Water

Journal #22

A Day in the Water

January 24, 2012

A Day in the Water

We started out with having breakfast at the hotel which included toast, cereal, fruit, and juices.

After breakfast we walked down to the shore to meet the people that would be taking us snorkeling today. After being fitted for our gear, we walked out behind their hut and waited for the boats to arrive. Once the boats arrived, we loaded onto them and started out forty-five minute ride to our destination, Shark-Ray Alley. Here we would snorkel with sharks, fish, sting-rays, and much, much more. It was scary at first to jump into the water with lots of sharks swimming around, but it was super fun! I was able to touch both a shark and sting-ray multiple times, and all that I could think of was my two little guys (two boys that I babysit a lot at home) and how much they would LOVE this experience. After we left here, we headed to a location where we would get to see sea turtles and other tropical fish. Well, right before we headed to our second location, I could not fail myself- so I started getting boat-sick! This lasted the rest of the day while we were on the boat, but when I was in the water I felt fine. We then headed towards San Pedro, a little tourist-island where we would eat lunch. Brighton did not have anybody to sit with, so I sat and ate lunch with him- after waiting over an hour for our food- we received it right after the other 90% of the group had already finished dessert! After we left the island, we went to our third and final destination to snorkel, and here there was a lot of tropical fish and corals.

When we got back to Caye Caulker, I was excited to be on “land” and no longer on the boat! We had a few hours until dinner, so we swam in the pool for a few minutes and we then showered and got all of the small sea-weed pieces out of our hair. After showering and getting ready, we headed to town so we could do a few minutes of shopping and then find somewhere for dinner. Well, since this is Belize and there is no schedule: some places decided not to open at all tonight, some places did not open until half an hour after their posted times, and some places were closing early. That changed our dinner plans when we discovered that our restaurant that we wanted to eat at was not open. We also laughed as we walked by the place we ate last night, because it looked completely abandoned and we had just eaten their last night!

After dinner we stopped at a little gift shop for a few minutes and then headed back to the hotel so we could make it in time for class. I did my final presentation tonight, so I am COMPLETELY FINISHED with my Senior Colloquium class! A few of my other classmates also did their presentations tonight, and it was fun to learn about their interests that relate to their majors in their senior year of college.

I'm excited about tomorrow- we get to go to the high school and minister to the students there! There are 59 students that attend high school on the island, and the high school has only been there four years. Before the high school was built on the island, if students wanted to attend high school- they had to catch a boat to Belize, attend school for the day, and then catch the boat back home.