Blogs from Turks & Caicos, Central America Caribbean - page 4

EASTERN CARIBBEAN ON THE EURODAM January, 2011 The Holland America five-star luxury cruise ship Eurodam was our home for a seven-day Eastern Caribbean cruise in early January, 2011. We boarded in Fort Lauderdale mid-afternoon and immediately checked out our deluxe verandah cabin, measuring 200 square feet, which was amply comfortable. The stateroom had a 54-square-foot balcony with a gorgeous (and comfortable) wicker-like pair of armchairs with ottomans and a table just big enough to hold drinks. The cabin’s decor scheme was quite cheery, and, frankly, it was one of the nicest cabins I've seen in cruising. Our dinner in the main dining room was a preview of the delicious menus we anticipated daily during the coming week. There were four choices of appetizers as well as soup and salad. Eight different entrees included a pasta choice, ... read more

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

Big thanks to Colin for taking us at 5am to catch our early morning flight from Dallas via Maimi to Providenciales. We arrived in Provo (Providenciales) late afternoon, the first thing that seemed a little strange was the short drive to our hotel, the Caribbean Paradise Inn, the taxi drove on the left with the steering wheel also on the left. After being in Texas where they drive on the right with the steering wheel on the left, opposite to us, we now feel total confused. We had decided to stay at the Caribbean Paradise Inn based on tripadvisor reviews, it was as we expected, small, only 16 units, but comfortable and our room very clean and with a good air conditioner. We are a 5 minute walk to the beach through the large resorts, we ... read more