Blogs from South Caicos, Turks & Caicos, Central America Caribbean

Well, I've take a little bit of a retreat from blogging. The days are similar and I have little to report of any real importance. Yesterday was Thanksgiving. It was honestly one of the best I've ever had. All of the students helped cook the most incredible food. I'm not used to eating really thanksgiving food, but rather lasagna, and really really enjoyed having turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, veggies, salad, PIE... I had a great time dressing up, eating good food, and enjoying dinner for the first time in a long time inside the center walls. Everyday begins exactly how the day before began. I've been doing directed reserach with Annemarie aka studying habitat complexity on coral reefs and how that relates to fish assemblages (species richness and abundance) across mulitple families. Because I am ... read more

UPDATE: Tomas is getting stronger and is officially an H1. It is moving slower than planned so we won't get him until most likely tomorrow morning. We're evacuating at 2pm now before the even stronger (60mph) winds hit us. The ocean is CRAZY right now and the wind, as it is, has already started to toss the smaller students around. We are apparently going to be in the eye of the storm, which I might add is larger than FLORIDA! Oh, and our shelter has glass pannels all around it so we can see the destruction as it occurs... sweet? I'm ready. Are you? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Not much to report about recent weeks. It's been pretty calm and regular. Classes are officially over, I just have my exams left next week. I got into Annemarie's DR project ... read more

Yet another action packed week has gone by. I can't tell you how quickly this semester is going. My break is next week... NEXT WEEK. Who knew this would be half way over soooo soon? I hope time slows down but I fear it will only speed up. Well, monday aka yesterday, we went lionfish hunting!!! Lionfish, for those who don't know, are an invasive species that hail from the indo-pacific region. They were most likely dumped by americans who had them in their aquariums but realized that they're venomous and will eat basically anything so they plop them in the ocean. BAD! They basically can live anywhere, have no predators, reproduce constantly, and will eat anything and everything all day long. They're a problem because they're eating important commercial fish like Nassau Grouper ( Epinephelus ... read more

As of yesterday I've officially seen all 3 shark species (reef, lemon, and nurse), a green turtle, eagle rays, and southern sting rays. I feel like I've accomplished what I came to do. I really love Wednesdays. We don't have class and I get to sleep in until 10! It's like a dream come true... well actually, I wake up at 7:50 for morning meeting (yes, I'm at summer camp) and I try really hard to stay as asleep as possible through that to make my transition back to dream land easier. Once I'm actually up, its time to go snorkeling. I didn't really sea anything cool but it was, of course, still gorgeous but with a strong current. We really only snorkeled for about 25 min today because we're getting jaded and are just too ... read more

So I realize these are becoming less and less frequent but really most of my days are identical. We have every hour scheduled on the weekdays and saturdays and that plan rarely includes much variety. Needless to say, I am still enjoying every minute on South Caicos. Today I went for a run and ran past a few wild horses, what's better? If you haven't facebooked the pictures of the crazy 10ft tiger shark we saw some fishermen skin alive then you should do that now. They're bloody and of course very sad but it's a different culture. Cultures can't be wrong. We tried to reason with them but they just laughed. It was, however, an extremely interesting once in a lifetime event. I'm glad I stayed even though it was greusome. I really really want ... read more