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Published: June 26th 2007
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Hannah, Andrea, and the Captain
Scouting for sites to monitor water quality for the Roatan Marine Park. How much should one pay for a monkey lala ? Is five dollars too much? Yes, but we’re getting one anyway. Know why? We’re gainfully employed. Let’s backtrack a bit though…
H: It all started when I began stalking this friendly couple who own a great Thai restaurant on the “main (only) street” in West End. After stopping in every day for a week, and befriending the gardener, wait-staff and their two toddling children, who primarily occupy themselves by repositioning the chopsticks in a manner reminiscent of medieval torture devices. After offering my services as a waitress and Jon’s as a bartender, somewhat incessantly, they finally hired...Jon.
J: It’s cause I’m better looking. But that’s neither here nor there, eventually, they took pity on Hannah and hired her too. Anyways, the owners are really relaxed, the staff is full of great people and the money… well, we’re buying a drink, a single drink. So we’re finally finished our rescue diver course (a three day course turned into an 8 day extravaganza… citing: reef checking, ear infections, an instructor w/ malaria or barracuda sickness-the jury’s still out-, and some shoddy equipment). Yes, boys and girls, that means we’re officially
Scientist, Hannah Scientist
Checking water turbidity (that means 'how much gunk is in it' laypeople). DMTs (dive masters in training!!!!!). Along the way we managed to squeeze in a few memorable moments.
H: It was our first dive after I was declared ear-infection-free by the doctor and we were setting off to one of our usual dive sites when someone spotted…. A DOLPHIN!!! Yes! a real dolphin in the waters...just off of our boat. And all of a sudden there were two, and then four chasing and leaping and spiralling around the front of our boat.
J: We went speeding along and the dolphins just seemed to multiply, chasing our boat and others. Ocasionally they would lose interest in ours and the our captain would gun it and they’d come right back. It was so thrilling, just bumping into a huge pod of dolphins out in the wild. We were a while a way from our dive site, so its seemed that this was as close as we were going to get to the dolphins, but then the Dive Master said to prepare our equipment. We were going in!
H: And so we’re all standing there madly pulling on fins and masks and shuffling as quickly as humanly possible to the back
Scientist, Jon Scientist
Jon's can check turbididtitidy too. of the boat when we jump in and as soon as the water closes over your head you can hear the sounds of dolphins filling you up as though they are everywhere.
J: and they really were!
H: So we chased and chased them, but I only managed to catch sight of two dolphins underwater, and they were so insanely beautiful and happy and playful and incredible. And then our Dive Master called us back to the ship as the dolphins swam off. As we got back onto the boat, exhausted, we thought they had gone for good, and couldn’t believe our luck at swimming with them...
J: To be clear, this is not a normal experience, even here. But as the boat picked up speed again the dolphins came back, and this time I couldn’t give you a proper estimate but I will say with confidence that there was more that fifty of them. (Hannah’s saying maybe a hundred.) Ok, so we’re in a rush to get to work . but the coolest part of all is we jumped in again and I jumped right in the middle of them before the boat even stopped and
Beautiful Secluded Beach
Palm medows. (roatan, not florida) they were under and over and all around me and it was amazing. We got back to the boat totally wiped out cause we were literally sprinting the entire time. The dive was uneventful.
H: Throughout the day though, we had some amazing dives, we saw a green moray, a giant grouper, a baby hawksbill turtle, some sea cumbers and more. But, let me tell you, as far as dives go, our mot exciting animal-sighting experience was yet to come. Several days ago we headed to a dive site (called Seaquest, in case anyone knows it or cares to google it) where we had been diving almost daily (it’s a really popular site). And as we were swimming around stewing in our frustration at the repetition of dive sites, we caught site of a nurse shark!! It was about 5 feet long and sleeping under the reef…it was too exciting! And apart from delights under the water, we have been taking on new responsibilities as dive masters-Jon and I have each briefed divers on our own, and we led our first first dive the other day!!
J: We also threw one of our world famous dinner parties. We
Mangroves
They're very important, don't ever cut one down. invited two other couples over and we all had a blast. The night ended with a voyeuristic trip out to watch a fellow dive master in training’s final feat… the snorkel test. Basically, the victim wears a snorkel and mask while their “friends” funnel a pitcher of various alcohol into the snorkel. Some final exciting news, our friend Chelsea is moving down here with us on July 1st, and we found her a place!!! (which is a relief and sooo exciting). Our individual dive count is up past 30 now, which is half way to the minimum number needed to become dive masters (we’re aiming to surpass that though). Before I loose you all forever, I’ll sign off.
HJ: Thanks to everyone for your emails and messages on our blog. Keep em coming!
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Aunt Faye
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Monkey lala?
How will you ever be able to get back to "normal" life after the exciting time you are having??? What is a monkey lala? J-Man, your prey looks like it must have taken some kind of firearm to deal with it! Keep the info coming -- I really look forward to it. Love from Auntie Faye