Today we had another amazing adventure! We did a lot of really cool and unimaginable things throughout the entire day. We started out the morning doing sunrise yoga. At first, I was thinking: “Man, there is no way I can do this! It’s so hard!” but I quickly realized that if I kept saying I couldn’t do it then I was going to miss out on so many things in life. I ended up embracing the experience and really enjoyed the warrior pose! It was beautiful to do yoga while looking over the water during the sunrise. I will never forget that!
After breakfast, our adventure took us to another part of the island the researchers called “Down Island.” On this trip, we jumped into a place called “the ocean hole.” The ocean hole is beautiful swimming area that has trees and vegetation growing all around it. The area was once flat land but was weathered and eroded away. The hole is about 500-600m deep! It was so fun to snorkel there and jump off the cliff. The water was a very pretty and clear blue color that you would think you could see right through it. We were so amazed at all the beautiful and unique fish that swam by.
We were also so excited to jump off and to see other people jump off. One by one we all took turns jumping of the edge into the ocean hole. Some of us even jumped over and over again.
Jessica, on jumping:
“Every time I jumped, I got such an exhilarating feeling that I couldn’t settle down, even after I hit the water. One of the best feelings you can ever get is from being able to do something you would never be able to do on your own, and having someone support you every step of the way.”
On the Down Island trip, we also hiked to a part of the woods where we got to see a special kind of tree called the Banyan tree.
The Banyan tree is a vine-like tree that can grow around the trunks of the trees nearby. The banyan was so tall you would think it was a couple hundred years old but it turns out that it was only eighty years old. When we heard that, we were so surprised. It was so unbelievable to see! While we were exploring, we learned many things. Around the Banyan tree, Stan gave us a little history lesson about the Bahamas. We learned that the origin of the island name, Eleuthera, came from the Greek word “eleutheros” meaning “freedom”.
Another thing that made this day special for us was that we all went out to eat together. We ate at a place called Sharil’s Inn. One of the things that made it special was that it was a family-style dinner. We sat at a long table all together and had fun laughing and joking with each other. We also had a good time tasting the different flavours of the foods and drinks that they have on Eleuthera! We ate the food and had many conversations. Whether we realized it or not, we were slowly becoming closer and closer, and I truly loved that.