Back Home

   I'm finally back home but I was so grateful for the chance to experience Cayos Cochinos all over again as the TA. The dives were amazing and the students I got to work with were even better. I am so thankful for all the opportunities I had and the amazing memories we made. Here's my favorite video that I captured on one of the last days of diving!

Hawksbill Turtle in the Mariposa dive site.

Back in the USA

          Today was our last day in Honduras. We stayed in San Pedro Sula last night and the city was very pretty even though I didn't get to explore it. Everyone had pizza last night, which was great. This morning we all had a great breakfast at the hotel. I ate so many plantains that were delicious. After breakfast we took a quick taxi ride to the airport. Going through security and baggage was a lot easier than I had expected. Being in the Atlanta airport was great because I was extremely hungry and was able to find some mac and cheese. While I'm glad to be back home being in Honduras was a great experience; I loved going diving there, working on our projects, and making new friends.

Ice cream at the hotel

San Pedro Sula: a park

San Pedro Sula: the mall

Final Days in Cayos Cochinos

              After a nice day of snorkeling, Sandra, Lauren, Ben, and I decided we wanted to go swimming for fun. Lauren had told us that the previous year people had jumped off of the second floor of the dock. We decided that sounded like a great idea and went up there to jump, but then Ben, Lauren, and I nearly chickened out. It looks a lot higher when you get up there. Thankfully, Sandra was brave and jumped first to prove we wouldn't actually die. I thought it looked pretty fun and quickly jumped in after her. It was very fun and the water felt great. Lauren waited a few minutes  and then jumped, and Ben jumped as well after some convincing. Of course we all decided to do it again and then go jump off the end of the dock. It was pretty great and a nice way to just have some fun towards the end of the trip.

A fun picture from my last dive

The dock we jumped off

I saw my first shark diving!

    So I was finally on my 25th scuba dive, and I still hadn't seen a shark. I've seen sharks in the past snorkeling in the keys but I've never actually seen one while diving. We were just swimming along at Moving Gardens, and Sandra started to point. I was very confused because I thought it was shrimp or something and then she started pointing more aggressively. I'm about to give up until she finally remembers the signal for shark and then I realize there is a 4 foot nurse shark laying down about 4 feet in front of me. I was so excited!

Me swimming around, aloof.

The nurse shark, napping, unaware.

My reaction after seeing a shark.

Tube within a Tube?

Sorry for the lack of my action-packed blogs this week. LI have been remodeling my GI tract since watermelon supposedly thought it needed a new look (Death Counter +1).  But in all seriousness, it has been a week.  I went diving last Thursday to El Avion and lamb bay which was a ton of fun after I remembered that I will in fact not die when I go down 18 meters.

Diving

Drum Fish (PC Lauren)

El Alvion (PC Lauren)

 Now on to the food poisoning story.  While we Lauren, Teressa (A NCF Alumni), and I went diving there was some watermelon which was a nice refreshing snack since you all know that diving can wear a boi out. But, I was not aware at that time that the watermelon was at the end of its life and wanted us all to suffer and by all I mean Lauren and I.  So later that night during a good ol’ lecture on scientific review it hit like a tornado. I ran to the bathroom and a lot of unfortunate things happened that I would rather not put into text for obvious reasons. So, after that lecture I went up to Marena’s, Lauren’s, and Sandra’s room to grab some good medicine for what I thought at the time was an upset stomach from the beans and rice that I had eaten for dinner.  I stayed the night over at their room; running to the bathroom every 15 minutes because life sucks oh did I forget to mention that I thought dengue fever since I had a minor rash on my elbow and a 101.5 degree fever.  I stayed the next day in Marena’s bed because it was easier to kick her since Lauren was already dead from the same killer and Sandra fell out of a tree in the East village earlier that week.  I finally went back into the water on Saturday night to collect some more data on anemones  which was nice and refreshing especially since there were no barracuda in sight. 

Death Counter 12

Week 2: we're half way there and were living on a prayer

So week two basically starts on Tuesday, it all went down hill from there. On Tuesday we were supposed to go to the village to clean up the beach. Before we meet the professor we walked a bit of the beach trail while we waited. We came across a clears area and I decided it was a good idea to climb a tree. On my way down I tried to reach for a faraway branch and I fell down oh so gracefully.
My knee has yet to recover.

Th view before the fall

ft. Marena and Lauren 

Some how I managed to climb back to the resort. The next day I could barely move, drove me a little crazy not being able to do anything. On Wednesday however, the situation goes from bad to worse. So Ben and Lauren go out on a dive that day. And after they ate some watermelon, which resulted in some old food poisoning. Ben came up for some medicine but ended up staying in the room sleeping on the floor. The next day Ben and Lauren were bed ridden. Thankfully they are vertical at the moment.
My knee is still iffy but its okay enough to go into the water. It actually hurts less in the salt water which is odd. Lost about 4 days of data sadly but I did get to dive on Friday. We first went to El Jefe after an unsuccessful attempt at getting to El Estadio.

Invasive Lion fish

Banded shrimp 

Our second site was pelican, which was the prettiest site I've seen here so far. Its a wall of coral full of crevices and pinnacles. There was a large amount and variety of fish and I saw a mantis shrimp but it hid immediately.

On that same day we went to the village again, this time by boat to try and clean up the beach but once again we couldn't. So instead we went to a neighboring island for lunch. Before we get our food we were swarmed by about  kids trying to sell us trinkets. I bought 3 (some gifts for friends) but the kids kept pushing the merchandise. I even have to give one some money to just leave. The food was worth it though. It was fried yellow snapper with coconut rice and beans and fried plantains. So there were some highlights despite this off week.

the lighthouse

              Lauren took Dr. Gilchrist's friend Dr. Teresa, Ben, and I up to the lighthouse on the island. The hike wasn't that bad, it just had a couple of hills but didn't take a long time. The lighthouse was very pretty and also very tall. Lauren told us we could climb to the top and opened the door to reveal an old looking ladder that went to the top. Ben was looking a tad nervous by this point and decided he didn't feel comfortable climbing to the top which was probably the safest option. The rest of us being insane climbed to the top. I never realized you needed to much upper body strength to climb a ladder. The view at the top was worth the pain because you could see the entire island. The water looked super blue from up there. It was a little spooky because the bottom felt rusted and there were big holes. We did a quick photo shoot and then decided to head back down. This was a little easier except when you are going down, if there is a person above you, then the light gets blocked and its dark and you just have to hope you won't slip and die. In the end we survived and it was a lot of fun.

The Lighthouse

Wow mom, I'm a Scientist

      I'm sick right now so I didn't go int the water today, but here are some photos that Ben took of me earlier this week when we placed flags. I really just love being able to go right out into the water and I'm hoping I'll get better soon.

A photo of me trying to take a photo of an octopus.

Trying to fnd out where to place flags for my hermit crab areas.

Recent Highlights

          So a few days ago I went on my second dive at Aggressor. It was super pretty and we saw a really cool yellow ray. The dive follows a slopping area covered in corals. I had a little trouble popping my left ear on the way down son that was a little annoying, but overall it was a great dive.

yellow ray

            Yesterday, we all made our second trip to East End Village. I felt like the hike there was easier this time but the hills are still unnecessarily steep. Once we arrived at the village we decide to wait at a little beach for the school teacher to arrive. Unfortunately Sandra fell out of a tree and scraped up her knee. Lauren was to the rescue though with some band aids so it all worked out. 

cool sign at the resort

Trees near East End Village

             Later that day while snorkeling I saw a chain moray eel which was pretty scary. I had gone down to check an anemone and as I was looking around I saw it's head poking out of a hole right beside my face. It looked kind of angry so I chose to quickly swim away. I also saw the usual assortment of fish and octopuses, which are always a pleasure.

Octopus we found on a snorkel

                The really cool moment of the day occurred that night when everyone was sitting out on the dock stargazing. Ben noticed some flashing light in the water and upon further investigation we discovered that the dock was surrounded by squid flashing at each other. If you watched closely you could see the females flash first followed by the males. It was amazing to watch.

Blog post 2: Electric Boogaloo

A lot has happened on the first week on the island, but I’ll try to summarize: Ben almost died, we met nadine (pictures will follow), I went snorkeling a lot (and took a lot of pictures, Ben almost died), the others went on an…interesting hike to the fishing village and back (Ben almost died there), we’ve had three lectures, Ben almost died, I started my PADI open diver certification (3 confined dives and 2 open dives down so far), Ben almost died, we had smores, Ben almost died, we went on a night snorkel (I got stung by a jellyfish on my lips and ankle), Ben got sick, we watched Jaws 3 (it was awful), and Ben almost died. It’s really nice here, like tropical paradise level, even with internet limited to the bar and no AC. Snakes, scorpions, crabs, and the like abound, along with the more verminous bugs like mosquitos and sand flies. Overall, I like it here.

Note: Ben almost died three more times than mentioned in the above summary (I think)

Another note: The above summary may or may not be in chronological order or comprehensive, due to the author’s awful memory

Another Another note: I’ll add the pictures eventually (Probably)

Generic Title of Blog Post 1

So, I wake up at 4:30 A.M and start panicking in a vague, half-awake way, since I have no idea what in the world I’m doing. I’m packed into a car with my luggage and delivered to the airport (FLL), a short fifteen minute drive away from home. After somehow managing to check my bag and stumble through security without issue, I settle down at the gate to wait for my flight, Barely staying awake until boarding begins. After a relatively short flight, I arrive at Atlanta airport and manage to figure out how to get to the correct terminal for my next flight. Once I arrive at the gate and meet up with the rest of the group (or at least most of it), I consume my first bagel (Cinnamon raisin). It was delicious. After a short wait, we depart on a somewhat longer flight to San Pedro Sula, on which I was unable to sleep. We land and are fast tracked through customs, making it outside of the airport, where we wait for our TA for an unpleasant length of time. Eventually, she arrives and we all load into a van that carries us to La Ceiba in a rather long trip. In La Ceiba, we are bundled into the Hotel Grand Paris, where I consume my second bagel (Cinnamon raisin). It was delicious. For dinner, I have some of the worst french fries I’ve ever had the displeasure of eating. Seriously, they were bad. They didn’t even taste like french fries. I mean, they didn’t really taste like much at all. Cardboard. Or maybe foam. The point is, they were that reconstituted crap rather than real, quality french fries. I was heartbroken. Anyway, I digress. After a nice, air conditioner-cooled night of sleep, I consume my final bagel (Cinnamon Raisin). It was delicious. We then go to Honduran Walmart® (I think it was called Pais or Paix. Probably Paix, now that I think about it) where I can by hydrogen peroxide and bandaids, since I just so happened to slice a thumbnail sized flap of flesh off my right big toe while walking there. Still not sure how it happened. Ben was panicking, even though it happens to me fairly regularly. Moving on, we loaded ourselves and our luggage into a van, which delivered us to a rather dinky boat. To make a long story short, the ride was long, wet, sunburny (I don’t care that it’s not a word), and all around awful. Ben almost drowned (in the boat; he was splashed a lot). I had to bail out water with a plastic bag (it was up past my ankles) and the boat stopped twice to fiddle with the gas. We managed to make it to Turtle Bay Eco Resort on Cayos Major, but all our luggage was some degree of wet. Yay. At least its beautiful here.

No pictures here

2nd dive

Just some pictures from our second dive at Aggressor.

Views from the bottom, (top) our boat the Melissa and (bottom) a shoal of fish

Bluebell Tunicates

The mooring for the boats

Some feather duster worms

Here are just some pretty views of the corals 

No underwater adventure is complete without some mishaps

          The other day we went on the first of ten (10) dives that I’m doing while I’m here. The day was cloudy so we were surprised that the water was as calm as it was. When I got in it turned out that I had a self-inflating BCD so I had to disconnect it and control my buoyancy with just my lungs. The dive site was called Lion’s head (known as chicken butt by the locals) and it had beautiful columns of coral that are 20 feet high and form beautiful archways. 

We saw a lot of cool stuff but the highlight were two yellow stingrays and some clearer shrimp. 

Yellow Stingray (Urobatis jamaicensis), have to look very closely 

            Later that night we went on a night dive and I didn't know if I was shaking from the cold or from fear. As soon as I get into the water I run into a squid (one of many) and float there, admiring it, and it suddenly inks at me. And then it just attacks my flashlight. Those 4 inch bois are ready to fight. At night it's so much easier to find sea stars and brittle stars. There were also urchins everywhere. At one point we ran into a giant puffer fish roaming the seagrass. We also passed several porcupine fish and a burrfish. On our way back I spotted a nudibranch, most likely a lettuce slug, so cute. Sadly Lauren, who always wanted to see one, missed it.  

          On the topic of jellies, this morning while we were scouting for anemones

Giant Sea Anemone (Condylactis gigantea)

we ended up swimming through clouds of comb jellyfish and a chain of egg/worm looking things that we had no idea what they were. It was stressful, we were against the current, everything was slimy. Although, we did find a scorpion fish a new octopus den in the process. 

Stingray count: 3

Octopus count: 7

Nudibranch count: 1

Trunkfish count: 3

5 legged spider, first actual dive, and other terrifying things

        I would like to start off this blog by talking about the unnatural amount of insects on this island. during one night of studying a lovely five legged spider decided to emerge from the depths to attack Lauren's backpack, though Ben may have pushed it that way. Eventually the spider ended up running after us continuing to make everyone super uncomfortable and scared before our hero, Nika swept the spider away. I think it was just really funny because we were all tired and scared.

The demon that is a five legged spider (this dude could run)

     
     The amount of scorpions is also unreal. I'm pretty sure we are up to five in the scorpion count and for some reason they must love Lauren, Sandra, and I because they are always on the steps and wall by our room. Whenever the scorpions are on the wall, they are right at your ankles so when you walk by you just feel like you could actually die at any second. At one point I was walking up the stairs with a flashlight and Sandra warned me there was a scorpion on the stairs. so I'm like ok cool no big deal. Of course when my light hits it and I see it I jumped like a foot away before having a mini heart attack and running up to the room.
           I also recently went on my first actual scuba dive. We road a boat out to a site called lion's head. I was pretty nervous but it was honestly so fun. I got to roll in off the side of a super tiny boat. Once we got down there we did a swim through of a huge arch of corals. everything was so pretty and colorful. We saw yellow rays, shrimp, and a ton of fish that I don't know the name of. I had a great time and I was grateful that the rain held off until we got back to the island. I didn't actually take any photos on the dive because I wanted to just enjoy the experience so here are some pictures from snorkeling instead.

A super cute octopus

 anemone

The dive boat that wasn't working so we didn't use

             Later that night we all went night snorkeling. It was a little scary because I only had a flashlight and glow stick and I couldn't see much because of all the little fish and shrimp. Plus I didn't really know where I was half the time, I just trusted Lauren with my life. We saw a lot of cool things like sea cucumbers and lobsters. I was chosen by a lovely squid, who I accidentally scared, who decided to ink on me and then swim away. Never fear, my little buddy came back to visit and we saw a few other squid swimming around. I honestly felt so excited to have a squid ink on me; what a great experience.

Dying on the Mountainside

Welcome back to the Blog

            What an update!  So, I am not going to do a day-by-day update because I don’t have time for that. So, to begin I finally got my camera working so I will add some not so great photos that I took of the good ol’ reef. We (Lauren, Marena, Sandra, and myself) made the hike to the East Village to see when the teacher would be back to do the beach cleanup and that was an adventure. We took the beach path on the way back because someone at the resort told us that was less of a hassle, which it was until we reached a small beach about a half mile away from the resort where we reached a beautiful beach with aggressive dogs.  Oh, I forgot to mention that we had Nadine, or Butters, with us.  So again, back to the story we reached a beach with aggressive dogs with our sweet dog and she was chased into the water by the like six other dogs and it was pretty scary TBH.  We finally got her up the ladder, yes, a ladder, to scale a makeshift rock wall that I was not prepared to scale because we have been walking for the last like week (2 hours). Anyways once we finally got up the cliff the path was like 18 inches wide and I almost fell off (+1 death counter) and poor Nadine was petrified because she was assaulted by those darn dogs L.  

Photo from the dock

candid photo of Marena during the hike

Photo from the hike that almost killed me

So, we have been snorkeling daily to observe some more of the wildlife and it has been a blast.  We have seen a few octopus near the dock, some barracuda throughout the water, some jellies that we have been trying to avoid at all cost (Cole and Marena got stung during the night dive RIP), some eels under some good ol’ coral, a scorpion fish next to my giant anemone, and finally a squid that squirted Marena in the face to get her attention OFC. 

Christmas Tree Worms

See Anemone

Octopus in its Den

        Today we put out flags for our final project to examine anemones and the wildlife that seems to prefer them.  We also placed some flags down next to the octopus dens as a side gig because who wouldn’t want to see a cute, little octopus on the daily?  

beautiful coral <3

And now for everyones favorite section the death counter enjoy......

Death Highlights:

Snorkel overfloods with water

Falling off a cliff

Snorkeling at night

Fire pit

Hiking down a hill

Falling on rocks

Close encounter with a Barracuda(s)

Death Counter 8

and a blog would not be a blog without my child, Nadine