Spring Break part deux

After our busy, scheduled days of field trips it was finally time for us to RELAX and enjoy the white sandy beaches of Provo. I have to say, it felt pretty weird to be a tourist in this country where we have been living for the last two months. Whenever we told someone about our study abroad here, they were shocked! The tourists didn't have any idea about how remote and tiny South Caicos was. We had to explain that, no, we dont have any shops, or restaurants, or desalinization plants...no no not at all. We have a few convenience stores, shipments of food only arrive via barge every 2 weeks for the entire island, and since the people here rely on rain catchment for water, our pool is full of salt water! The Provo natives who heard our story already knew about SFS and couldn't believe that we had to stay on South Caicos...one bar tender even gave my friend a bottle of drink-mixer-type-stuff and said, "here, you take this back with you. You're going to need it if you are going back to South." So ANYWAY, on to the fun part of break. We spent the majority of our day out on the beach swimming, playing volley ball, and walking along the turquoise shore to watch kite-boarders and wind-surfers. Everything on the island was *ridiculously* expensive, but even the grocery store items were cheaper than what we were used to on South. You know you're a little jaded when a $5 box of cheerios sounds like a good price (~$8-9 on south). Since there was not much we could do about the price of food, we made picnic lunches during the day and went out to dinner every night. It was crazy getting to decide when/where we wanted to eat our meals since for the last 8 weeks we have been on camp-style meal schedules. One night my friends Amanda, Molly, and I went out to a Sushi restaurant. Honestly, there was nothing special about the sushi, but I think it was the most delicious meal of my life. Mmmmmm wasabi and ginger never tasted so good!










On Sunday I pulled a total tourist move and went PARASAILING! It was sooo great. We could see the entire island of Provo and even parts of North/Middle Caicos from up there!
The reefs on TCI are so beautiful and part of the reason they exist is that right along the rim of the very shallow (all less than 20M, but mostly 3-4M) water is the drop off point where the island shelf breaks, dropping down something like 4,000ft to the ocean floor. From our view, we could see the crystal water slowly fade to dark turquoise and then instantly to a dark royal blue. It was like different shades of blue contour lines following around the island. Our favorite part was when the driver slowed down enough that we landed in the water until he sped up to lift us out again. We had a whole soundtrack of whoooaaaa's and ahhhhhh's and ohhhhh's as the chute blew from side to side. It was such an amazing experience. Totally worth it.














Of course, there was a lot of other spring break fun, including our Provo St. Patricks day celebration at the islands' only Irish pub, Danny Buoy's (no I did not misspell that) and the "Full moon party" at an outdoor patio/bar with the biggest sound system I have seen since arriving in TCI.

Well folks, returning from spring break only means that I am past the halfway point of my dream life in the Caribbean seas *siiiigh*. Next week is our last week of classes, which means MORE EXAMS. But then on to the thing we have all been waiting for...Directed Research Projects! I will explain more when the time comes but just be prepared because Im about to get reeeeal nerdy about reef fishes.

I love and miss you all!