More Diving and More Data Collection

The past few days have been taken up by a whole bunch of water time, both diving and snorkeling. Isabelle and I did four more dives, two on the reef wall, one to an airplane wreck, and another one to Lion's Head. Both dives on the reef wall were incredible! We dropped down to about 60ft from the boat, which put us near the middle of the water column with another 30 to 60ft below us when we were above the second drop off. Hanging out along the wall, able to see about 40 feet of coral above us and at least 30 feet of coral below us, was unreal. I have never felt so small and amazed. I've been encountering an interesting problem with taking photos one these dives - the water is too blue and I haven't figured out to edit the color back in well yet. Still cool to have those memories though. The dive to plane wreck was a brief one, the current was nasty and we didn't feel like fighting it for long, but it was very cool to see, and the drift back to the boat was fun. Our final dive of the trip was back at Lion's Head, and it was once again an amazing dive. Our 6 dives in Honduras were absolutely highlight moments of this trip, and I could not be more thankful for Henry, our Dive Master, and the rest of the dive and boat crew for hanging out and diving with us.

Dropping down

A moment of zen

Sky diving...?

Looking over the edge of the reef wall

Sponge and sponge friend

A massive elk horn coral

A wee baby eel poking out of its hidey hole

When you think you see the top of the coral, it goes farther up

Isabelle's photography skills are indeed improving

A look inside the door of the plane wreck

And at the propellor 

Gorgeous swimming through mountains of coral

Trumpet fish

Big sad eyes from a garden eel

Seagrass or garden eels? Predators could never know

Aside from diving, Isabelle and I have been spending a ton of time snorkeling for data collection for our projects. I'm looking at abundances of different species of sea urchins to show how they've been recovering from diseases they've experienced in the Caribbean, and let's just say the method of finding sea urchins is... unique. In my defense, when they hide under rocks and in crevasses like they do, it's hard to see them without getting up close and looking like a goof. Still, it's been a lot of fun getting to be out here and be in the water, collecting data hands-on and exploring actual issues the reefs are facing.

Looks normal, right?

Collecting data or dead?

Outside of the water, we had an awesome cultural presentation about Garifuna song and dance, where some musicians came and played for us, and we got to learn about their music. We all had a blast listening to their music, dancing, and getting to try some of their instruments, such as drums and a turtle shell used to keep the beat.

We've only got a week left here, so we're definitely looking forward to making the most of it, and extra definitely looking forward to eating desserts and having AC when we get back!  

What I'm dreaming of: this specific cake from Costco