Day 19/20/21

Not a bad weekend off!

On Friday Mark, Adam, and I went diving at the edge of bloody bay reef (where the reef drops off literally 90 degrees -- it is so awesome) after seeing the students safely to the airport to head to Grand Cayman! We wanted to have some fun too! The reef wall is such an amazing place to dive, Ive never seen anything like it. We saw ton of sponges and also single polyp corals which are really neat. I really hope we are able to go back with the whole class! (I searched for sharks the entire dive but sadly saw none :( but we did see a nurse shark when we tying the boat up!)

That evening we decided to go to the beach resort for dinner and decided to stay for karaoke! Was a great way to end the day. We even had lionfish ceviche while we were there (Ive been dying to try some!) and it was sooooo good. Im all about eating more lionfish!

Iguana sunning himself by the pool

Saturday was unfortunately very windy so we werent able to go diving, but I did manage to get out for a few walks on the beach where I sifted for shells and cool coral skeletons. I managed to find some fossilized coral skeletons enbeded in sandstone which was really awesome. The beaches here are so cool! After my walk and lunch we headed down to salt rock dock to watch the waves. There is no reef crest in that area so the waves crash right on shore, and boy they were huge!!

Salt rock dock -- watching the waves

For dinner we headed down to the Hungry Iguana (the Iggy for short). I had some island-indian fusion curry and it was AMAZING. Ive never had anything like it and I loved it! I want to go back just to have some again! After dinner we headed down to the docks to look at the tarpin that gather there at night. These fish are 3 and 4 feet long and for some reason are attracted to the blue lights and hang out there every night.

Tarpin swimming at the dock

Today the students made it back from Grand Cayman on a few different flights so we made sure to pick them all up when they arrived. I spent my day between the airport and the beach resort (where I soaked in the hot tub - Im really acclimating to the warmth here and 75 degrees felt cold today!). It was a nice relaxing day, but Im really looking forward to getting back in the water tomorrow!! Hopefully the wind will calm a little for us, I know everyone wants to make the last week here count!

- J

Lovely sunset