Home Sweet Home

After about 24 hours, I am back home in Colorado. All the unpacking can wait until later because I am beat after traveling all day. It's time for bed and sleeping in...hopefully!

Colorado Bound

I have been up since 6:00am travelling back to Colorado. The day started off with a nice rain on the drive to the airport where I got to enjoy the scenery of the island. Dominica is very beautiful and I wish I had more time to explore the island. This just gives me a reason to go back sometime in the future.

I island hopped from Dominica to Antigua to Puerto Rico and finally to the US. I am in New York City waiting for my flight back to Denver. My flight is suppose to land in Denver around 11:00pm where I will have one of my friends picking me up to then drive an hour to Fort Collins. I am almost home! Sad yet happy.

Last Day in Tropical Paradise

For our last day in Dominica, we spent the day walking around town, swimming, and packing. We started our morning in the water followed by a nice stroll into town for lunch. After lunch, we came back to our room to enjoy the beautiful view of the ocean for shore and in the water. At sunset, we got some dinner to then begin packing. I was able to get my all my belongings plus some of my brother's things all into one checked bag, a carry-on, and a backpack.

I am truly going to miss living on an island and being able to go SCUBA diving or swimming every single day. Tomorrow I will be saying goodbye to warm weather and saying hello to winter. I am excited to see friends and family after being away for over 3 months to share my education abroad experience and celebrate graduation. Then it is on to new adventures!

Boat & Night Diving

Today, my brother and I did another set of boat diving. Our first dive was at a site called Scott's Head Drop Off. Here we explored another cliff reef. However, the depth was not as deep as the dive from yesterday because we were able to see the bottom when diving. During this dive, we saw a frogfish, Queen conch, scorpionfish, jellyfish, and many more. This dive was very enjoyable and beautiful.

Can you spot the scorpionfish?

During our surface interval, we drove to the next dive site stopping at Bubbles Beach to learn a little bit about the island. There are nine volcanoes with seven of them being active. Out of all Caribbean islands Dominica has the most per square kilometer. These volcanoes produce geothermal energy, which you can feel in the water such as at Champagne Reef. One fun fact that we learned was that parts of the Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed here. We also learned about the Roman Catholic Church of St. Mark, which was on the waterfront by Bubbles Beach. It is located in the quiet fishing village of Soufriere.

Our second dive was at Champagne Reef. This was a very pleasant dive where I saw a lot of things I was familiar with. I was able to show my brother garden eels in the sand flats. After diving along the reef, we came to an area were there were bubbles coming up from the seabed that is compared to bubbles in champagne. There are seven active volcanoes on the island so the hot, fresh water that is coming from the seabed are generated from the volcanic activity under the earth.

After our diving this morning, we went into town to get some lunch. We had a wonderful meal and when we were walking back home we stopped and talked to a local for a while. During our conversation with the local it started to rain, which allowed us to extend the conversation. We learned more about the culture especially the dancing, bele. When the raining let up a bit, we finished our way back to our hotel room to relax for a bit before a shore night dive.

Beginning the evening right with a beautiful sunset

We went on an hour night dive exploring the house reef. We spent a majority of the time in the small seagrass bed. Before going over the seagrass beds, I spotted a lesser electric eel swimming in the sand flats. I saw a number of different crabs and shrimp within the grass. I also come upon a spotted snake eel poking out of a little sandy patch in the middle of the seagrass bed. There was also a scorpionfish that was snoozing in the turtle grass. Shortly, after the sighting of the scorpionfish, we saw a batfish chilling in the sand next to the seagrass bed. This was a fun sighting because the fish is so unique looking. I personally did not get a photo but the guy we were diving with got some photos, which he offered to share with us. After our dive, we relaxed on the dock talking about the dive and many more things. Today has been a tremendous day and I can not believe my vacation is almost over.

Boat Diving

Today was our first set of boat dives. We started off with a deep dive of about 75 feet at Dangleben's Pinnacles. It was a very pleasant dive where we saw yellownose jawfish, balloonfish, banded shrimp, longsnout butterflyfish, and many more. Our second dive was at L'Abym, which was a wall dive. We descended to about 35 feet where the wall began. We swam along the wall staying around 40 feet enjoying the reef system thriving with marine life. I spotted some lobsters under an overhang. 

In comparison to Bonaire, the reef system here in Dominica is quite different. There are a lot more sponges and barrel sponges. Marine life so far has been fairly similar though. 

Banded shrimp

Longsnout butterflyfish

Taking the Lead

Two more dives are in the books, but his time I got to share the experience with my brother. Though my brother was SCUBA certified before me, I have more training, so I was able to take the lead to teach him a few things about diving and the marine environment. Studying all those fish for the past few months paid off because I was able to tell my brother what fish we saw after our dives. Some of the marine life we saw were balloonfish, smallmouth grunts, yellowline arrow crab, black long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum), spotted drum fish, french grunts, scorpionfish, lobsters, spotted moray eels, and a lionfish.

Balloonfish

Lobsters

Yellowline arrow crab

In between dives, we went to Roseau to have lunch and explore. As we were walking to town, locals would briefly greet us with one local having a conversation with us. People on the island are friendly. When in town, we walked around some of the local souvenir stands since there was a cruise ship in town and they were all set up. We then had a delicious lunch. 

This evening we watched the sunset listening to a local jazz band during dinner. It was a pleasant way to wrap up a wonderful day.

Welcome to Dominica

Today I was island hopping from Curaçao to Dominica to meet up with my brother for more diving adventures. My first flight was delayed in Curaçao for an hour. However, it did not impact my connecting flight in Sint Maarten because I had a five-hour layover. I arrived in Sint Maarten around lunchtime. I enjoyed the view from the airport of the island until my flight to Dominica. The flight was on time for this final leg of my journey. I arrived in Dominica right around sunset and was picked up to head to the hotel I will be staying at with my brother. The ride from the airport was about an hour and half. The driver talked about the history and culture of the island along the way pointing out things when he could because it was dark shortly after we left the airport. We drove through the Kalinago Territory, which is the name of the indigenous people of Dominica. The territory is made up of multiple villages governed by a chief and six council members. Our driver also said that the only thing that really remains of the native culture is basket making. Only a few words in the native language are used and some of the dancing still exists. The most common wildlife found on the island are iguanas, agouti (looks like a very large guinea pig), and opossum. There are also boa constrictors on the island.

I finally arrived at the hotel and was greeted by my brother. My luggage was taken to our room while I checked in. We then went to the room to drop off the rest of my things and then went to dinner. We talked about many things during dinner. I am so glad to see my brother and get to share this experience with him.

Flying over some island on my way to Dominica

Almost in Dominica

Arrived in Dominica

Submersion

Over the past three months I have been immersing myself in a field of study that I have always had an interest in. From a young age, I have always found the marine environment fascinating, but never had an opportunity to really explore and see if it was a path I would want to pursue for a potential career. When this opportunity presented itself to me, I took advantage of it to embark on an adventure that would provide clarity in what direction I would like my future to go.

As you all know, I literally have submerged myself in the marine environment for extended periods of time exploring the depths of the ocean. I have learned so much about the marine environment during my time in Bonaire but there is still so much more to learn. There are so many mysteries in the depths of the ocean that it is a treasure trove waiting to be discovered.

Diving has allowed me the chance to explore the underwater world were these mysteries lie to begin understanding the complexity and importance of these ecosystems. I can see myself continuing down this path because there is so much more to learn. Besides the learning, I feel at peace in or near the water.

Descending below the water’s surface, I enter an atmosphere of serenity that comforts me allowing me to clear my head of all the things that do not matter. All the worry, stress, and uncertainty are washed away. The tranquility of feeling weightless in the water surrounded by the quietness comforts me. I am alone with my own thoughts and emotions without the distractions of the world to think more clearly. Time passes in a different way when beneath the surface. It can feel like only twenty minutes have passed when it in fact an hour has already passed. I am in my own world but close to others sharing in the experience and provide support if needed.

All the people that have come into my life through this journey have made a lasting impact on me and helped provide the clarity I was looking for. Lifelong friendships were made and I am going to miss everyone that I have spent the last three months with exploring the underwater world and life abroad in a different culture. Here are to all the memories created during this adventure in the Caribbean. I am going to miss the island life but I am excited for future journeys.

On to a New Adventure

Today was my last day in Bonaire. I was suppose to be leaving tomorrow morning, but my flight got changed to tonight. So, I spent the day packing and cleaning, which was a sad endeavor. I am going to miss everyone that I have spent the last 3 months with.

Before I headed to the airport this evening, we had a farewell dinner at the director's house. All the staff made Mexican food for us all to enjoy. Prior to eating, we received gifts for completing the program including a t-shirt, a copy of our Physis journal, and a water bottle. After the little ceremony, I had to get ready and leave. I was able to grab dinner to take with me so I was able to enjoy the delicious food that everyone made. The taxi that was suppose to pick me up was late so one of my instructors drove me.

It was hard saying goodbye to everyone because we had become a close group throughout the semester. I am going to miss every single person because they have all had an impact on me in multiple ways. I know this will not be the last time that I will see everyone. Plans have been made to stay in touch and go on adventures together.

Adventures in Washington Slagbaii National Park

Celebration!

Today we got to enjoy the island before we all head our separate ways in a couple of days. This morning four of us went on one last dive to explore the beautiful coral reef in Bonaire. We saw Queen angelfish, porcupine fish, ocean triggerfish, bandtail puffer fish, a cornetfish, a sea turtle, and many more. We spent just over an hour underwater enjoying the depths.

In the afternoon, we all headed to Klein Bonaire to enjoy the water and sun. We swam and played on the sandy beach for about three hours. Some of us walked around part of the island, did handstands, tried to attempt a pyramid, and played in the shallows. This was a great way to celebrate with all ten of us students being done with the semester. Our group was close this semester and we all still enjoy each others company after 14 weeks of living together.

Leaving Klein on the water taxi

Public Lecture

Yesterday we finished our last assignment, which was our public presentation for our independent research project. All our presentation went really well and it is time to celebrate. We all went out to have a good time after all the hard work we have been putting into our projects for the entire semester. We get to enjoy the island for two more days before everyone heads their separate ways.