turtles, sharks, and mountains, oh my!

Its been a week since I last wrote...wow i didnt think that it was that long. im sorry for my absence. in the past 6ish days, i have gone on a few adventures and done some pretty cool stuff outside of the gump station that im going to share with you!!

the good stuff basically started happening on saturday (5/22).  it was basically one of our first full off days the whole trip because my group had spent the whole previous day (literally from 7am to 10pm) bringing in and processing one of our experiments.  In the morning, I was just lazy and helped Tim's group sorting algae.  In the afternoon, it seemed as if everyone was off doing their project and the other two members of my group were off on adventures...i stayed behind to babysit our lab experiment and primarily to skype with my sister because i wanted to see her on the day of her prom! well after a 45sec skype sesh with syd, as she raced out the door, i felt the need to get out of gump so i grabbed my camera once again and put on my TOMS and decided to head to Maharepa (the biggest town here kinda). I power walked the whole way there, stopping to snap some artsy photos of the countryside, houses, and the crystal, sparkling water.  The photo above is a picture from the end of Cook's Bay (one of two bays...Gump station is located on the left side of this bay).  Once I got to Maharepa, I got homemade coconut ice cream and just sat and pondered my future really.  The previous night, Peggy and our TAs held a graduate school discussion...basically the process of how to apply, what they expect, what we should expect, etc.  I learned that graduate school for ecology/marine biology is not the path that I want to take.  So the whole time I was walking, I was thinking of my options.  My walk back was even more peaceful because it was the quiet time of day...late afternoon...everything closes for a couple hours then like in Spain when they go on siesta.  Today was also Boston Kate's last day in Moorea so a dock party was planned in her honor.  Around the time that everyone started to drink that delicious roombah, I decided that drinking and being loud and crazy was not in the cards for me that night.  I bounced around the station from being on my computer in the lab to watching a little bit of Lost World in the classroom with my tame peers to ending up lying on my back on the dock and looking up at the stars while talking to Nick about our futures. Neither of us were drinking, people all around were being obnoxious and silly, but it was comfortable and fun. After a little while I fell asleep and Nick woke me up to go to bed. We brushed our teeth and said good night just like siblings do.

The next day was another free day as we were waiting for our algae to grow, and I was desperate for an adventure. I was flipping through the guide books on the big book shelf and found this really cool hike. No one would commit until finally blessed Michelle agreed to it in 30 sec and we were out the door in 10min...Casey tagged along too.  The hike is called Three Coconuts Pass and the trailhead is somewhere in Opunohu (the next bay over).  We just started walking in that direction in hopes of hitchhiking...after about 40 min, we were half way to Opunohu...enter Romey. A big jeep like truck pulls up behind us and beckons us into the back and me into the front seat.  Romey is ajovial character...big girn on his face. Asks us where we are going and offers to drive us right to the trailhead.  I talk to him in broken French and he in broken English.  He has lived in Moorea all his life. A fisherman at heart. A man who loves life.  Thank goodness he drove us to the trailhead...he was zooming and it was a 20min drive! We hoped out and wished each other a "bonne journee" and headed for the trailhead.  The guidebook I had gave us incredibly detailed directions that really made no sense when reading it and not seeing the trail: "turn right at a big rock after the pig farm." We crossed a stream and were immediately immersed in the rain forest.  It was breathtaking...lush, green, moist, and the craziest trees growing every which way with roots that stuck out 2-3ft from the ground in sheets that wined into the ground.  Along the way, Casey, Michelle, and I played 20 questions (the one where you are given the initials of a person), talked of dreams, goals, funny stories, put each classmate into a Hogwarts house, and recapped childhood memories.  The path had been freshly marked with red spray-paint dots that could be found on trees, rocks, plants.  If it werent for these markers, we surely would have gotten lost.  After about an hour of furious hiking, we crossed paths with a Frenchman who told us it was 40 min to the top! We trekked on...we reached a point where we could see both bays! It was incredible (picture above). Felt like we were literally on top of the world.  We hiked a little further up the trail and reached a point where we could see the other side of the island (Haapiti Beach...picture with me in it). I have never felt so much jot and awe from a strenuous, sweaty hike.  We checked our watch and realized we needed to boogie to get back to the station by 1pm (Michelle had to start her project then). We literally started running down this mountain. Casey and I literally smacked our heads into branches multiple times. I slipped in mud several times...vans just dont have great traction. At one point, we were sprinting down this steep hill that was at least 200m...i thought for sure one of would eat it. But we all remained on our feet plus a few scream/squeals from me and Michelle laughing behind.  Once we exited the trail, we decided we would check to see if the agriculture school was open...they apparently make bomb homemade ice cream...it was about 1.5miles up the road. It was closed so we turned around and headed home. We walked on the main road for about an hour and a half before someone picked us up. We made it back to Gump at 12:58pm :) Such a tiring day, so I basically slept until dinner and then we ran statistics on our project that night...our data is siginificant! yay!

the other days are kind of blending in together so I will just hit the high points...I got to go dive at the forereef with two other people and Peggy because we were sick when the rest of the class went. I had to be ready to go by 8am..on the boat again = happy girl.  After five min of being in the water, I saw a turtle and got super megafauna happy and bolted towards it. My increased speed ahead of the group got me a scolding but I saw the turtle so it was otayy.  Another couple minutes go by and I see my first shark!! A black tip reef shark! I wasnt scared at all...rather intrigued an i wanted to see more!!! 45 sec later another one!!!!! Such a good dive!  

Im getting sleepy so I will continue tomorrow. Love you all!