Morning Chorus...and DIVING

Today marks our first full day of adventure in Tobago. We did much more than sit on planes! We sat on boats! So my dear brother and I crashed pretty early yesterday because we were whipped from all the travel. I woke up somewhere around 5:30 am and was able to hear the dawn chorus starting. This is a birding term for all the birds getting up in the morning and making a shitton of noise.

5:58 AM, totally worth it

Being the curious lad I am, I got up to investigate who was around. Our main culprit was the bananaquit. No I did not make up that word. They're a tiny honey/fruit eating bird with no shame or fear of humans. They are colorful and very loud

What are you doing Bananaquit? That's a humming bird feeder! You're not even using it correctly!

So I saw plenty of those and much fun was had by me while wandering around. I wont list all the birds I found because most of you are relatively sane and don't want to hear about them. I also found a mammal (other than stray cats and dogs) an agouti! it's a nut/fruit eating South American rodent. I was excited about it ok. Jeeze, stop being so judgmental  Eventually I got my brother wake up (14 minutes before we needed to get to the dive shop), and we went to the dive shop. Then we went diving. Jonah nearly hit me I so was vocally excited. He found me tiresome...

Diving is the best. it is so much fun. we saw tons of fish. damselfish, angelfish, parrotfish, wrasse, triggerfish, a scorpionfish, and that was the first, weaker dive. The second one was even more exciting. We also had company in the form of four very new divers...they were not great with the not crashing into people thing, but one found a green moray so i forgive him. We persevered nonetheless and it was a great dive. We also saw giant spiny lobsters, a massive turtle with exactly 13 inner plates (if you didn't read the Australia blog, i mentioned all turtles and tortoises have 13 inner plates). I also thought I saw an octopus...but realized that either it was an amputated and aware tentacle, or it was a worm. It was a bearded fireworm. For those wondering, it looks like an octopus tentacle. Later on we actually did see an octopus. It was amazingly camouflaged, but once you saw it, it became clear. Still it attempted to maintain the facade of being invisible. It kept opening an eye to check on us. I imagined it's inner monologue going something like "they can't see me, no they cannont. now piss off....are they still there...yes. DAMN close eye fast...but they can't see me..." for about two minutes. Great start to the day, and got right back into diving, not too rusty. the afternoon adventures forthcoming with more pictures and maybe a video

Longest Post Ever, Diving Abridged

Seriously this is the short version of my diving Day 1: I got up around 5:30 or half five as they say here. I was the first picked up in our van. Our driver was named Rocky, a German? woman, at least she taught the course in German. They brought us to the dive shop and had people check their bags get gear, etc. then we got on a boat. We eventually got on to the boat, then we were introduced to the crew and watched a video on safety. I was trying to play the game Spot the Aussie. It was very difficult, the largest group was of British decent, with one guy who sounded exactly like Wallace of Wallace and Gromit. There was also a Dutch contingent, and a Swiss family. The ride out to the first site was about three hours. We had a briefing about it and then hopped in. Five of us elected to not go with a leader. We saw sharks, and tons of fish, but sharks. Found Nemo on the second dive, a ray on the third dive, and then there was the night dive. Again five people elected to not go with a leader. They let me lead for some reason...saw a shark and moray right off the bat...then I kind of went over the reef than around it......whoops. People were a little annoyed. Throughout the day I felt progressively worse. The first dive had killed my ears a bit, and by the end I was sure I would pop and eardrum and not be able to fly home. Early bedtime due to exhaustion of four dives in a day, about twice that of a normal dive day Day 2: Early wake up, but I felt miraculously healed from the sleep. There was something absurd and fantastic on every dive, but I think the highlight would be swimming with a turtle. It was very large and essentially just ignored me as I swam with it for a minute or two. Another cool thing was the night dive. We were looking for this giant turtle, which we did not find. At one point I kicked the sand, and looked down to see a thin eel burying itself in the ground. I later found out it was, appropriately for Australia, called the convict eel. I so saw a group of razorfish, which are cool in the fact that they swim vertically and moved as a group, would get scared as a group, would probably do everything as a group. Finally, right before our ascent, we saw a parrotfish in a bubble. Parrotfish form a mucus bubble around themselves when they sleep which holds in their scent do they can't be found. I had never seen one before, it was awesome. Even earlier bed time due to more exhaustion from another four dive day Day 3: Early morning, and then what I refer to as the dawn dive. We saw the biggest parrotfish imaginable, along with a couple sharks that hadn't woken up yet. I also kind of kept getting a little too close and scaring annoying them. They tended to be white-tip reef sharks, not dangerous, but still quite cool. Of course there were tons of other cool fish and such,  just like in every other dive. On the next and last two dives the big things were the enormous turtles that essentially just ignored us or tried to swim away. Right at the end of the last dive, boom giant turtle. Nice way to end the last dive. Then we had to travel back...you could say it was a bit of a bumpy ride. That would be an understatement. One instructor (Rocky) went to bed before it even started because she knew otherwise she would get sick. James, the cook, was taking inventory and a stack of bowls fell and broke. The fridge with all the soda burst open and there were cans all over place. This was despite a bungee chord keeping it closed. Also the two little Swedish girls had to run to the back of the boat. I felt a little bad for them. Another guy literally turned green. I went up to the top of the boat so I could enjoy the rollercoaster to the fullest. Twas fun. Got dropped off, ended up back at the dive shop and then was finally dropped off at hotel. My hair was in such bad condition after 8+ hours of saltwater in three days with no real showers, that I used conditioner, yes conditioner. Don't be alarmed, I survived. Now it's time to start to travel home. Sydney tomorrow, home the next "day"