BCDs & Brain Coral. A Southern Caribbean Adventure: lionfish hunts and hot yoga

My lovely mother has just reminded me that I havent posted for a few days. Uh oh. she's addicted to the island life.. well, it's okay so am I.
Thursday we went to the south side of the island and climbed around in mangroves and took some granulometry samples.

some endobethic sampling

You know just your average day in the classroom. We swam with upside down jellyfish and hundreds of snapper through a mangrove channel. But what was even more breath taking were the number of species of soft corals growing on the roots of the red mangrove. They were the most spectacular colors; blues and oranges, who would have thought underneath that mess of mangroves?

Friday was a day of rescue. We took our written and in water PADI rescue diver exams. Then celebrated our new certification by going out to Havanas and a salsa dancing club. Wonderful night!

Saturday after trying to come to conscious with 11 people, it was almost as bad as business meeting, we finally rented a bus for three hours to take us caving. First stop: our driver just pulled of the side of the road and we all hop off.. start walking on a small path and there on the side of the trail is a hole in the ground with a latter. completely unmarked, little different that Crystal cave. Well the cave was wonderful, except it felt about a million degrees down there. Center of the earth is closer that I thought! Jay (my fellow Guilfordian) compared it to hot yoga; squeezing our bodies into strange positions while dripping sweat.
After a dip in the ocean, we were all cooled off and came back to the compound and went out for a delicious dinner at a Peruvian restaurant with everyone. Best food I've had in a long time, the ceviche was mouth watering.

Today we went on a lion fish survey and hunt on Klien Bonaire. Although many were spotted only one was killed. The lion fish are an invasive and non native species that has assumed the role of top predator in the Caribbean. Bonaire has taken an active stance on the controlling of this species which is why only a few were spotted on our trip today. My bunkmate took the opportunity for a free meal and decided to fillet the lionfish, although she only got a few bites out of it it was good fun watching her hack it apart!