Break, continued.

P.S. The manta ray was probably about 25 feet across or so, in case anyone other than my mother was wondering. Effing incredible.

Anywho, back to Thursday, 16/4/09.
Got up early to run again, and ran to the other side of the island and saw the second most amazing sight of my life....a whole nest of baby turtles making its way to the ocean. They usually only move at night when it's cool, but these guys went down after sunrise! It was so so amazing - the sun had just rose, and ~100 turtles were making their way down the beach to the water. They were trying to climb over some rocks, so they would climb up and fall over on their backs (and they have little white tummies), then roll themselves over and try again. It was sooooo amazing. I think I have to put it second to the manta ray though, because that was just too good to be true.
After breakfast that morning my group did some work measuring distances between corals, which was pretty fun. We did another boat snorkel too - amazingness. Let's just say, I found Nemo. There were two clownfish swimming around in an anenome - I mean, come on. I probably watched them for about 5 minutes. On the way back to the boat I saw a really cool squid too. And obviously tons of other amazing fishes. Bomb.
We did some more data collection after lunch, had dinner, and then had a talk by one of the research station staff about turtle conservation. He told us that we could pick up the baby turtles as long as we directed them back toward the ocean with our lights, so OBVI I went out immediately after and held one!! (See facebook pictures.) They are the cutest things ever, it's disgusting. After playing with turtles, I saw out and stargazed for a while. The stars there were the second best I've ever seen (number 1 - Belize).

Friday, 17/4/09.
Woke up at 5 30 for the sunrise and brought my camera this time for pics, but it wasn't as good as the first two days, unfortunately (photos are on facebook). So basically I have to commit the good ones to memory, which is already starting to be unsuccessful. After breakfast we worked on our presentation, then basically had the rest of the day free. I sat out by the ocean for a while, and we went on a mini snorkel on the reef flat in the afternoon. There were some HUGE fish, and my friend Sarah saw an ~7 ft shark! We also saw a few sting rays - so scary, but so cool. We had to do presentations at 3 30, then we had a mini slideshow, dinner, and then another night snorkel!! We only saw one turtle, two cuttlefish, and a squid, BUT we jumped off the jetty, and it was SO much fun. I went once before the snorkel, and twice after. I could have done it like 10 more times. Stargazed again afterwards, and stayed up way too late, but it was worth it for the last night!

Saturday, 18/4/09.
Woke up for bfast, then a cleaning of the station. We ended up having a lot of time before leaving for the ferry, so we chilled on the beach and went to the gift shop at the resort on the island. I bought a few postcards, a shot glass, and this little sand-filled turtle - he is my new favorite thing, and his name is Ned Plimpton. (It is one of the weirdest things I have done, but I don't care, I love him.) Anywho, he is the best. The ferry was supposed to be at 1, but it came late and we didn't leave till probably 1 45. So that took 2 hours, then got back and took the bus back, stopped for din part way, and got back around 11 30 pm. Long freaking day. I rested (aka attempted to nap) the whole way back, so I didn't think I'd sleep that much, but I ended up sleeping almost 11 hours! It was madness. So I finally got to all my emailing and crap yesterday, and started studying for my MARS exam that I have on Thursday (aka sat by my friend's pool and read my notes, completely ineffective).

So that's it. I wish my pictures showed more of my adventure, but I didn't want to obsess over taking photos while I was gone. Hopefully that long-winded summary described my break somewhat well. I'll just say - those two trips were freaking amazing, probably two of the best I'll ever take in my life! Now it is back to reality (kind of). I am planning a trip to Byron Bay for this weekend, and have one planned to the Whitsundays for next weekend. Can't waaaittt. More stories to come!