Hello! We've spent the last two days out here in Coral Bay, and I don't think I'm leaving. EVER. We watched the sunrise from the bus on our way over yesterday, and it was gorgeous! We got to Coral Bay around nine in the morning, and set our stuff in our tents. We have these huge, two room canvas tents, and each one has cots and foam mattresses in them. I am rooming with two of the Americans in our group: Emily and Rebecca. After putting our stuff down, we grabbed a quick breakfast and changed into our suits. It's so crazy to know that it is winter here, but it gets to around 80 degrees every day, so we are walking around in bikinis and tank tops all day. We snorkeled that day for about an hour, and saw a ton of different corals and fish, including a huge school of parrotfish. We also saw anemonefish, which are what clownfish are, and spangled emperors.
That night, we had a barbeque, and ate chicken, fish, and salad. We also played a couple of games of Jenga and Uno, which took forever, because every time someone called Uno, they found a way to make them draw at least four cards on their next turn, so no one won the game after an hour. The lights in the camp went out at ten so that we wouldn't disturb the town. Looking up, I saw more stars than I've ever seen! One of the Australians pointed out the Southern Cross to me, which was amazing to see. We can also see the Milky Way!
This morning, we cooked our own breakfast on the grill, and made toast, bacon, and eggs with tea and honey. After breakfast, we changed back into our bikinis, grabbed our snorkel gear, and headed back to the beach. We took a glass bottom tour boat out onto the reef and jumped off to snorkel for about forty minutes. Out there, we saw more fish, along with a four foot reef shark and a turtle! The turtle swam up next to us! From there, a couple of us snorkeled around the shoreline looking for stingrays, and then we headed back to camp to hang out.
This afternoon, we were assigned to our field work groups for the next three days. I will be looking at plankton populations on the reef and in the seagrass. We will be using this data to look at the feeding habits of manta rays, and why they feed in certain areas and not others. So, for the next couple of days, I will be out on a boat collecting plankton and swimming with mantas!
Well, I must be going now, because dinner is in an hour, and I would like to shower beforehand. Here are some pictures from the last couple of days.
KK
Me swimming with the turtles
Spider lunges out of the water
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