think critically. This is something that I am extremely grateful for- this new skill set will translate directly into my schoolwork.

How much I learned wasn't the only thing I gained from this experience. The hikes were beautiful and I absolutely loved meeting the kids at East End and doing the beach cleanup. The snorkeling was so amazing and beautiful and I enjoyed every minute of it, working on projects with Meaghan all afternoon and relaxing on the beach after. Watching Fresh Prince on the dock under the stars with my new friends was absolutely hilarious and wonderful. Playing ukulele on the dock while watching the sunset was so much fun. Joking around about our bug room and naming various intruding critters with Natali before bed was always a great time. Tanning club meetings were awesome as well. Seeing how many books I could read in three weeks was very interesting (it's 12 books by the way). And not to mention the pancakes... 

Even today was an amazing day. We traveled over to a smaller island for lunch and to be touristy. Lunch was delicious, the people were so friendly, and I loved taking photos of the crazy waves breaking.

Also Kona the dog.. my new best friend and the love of my life.. I will miss her dearly.

So overall, this has been such a growing experience for me. I have made such amazing memories and met such amazing people. I'm ready to go home, but I will always cherish my time here and how much I learned.

Thanks for reading and goodbye,
Margot

Last Dive!

     I went on my last dive for this trip today. We got to dive El Avion which was a wreck of a small airplane that had crashed on one of the islands. It had been for a National Geographic shoot when the engine stalled and the people crash landed on a small island. They pushed the plane off the island and into the water where it sat at the sandy bottom of a reef, 60 feet below the surface. It's now a home for different species of corals, sponges, and fish.

      Apart from the plane, Alex took us down around 98 feet where we swam through different coral pinnacles before making our way back up to the wreck. The visibility wasn't neccessarily the best at times but it was good by the time we got to the wreck. I also was really happy because my ears cleared really fast! All I have to work on now is not using as much air. Progress has been made!

~Lauren

Scuba Duba Doo

       I really love scuba diving! I'm really happy that I got scuba certified before coming here because the reefs are amazing. Today we did Jenna's Cove and it was only 30 feet but the corals were beautiful and there were a lot of swim throughs. I saw 3 sea cucumbers, a little shrimp, a baby sole fish, and a big grouper. The rest of the fish I saw were mostly tropical fish that I've seen in the house reef.
                                          

Video of one of the swim throughs

      On another note I am trying to get better at my breathing because Dara barely breathes any air and I go through air like nothing. I got a lot better at it today but I still have a lot to improve. It's getting easier each dive though because I get calmer and relax more. Hopefully it'll get easier to clear my ears too. I just can't wait to go on my last dive tomorrow!

Baby Sole Fish

Dara: Diver Extraordinaire

  \

Pretty part of the reef

Have a good one!
      ~Lauren

The Circle of Life

I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning.

Yesterday morning, I got to dive a site named Pelican 3 (~80 ft) with a few of the divemasters at the resort, Shae, Alex, Lisanne, and Bryan (resident DM-in-training).  The walls of coral were gorgeous as always, and I got to see a southern stingray, spotted drum, Atlantic spadefish, and smooth trunkfish, among other fun species.  However, the highlight actually came right after we got back on the boat, when Lisanne surfaced with a small lionfish on the end of her spear. 

The lionfish is a venomous and incredibly invasive species that is native to the Indo-Pacific.  As a generalist consumer with no natural predators, it has been known to drastically decrease species richness and abundance on reefs throughout the Caribbean.  Its population has increased rapidly since being introduced off of Florida’s east coast in the early 1990s, and now spans from the United States Northeast all the way south to Venezuela.  Because of this, it is encouraged that divers spear lionfish they come across, as a means of reducing the invasive population. 

Back to my Christmas morning experience: once back at the resort, Lisanne walked me through a dissection! (After safely removing the venomous spines, that is.)  Lionfish have fascinated me for a while, as do dissections, so the combination of the two left me smiling. We even got to open up its stomach and check out his lunch – turns out that he was a fan of shrimp. I can now point out a lionfish’s stomach, heart, fatty deposits, swim bladder, testes, and liver, and I am pretty excited about it.  I posted a couple of photos below (nothing too graphic, and I’ll spare you the more in-depth video).

shoutout to Lauren’s sick mask tan-lines    

shoutout to Natali’s camera for being awesome and capturing my sheer joy

It’s crazy that nobody else wanted to play with it… But their loss. What a day indeed.

Thanks for reading,

Dara