Happy Holidays

So it’s Christmas here and we had a big potluck breakfast on the beach and did a secret santa. It was amazing. There is nothing like waking up hung over to mimosas and pancakes with lemon and sugar while watching sharks and turtles swim by as the tide moves out.

I know it has been ages since my last post and I have little excuse for not keeping up to date. It has been absolutely amazing out here on Lizard Island and I guess I have felt that it would be extremely boring to read a dozen posts about someone else’s fabulous travels. Thus, I have saved the ups and downs, highs and lows, good times and bad times all for this Christmas/New Years posting.

The Good:
I have now seen eight different shark species and almost as many ray species. I have seen dozens of nudibranchs, the largest lion fish I’ve ever seen, the largest octopus I’ve ever seen, schools of thousands of barracudas, schools of hundreds of jacks and schools of dozens of squids. The other day I saw bat fish that lay on their side and a shark get its teeth cleaned by cleaner shrimp a few feet from me. I have witnessed the disgusting (and smelly) act of coral spawning like there’s no tomorrow as well as fish spawning like there’s no tomorrow. And, I saw a pod of 6 – 10 blue whales from a mountain (which much like the whale shark, I alone spotted and no one believed until another group came upon them two days later, and another group and another group).

The Bad:
Don’t purchase Canon cameras! My camera broke almost immediately upon arriving here. I sent it to Canon and paid $85 to fix a $0.49 fuse and they sent it back not working, I sent it away again and got it back yesterday not working for the second time. Thus, I have been without camera this trip, which has been a major bummer. However, I have been collecting photos from other people and borrowing cameras and these photos can be found at flickr.com/photos/jhines/ (also the photos on the right should link to my other photos on flickr).

The research I was assisting on ended recently and I am now just volunteering for the station, which is alright. It means less diving and more free time. It also means a lot of grunt labor like digging deep holes for compost, during which my iPod broke from intense sweating.

The Ugly:
I reckon I have had five of the top 10 best parties of my life here over the past month and a half (Again, pics to be found on my flickr site). The party themes have been a crazy hat party, a disco line dance party (head lamps tied to a ceiling fan make for an awesome strobe light), a table dance party / naked rugby, and a night at the resort staff bar / naked mud slinging in the ocean. Obviously much of these pics I can’s post, but there are some good ones up.

So I was planning on celebrating my 30th in San Francisco, but due to my grandfather being sick, I am coming home a bit early. I will be in Albuquerque from Jan 12 –19. I still will celebrate my birthday over the three-day weekend of the 17th. Hopefully this means you NM folk can join in the festivities (TBD) and anyone who can make it from out of town will have a place to crash.

Hope all is well. Happy Holidays. Miss you. Jarrett