Monday, May 2, 2011

Andros Island Day 12-15

Friday, December 10--Day 12:
The weather finally seemed to be improving a bit since I didn't wear jeans for the first time in 3 or 4 days. We had another puppet show scheduled as well as walking around Red Bays. Red Bays was a very poor area, but still so beautiful! We walked along the streets (which is awesome because of there being nearly no traffic!) and saw all of the baskets that some of the local people make. It's amazing that they do that with their hands, straw, and a few pieces of Androsia fabric! One of the guys on the trip, Tim, had a guitar when we were walking around and a few kids saw him and suggested that he play his guitar while they play their drums. They started reeeeally getting into it and drumming and dancing and it was SO cool to watch! It ended up being Tim just holding the drum while they play and dance.



We were all amazed at how excited these kids got with the music and how talented they were. We're so used to kids in America at that age being this happy with video games, sports, and other stationary high-tech things.

After Red Bays, some of the group went back to the station while I went with the rest to check out another blue hole--Charlie's Blue Hole. It was a little too cold for me to actually go in, but I had to see it since there was a swinging rope that went in. It was pretty cool, but I'm glad I stayed put because I was chilly in a jacket and shorts so I knew I'd be freezing if I were in the water.

Saturday, December 11--Day 13
First off, Happy Birthday Grandma! Secondly, it's a free day for us! This pretty much translates into drinking, eating, and laying out on the beach--my ideal vacation! We hung out at Somerset beach and the weather FINALLY cooperated with us. It was a little cloudy for ideal tanning, but still enjoyable. If I wasn't needing a jacket, then I was happy!

I think you could say we were enjoying ourselves :)



This day was also the first day I actually ran on the island. I hate that I didn't run more during the trip...even though it was colder than I liked at times, it was perfect running weather. The only bad thing was the beach that we were on wasn't very long so we had to run on the roads (not the most exciting thing). I knew I wasn't in shape when I took this ran considering I needed to slow down at mile 2.5, but we ended up going almost 4 miles which I was happy with considering how long it had been since I last ran.

It was taco night and I successfully kept down all of the food that night! We also went to what is called rake and scrape where they had some music play, a bit of food (not their best), and a fashion show of Androsia fabrics. It was VERY cold that night, but still a cool thing to see/do.

Sunday, December 12--Day 14:
The first day in awhile that had been 80 degrees! It was BEAUTIFUL out. And we were taking advantage of the warmth and sun and getting the tan we have wanted to show off to all our Ohio friends and family. We had lunch at the station then headed to Turtle Reef to do some snorkeling. While it was much warmer that day, it was verrrry windy--not the best snorkeling weather. I got a good work out in swimming because the wind kept pushing me away from everyone and I needed to stay at least somewhat close to them. I'm pretty sure I spent more time swimming and making sure I was near everyone than snorkeling and looking for turtles. Sadly, I didn't see any. The rest of the day was spent the last of the really warm weather because we only had one full day left and it was going to be spent in the beginning of another cold front.

Monday, December 13--Day 15:
Last full day. At this point, I was slightly ready to go home. Okay, not ready to go home, but ready to go to New Orleans. I had found out about the NOLA trip about a week ago and over the week I started really missing my friends and new that New Orleans was wayyyy warmer than Ohio so I was okay with leaving the Bahamas at the time. Anyway, our last day we went to the tourism office and learned a lot about Andros Island and how it attracts people and what are its most popular things to do. The most popular thing to do is bonefishing mostly because it's so hard to catch a bonefish.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, packing, and hanging out with everyone one last time.

Tuesday, December 14--Day 16:
We woked up at about 5 am to catch our flight from Andros to Nassau and our flight form Nassau to Charlotte wasn't until 1. And the Nassau airport was NOT exciting so we had to entertain ourselves. We used the "underwater" cameras we were given earlier to take pictures of random things. I even took a picture of a really pretty postcard (sadly, none of these pictures turned out because the underwater camera had too much water in it--tell me how this happens). Anyway I bought a few souvenirs with the money I had left then spent the remainder of the day flying and waiting to get home. I arrived in Columbus around 7:30 and got home around 10 that night.

Overall, I absolutely LOVED this trip--especially when I look back at it now. There were many times where I wasn't full enjoying myself either because the weather was colder than expected or I was getting sick of people, but the reason I came there was to get a better grasp on biology outside of Ohio and to get in a study abroad experience related to my major and that was definitely a success! I learned A LOT and feel like I wouldn't have soaked in the information as well if I were learning about this in a lecture. If only all classes could be this fun and interesting! I believe it was well worth the money--I'm not sure if I would have been able to do anything like this after college (unless of course I'm lucky enough to do something like it as a career). To sum this trip up: it was an absolute blast, I learned so much about so many different things, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Andros Island Day 6-11

Saturday, December 4--Day 6:

Another gorgeous day consisting of a lot of snorkeling and seeing a lot of cool creatures! Our group split into two and one went to Pigeon Cay to snorkel while the other went in part of the 3rd largest barrier reef in the world (I still can't get over that). I was in the group that went to the barrier reef first and it was such an amazing experience because it was my first encounter with being able to see all of these colorful fish and other cool marine animals swimming around me.

I can't take credit for this picture, but here's an idea of what the reef looked like. Thanks to global warming and other environmental stress, it's not as bright and gorgeous as you'd picture, but it's still amazing. And much better in person.



After lots of snorkeling, we headed back in the boat to meet the other group for lunch at Pigeon Cay. Very cool place--it's a very small island, but is definitely an island, and we had it all to ourselves.







After lunch, we did some snorkeling around the island followed by a plant walk discussing the terrestrial aspect of the island. And here's some of us posing for a picture on the island:



This location was where I saw a nurse shark and a family of sting rays which was soooo cool. I wish I could have gotten pictures of them all!

We boated back to the field station for taco night (this is every Saturday). Us OU students loved the idea of taco night, but didn't know if it was such a good idea to have on Saturday night seeing as how we were all going to be drinking that night. Turns out that it didn't end well for me--that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Sunday, December 5--Day 7:
UGGGHHHH. This is exactly how I felt when I woke up, throughout the entire day, and until I went to sleep that night. It was one of those all day hungover affairs. I will spare you the details, but basically I try to block out this day but I will tell you what the rest of the group did.

They went to a few blue holes and saw some turtles (that's the one thing I was really sad about missing out on) and we had lunch on a beach in Nichol's Town. They had this famous Conch Salad which I was told was different but very tasty. It was the perfect day to catch some rays, but I just looked like a beached whale instead. Moving on to feeling better the next day...

Monday, December 6--Day 8:
I felt a million times better after a lot of sleep and water, but I was still trying to take it easy (somewhat). This day was also the first day I noticed it starting to get colder than we wanted/anticipated. Thank goodness for that 5 mm wet suit! We boated out to a place with A LOT of sand dollars. I have a TON of pictures of it in my album (check it outttt). I'm pretty sure I collected about 10-15 and to this day, only one has survived. After the sand dollar fun, we had a little plant tour and learned all about mangroves which bored me since I took a class in the fall and spring and learned all about them. But hey, review can't be that bad.

Tuesday, December 7--Day 9:
The first day of it being REALLY cold. And by really cold, I mean overnight was in the low 60's upper 50's. When the warmest clothes you packed were jeans and a light jacket and there is no heat or insulation of any sort, upper 50's and lower 60's is WAY too cold to sleep in. From this point on, everyone wore pretty much all the same clothes because we only packed so many warm things. It was kind of funny because we knew who everyone was without having to be that close or see their faces just by what they were wearing. This cold front also made for a much colder snorkeling experience. Not the most pleasant time, but I tried to make the best of it.

We headed to the Mennonite Farm first. I won't lie, I wasn't interested by any of this so I got a little ADD and wandered around doing other things or daydreaming so I can't really tell you much. BUT, the cool thing was that they had a bunch of grapefruit and orange trees so I picked a few and they were delicious!



A and C cup!



Next we went to Morgan's Bluff which is the highest point on the island:



There was also a small cave by it that we went through..so small in fact I nearly hit my head 230483287 times but somehow made it out alive!

Next stop was Money Point where we saw a lot of invertebrates--even an octopus (sadly, no picture).

Wednesday, December 8--Day 10
This day wasn't too exciting or different from what we had been doing. It consisted of botany walks, snorkling, and hanging out. The cool thing was though, that night we had a lecture from Ryan about Andros Island music. He talked about what music was like many many years ago and how it has changed but still maintained that islandy feel. It was great to get a dose of what this island is like culturally instead of constantly being fed information about the biological aspects.

Thursday, December 9--Day 11
The past few days and this day started out with botany walks because it was too cold to snorkel in the morning, so we again had a wonderful terrestrial lecture (but hey I was in the Bahamas and about to get an A in a 5 credit class so I wasn't complaining). This day must have been one of the colder ones because we didn't go snorkeling at all. Instead we did something REALLY cool and went do a few local schools and put on a puppet show about recycling. It was SO fun and really cool to meet the kids.

One of my favorite photos--the Bahamian kids representing OU :)








Like I said before, it was so cool to get a feel for the Andros Island's culture by meeting and interacting with the kids! Later on, we had another dose of Andros culture--their food! Dinner was a buffet full of homemade food that the local Andros natives eat all the time and it was delicious! I'm pretty sure I had thirds but had no regrets because I knew I wasn't going to eat this again for a VERY long time. Needless to say I didn't want to ever eat again after it. Obviously that didn't happen.