enjoy some stream-of-consciousness writing 0 editing let's go

We went to Chachawuate one. Tin took us over on the small boat, Miss Cortney. Nadine came with us, she was adorable. I went in the boat early, with just Tin, Nadine, and Elliot, and hung my legs (one at a time) off the side and into the water. It looked so inviting, all bright sea green, and it felt so good. I stuck my arms in, too. We made it to the island. Elliot got off and tied the boat to something, and then we all jumped off. It was the five of us students plus Tin, Johanna, Victoria, and one of the other people who works here. The island was small – about three minutes’ walk from one and to the other, and thirty seconds across. The side facing the big islands was sandy and gorgeous, but the side facing the mainland was rocky with strong waves. Tin said it’s the only place you can get any surfing done here. He also said that Chachawuate two was on the other side, and that during winter you can walk across. Upon getting off the boat, I was approached by two girls, one younger and one preteen, who were offering me jewelry. I bought a triangular coconut shell necklace right away. A woman and an older man offered me some later, too. I ended up buying two coconut shell necklaces and a starfish bracelet for five dollars each.  I saw three cats, all young, four to six months old. One of them was particularly cuddly. When I was looking at jewelry the second time, they were curled up under the picnic tables, and I bent down to scratch their scruff. They loved this and started quietly purring – I could feel the vibrations. Later Madyson was cuddling them – they had their front paws on her leg. I bent down and cuddled them up in my arms, and they stayed. In addition to the trash, there was a lot of smoke from cooking and from the boats everywhere, and many flies to walk through. There wasn’t really any point in wearing shoes, since the whole island is sand, but in the sunny areas the sand was so hot on my feet. I dropped my backpack off at the bar and went into the water. I walked to the point of the island near its counterpart and watched the waves. It was kind of poky, but I had dropped my olakais off in the boat upon deciding to go in the ocean, so it was too late. There was a long-fallen-over palm tree that was in the sand, half-buried. I walked over to the side of the island with the boats, feet in the water, and committed to crouching down, full body in the water. It felt so, so good. Madyson and Erika came over, and Madyson offered to take my picture. I threw up a shaka! Then I went to the other side of a boat and there was a big open expanse of water where some of the local kids were snorkeling and splashing. The pelicans soared and dove into the water and bobbed, and the frigate birds floated in large numbers above us. What was amazing, even more than how beautiful it was, was how perfectly normal it was to them. Eventually I wanted to get some pictures, so I got out of the ocean, talked to Elliot about photography, and got my backpack from Tim’s friend. I went back over to the beach and took some pictures. Then I walked over to a picnic table area (covered) and sat down, taking out my sketchbook and pencils. The girl who had sold me a coconut shell necklace came over, and I drew her, which she was very excited about. We talked in the little Spanish I had and the even less English she had, but it worked. I let her use my sketchbook and pencils since she looked curious. While she was drawing, I took out my camera to take some pictures. She used the camera too and had great fun taking a picture of the people around her, including a younger girl. She seemed so focused on her art and so happy. I gave her my sketchbook and some pencils. Then we all got into the boat, Elliot holding it down and letting it go while Tin did captain stuff, and we went back. I felt so happy and at peace in the beautiful water with the wind in my hair and my hand in the surf and the sun on my skin surrounded by Nadine and Victoria and all of my friends.

End-of-vacation blues

Today is Thursday the 18th. I can't believe that my three weeks in Cayos Cochinos, Honduras have come to a close so quickly. It feels like just yesterday that we were hopping off the boat with the ScubaNauts being greeted by a beautiful island dog named Nadine. My time here has been incredible. Professor Gilchrist's lectures have been super educational, extending well past coral reef issues and into world issues, impending global changes, advice on how to make small and large scale changes, and of course the often unbelievable biology of marine invertebrates. I've had a blast improving on my underwater photography skills - the organisms here have been amazing models for me to practice on. It's been a pleasure getting to know Dan, Veronica, Madyson, and Erika, as well as the friendly and regularly hilarious staff here at the resort.
Daily snorkeling and sitting on the dock at night - legs hanging over the edge, eagle rays swimming beneath - has been truly therapeutic and I won't soon forget the memories from this place.
I'm immensely happy that I've had this opportunity and recommend it to anyone who wants to experience some of what Honduras has to offer.
Here's a few invertebrates from around here. :)

Nadine

Here are some of the many photos I have taken of Nadine over the past three weeks. We all love her, so why not dedicate a whole blog post to this rock-loving, coconut peeling, hiking master?

sketches

sleepy.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Today I had a nice nap on the docks. And then one on the hammocks. And then another one on the docks. You know, for research.

.....zzz.............

I managed to stay awake long enough to make some art! Here is my sleepy art.

Weird crab sightings are becoming frequent now more than ever

Here at the Krusty Krab institute of research ´s remote site in Cayos Cochinos, there have been times of weird crab sightings becoming more frequent as yours truly has had more practice in snorkeling and in conducting the Sponge Bob experiment as efficiently as possible as my stubbornness of not using a weighted belt and lack of advanced skills would allow. I have created an effective system of studying my sponges that has reduce the amount of time and to accurately assess my sponges in a relatively short time as possible to do a short 15-minute recreation exploration of the research site around me before dinner. Also since I have been doing this every day, my eyes have gained new sight for noticing the other organisms around me as much as my poor vision without my glasses would allow me to see. I have finally recovered the images from two days ago for this beauty. The videos are quite shaky due to not having the proper skill to keep me stable as I go down as well as equipment such as a weight belt to keep myself stable. My own fault.  One day, I will perfect this art form. I am planning on practicing snorkeling and the art of underwater photography until the day I die. I never thought I would be doing the things that I am currently doing on this island. And I love it!

Here are cool pictures and video of what seems to be a shameface heart crab located just about 1-meter across near the sponge research site.  I used the reef creature identification book by Paul Humann, Ned Deloach, and Les Wilk.

Crypotosoma bairdii

The shameface heart crab is burrowing in the sand.

Until then,
Erika Calle

Foam 4 Days

Yesterday I had a very productive day. In the morning I wrote the geology essay, had a great lunch (as always) and in the afternoon I got two pilings done! The first piling was a relaxed time as I identified difference organisms on the piling and scanned through my slate for the correct species. The second piling was not so easy. Since it was the first one on the end of the dock the current was stronger and made not getting pushed into the piling much more difficult. Not only that but my mask was now constantly fogging up and since I had been in the water for an hour and a half I was becoming very cold. I was flooding my mask every minute to be able to see what was on the piling. But now I was used to the order of species on my slate which allowed me to be quick with the IDs. I efficiently recorded the last piling and swam as fast as I could to the shore to try to build up some warmth before braving the wind.

Today was fun and productive. All of us hiked to the jungle to the East Village and on the way came across a small not-so-pink boa! Then once we got to the village, we visited the school where we met the principle that told us all about the local animals on Cayos Cochinos as well as how the school is completely unsupported by the Honduran government making the teaching difficult. Then we were invited into the class where we distributed the construction paper and colored pencils to the students. Once we did they got drums and maracas for a dance that they started pulling us into which was fun. After, we went back down to the beach to pick up tons of foam, bottles, and bottle caps. What amazed me was that the whole beach was made up of dead corals more than mud or sand which just goes to show how coral is in such abundance here. We finished up as the last bag was filled, not coming close to picking up all the trash and made our way back to the village.

Underwater pictures continued :D

Sorry for the boring blog posts without much dialogue - but I feel like the underwater creatures in this area speak for themselves. I'm a big fan of this place if you couldn't tell.

Corallianassa longiventris - Red-Orange Ghost Shrimp - Spotting Credit Goes to Dan 

Octopus vulgaris - Common Octopus - Looking Anything but Common

Pomacanthus arcuatus - Gray Angelfish Juvenile 

The Sponge Bob Experiment Presents where´s ¨waldo¨ ? edition

Yesterday, I was checking my wounded sponges when I found rather peculiar items.  A strange-looking stone and a chicken egg. The egg was found by Madison who swam by to show me this strange wonder. It fondly reminded me of a funny cute story that my mom used to tell me about how my older brother, Erik, who ate and loved the ¨chicken¨ of the sea that my mom prepared for him at a time where he was a little kid who disliked eating fish. Also, how in the world did an actual cooking egg get in the sea?!  Well, there are two options here. Option one, there is a rare undiscovered sea chicken species that happened to lay an egg that seems to be similar to the one that comes from chickens that inhabit the land. you never know the ocean has not been fully explored...
Option two, the island staff who were transporting groceries from the boat to the kitchen somehow accidentally dropped a single egg onto the ocean.  I will wait for a few minutes here for your answer.

..... Yes, you were right with your response.

Anyway, the other strange visitor that happens to be peculiar while working the old grind with sponge bob and his screaming relatives...  hmm.. you know what, Let´s play where is waldo? - mystery fish edition. In honor of the shenanigans that occurred during that particular moment with Madison and I.

Ok, Can you find ¨waldo¨ in this Picture?

If you would like a clue, we can go and ask our special guest player that loves to swim in this rocky reef for some help. But you have to find her or him first.

Can you find our special guest?

Well if lucky for you there is something called photo editing. Here is your freebie. 

Its a barracuda near those rocky reefs! The barracuda is near the left bottom corner of the picture. They appear to have a hard time finding the mystery fish. 

 Here is madison helping us out by dropping an egg to where they are.  I love the smell of shenanigans at foot. well..er.. at flipper or fin.  Give up or have figured it out yet?

Here is waldo!

A species of scorpionfish. This is a picture after ¨he¨ ¨moved¨. It took a lot of effort to move ¨him¨. The scorpionfish was not intimidated at all. It was super lazy to move. It took Madison´s fin to move this fella. This scorpionfish was of course blocking some of the sponges that I was working on. I wouldn´t trade this whole ordeal for nothing. There was a lot of laughter. Before the fin, she placed an egg on ¨him¨.LOL.

Waldo and the egg. 

At some point, I saw another starfish at the site and saw it near Waldo. There wasn´t a clear visible interaction from them.  I doubt there was because Waldo is stuck in his own little world to bother moving. But who knows? 

As the Sponge Bob experiment came to a close for that day,  another Where´s Waldo game appeared but with a completely different type of Waldo this time. 

Can you find the sand crab?

SIKE!  

you thought this guy can be found just at the surface?!

This guy was in the sand. 

The tide kept revealing this guy´s location. 

He is located at the center of this photo. 

Here are two videos of this guy being ¨shy¨ near the shoreline. 

Thank you for playing Where´s Waldo with me. 

Until next time,

Marcy Calle 

Chicken egg

I found a chicken egg in the water yesterday. It must have fallen off the dock when the staff was bringing in some food for the week. I had entirely too much fun with this egg. I went and distracted Elliott and Erika while they were doing their projects in the water by just randomly presenting an egg to them. Then I swam around for a while dropping the egg in various locations to see how the fish would react. They were all very curious. I ended up breaking the egg, fish swarmed it and within seconds they ate it all. Anyways, here are some pictures I took yesterday!

land crab

A few nights ago we saw a really big land crab! It was super cool. I learned a couple nights ago from Dr. Gilchrist's lecture on crustaceans that when we shined our flashlight on it we temporarily blinded it. Whoops. Sorry about that.

Swimming in the Dark

The other night we went for a night snorkel and it was amazing. As I put my wetsuit and weights on I thought: where is the sunscreen? Night snorkeling is pretty nice just for that fact, no sun to worry about. Once we got out there I was impressed by my ability to know where I was based on the small area I could see. Having snorkeled so much during the day I could easily recognize where I was. 

Almost immediately after we go in the water we were greeted by a few spotted eagle rays which were the highlight of the experience. They would glide by with ease as they scooped up the plankton that our flashlights attracted right out of the water. A few times they would get within inches of us as we held the flashlights. To be swimming alongside such beautiful creatures in their own habitat was breathtaking. At a certain point, I decided to try turning off my light and within a few seconds my eyes adjusted and I could see with the light of the dock and the moon providing only slight outlines of people and the rays. I will be doing that again. 

The following day we went out for a fun-dive on Malissa and halfway out we heard some loud banging from the hull. Once they opened her up they found that one of the sides to her engine had been blown out. We all enjoyed taking the time we had stranded waiting for rescue for jumping off the top of Malissa. Once we got back we did a fun-dive on the house reef but after the night before's amazing night snorkel, it didnt even compare. 

Today I'm going to be writing an essay and going out to record more of the pilings. 

Days spent in the water

Being in the water is one of my favorite things, and I have been able to be in the water almost every day since we have been here! My GoPro has been giving me a lot of trouble, but here is some footage I have captured over the past few days.