My home is the garden of eden

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Hey everyone,

Hope all is well in the states and i hope its dumping snow in colorado/california/wherever. here in the seychelles it is hot and sunny. after finishing my plankton samples early this morning, and breaking the gvi record of 37 seconds for pulling the net in (its a 50 meter rope with a 5 lb. weight and a net to catch the plankton), i decided to take the rest of the day off and head into town to write an email. Life on base has been very good we have started our coral surveys and moved out of baie ternay to other more remote dive sites around the island. i am comming up on dive number 100 and plan on celebrating when it is reached. The other day we spotted a huge stingray, i am pretty sure it is the same one that got Steve Irwin, but by the time i pulled my dive knife it was gone. This last weekend was very eventful friday night we all drank a lot of cheap rum and played some card games before moving the party down to the beach where a good number of us fell asleep until the tide came in. The next day we had planned a hike into beau vallon (which is only a 5 mile trail around the coast but 25 by car), but Joe and I were the only ones not hungover enough to bail. So we started our trek around 11:00 in the heat of the day. The trail was hard to find, overgrown, and looked as if it were blazed by tiny, machete weilding dwarves and cut straight through the heart of veloci-raptor country. There were giant palm spiders everywhere whose web is strong enough to entangle a small poodle dog. when we reached the coast we found an awesome cliff to jump off of into the sea. at beau vallon we got some pizza at a place on the beach and then hitched a ride into victoria to meet up with the others for a rugby match at the pub. england vs. scotland and england won just in case any of you cared. i must be going now because the portly gentleman that runs this internet cafe and seems to love blasting his techno music incredibly loud has just informed me that he is closing in 15 minutes.

I miss you all,

Cheers,

~ Paul

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Comments

[Lindsay H]

YO!
Love the pictures of you on the cliff...you can really see the beauty of the water! Glad to hear you didn't let drinking take away a fun adventure! I miss you, stay safe! Lindsay

[anonymous]

your the coolest kid we know. The Luc family- Clay, Alisha, and Topaz

[Margaret Erpenbeck]

Stay a safe distance from the stingrays, etc.
Hi Paul -- It is good to hear that all is going well for you on the other side of the world. The pictures are great, and everything is beautiful! Of course, I prefer the pictures of the gorgeous sunset to the spider pictures (...and the cliff jumping....). Stay safe and thanks for sharing your adventure. Love, Margaret