Week 3
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Just a quick little update, nothing to long.
Current Location: La Digue
This week has flown by, partyly because we moved our weekend to be Friday-Saturday rather than Saturday-Sunday due to the tides here. Plus it has actually been SUNNY. What a relief! Last night we threw a halloween party (random, but awesome) and everyone dressed up in their best effort...it was amazing seeing what people could do with a little bit of creativity and the surrounding resources (including but certainly not limited to palm trees and coconut husks...)
I spent a lot of time this week making a garden for base because I need to stay active and can't stand sitting still for too long. Emma and I did our second solo dive together (The first was last week and was....interesting). This time it went amazingly well (I navigated) and we found a turtle (our goal) and followed it for seven minutes while recording its behavior: what it was doing, eating, and why...we are involved in helping try to figure out what happens to turtles during t heir "lost years" (the years between when they are boirn and become adults). Pretty Cool Stuff.
I also went and scoped out this huge granatic spire behind our kitchen one afternoon and decided that I would like to try and climb part of it. Two of the guys here are climbers so I think we are going to have a go at it next week...who knows! But it looks pretty sick (minus the fact that it's surround in coconut spiders which are big, scary, and creepy).
The diving has been pretty fantastic this last week as visibility is finally getting better. 25 meters vs. 2-5 meters makes a huge different. We also went to a better divesite (LIght house vs. Bay Ternae Central) and there were a lot of huge fish (snappers, emporers, bat fish, sharks ect.)
I helped in a Plankton tow this week to detemine how much plankton is in the water and to determine what types (I feel ignorant not knowing that different types existed) and trying to determine correlations between that and whale shark activity... so far no one has seen any. But we did have the "world expert" (no joke) on whale sharks come in and give us a presentation on whale sharks and on the grou p that lives here. There are about 355-480 resident whale sharks (juveniles) that come into the Seychelles from about June-October. They haven't gotten here yet and I am beginning to doubt I will see them -- but that's ok because I've seen a ton of other cool stuff.
On the Plankton tow, we did not see any sharks but I did specifically jump in the water to go looking for them. What on earth is WRONG with me! ( Don't worry, I was as weirded out and scared as ever! especially bewcause the vis was so poor!)
This weekend I am spending on La Digue and Praslin, two other islands that are apart of the Seychelles. On Wednesday, I am going to Curieuse Island for four nights...I am really excited about that because I get to see the Giant Tortoises and there are a lot of sharks and turtles in the water when you go snorkeling. (Yes, I am excited about seing sharks!)
The ferry over to Praslin and then to La Digue was AWESOME. Man I love the ocean. Huge roller coaster waves...I guess the fetch for the waves was the entire Indian Ocean so...makes sense!
Anyways, I got to jet... I am sure the internet here is costing me an arm and a leg.
XOXO.
- Sazzle << my UK nickname.
Current Location: La Digue
This week has flown by, partyly because we moved our weekend to be Friday-Saturday rather than Saturday-Sunday due to the tides here. Plus it has actually been SUNNY. What a relief! Last night we threw a halloween party (random, but awesome) and everyone dressed up in their best effort...it was amazing seeing what people could do with a little bit of creativity and the surrounding resources (including but certainly not limited to palm trees and coconut husks...)
I spent a lot of time this week making a garden for base because I need to stay active and can't stand sitting still for too long. Emma and I did our second solo dive together (The first was last week and was....interesting). This time it went amazingly well (I navigated) and we found a turtle (our goal) and followed it for seven minutes while recording its behavior: what it was doing, eating, and why...we are involved in helping try to figure out what happens to turtles during t heir "lost years" (the years between when they are boirn and become adults). Pretty Cool Stuff.
I also went and scoped out this huge granatic spire behind our kitchen one afternoon and decided that I would like to try and climb part of it. Two of the guys here are climbers so I think we are going to have a go at it next week...who knows! But it looks pretty sick (minus the fact that it's surround in coconut spiders which are big, scary, and creepy).
The diving has been pretty fantastic this last week as visibility is finally getting better. 25 meters vs. 2-5 meters makes a huge different. We also went to a better divesite (LIght house vs. Bay Ternae Central) and there were a lot of huge fish (snappers, emporers, bat fish, sharks ect.)
I helped in a Plankton tow this week to detemine how much plankton is in the water and to determine what types (I feel ignorant not knowing that different types existed) and trying to determine correlations between that and whale shark activity... so far no one has seen any. But we did have the "world expert" (no joke) on whale sharks come in and give us a presentation on whale sharks and on the grou p that lives here. There are about 355-480 resident whale sharks (juveniles) that come into the Seychelles from about June-October. They haven't gotten here yet and I am beginning to doubt I will see them -- but that's ok because I've seen a ton of other cool stuff.
On the Plankton tow, we did not see any sharks but I did specifically jump in the water to go looking for them. What on earth is WRONG with me! ( Don't worry, I was as weirded out and scared as ever! especially bewcause the vis was so poor!)
This weekend I am spending on La Digue and Praslin, two other islands that are apart of the Seychelles. On Wednesday, I am going to Curieuse Island for four nights...I am really excited about that because I get to see the Giant Tortoises and there are a lot of sharks and turtles in the water when you go snorkeling. (Yes, I am excited about seing sharks!)
The ferry over to Praslin and then to La Digue was AWESOME. Man I love the ocean. Huge roller coaster waves...I guess the fetch for the waves was the entire Indian Ocean so...makes sense!
Anyways, I got to jet... I am sure the internet here is costing me an arm and a leg.
XOXO.
- Sazzle << my UK nickname.
1 comments:
Sarah...nice to hear from you agian...sounds likehtings are going well. Have fun on your side trips! Be carfeul near the sharks!!!JK....love, MOM...miss and love you!
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