We went to Turtle Hole this morning to snorkle. There were 16 of us who went. We divided into two groups. We had classes previously where we learned about all the vegetation, sea animals and everything we may see in the water. The instructors were fantastic. I had snorkled many times before, but I learned so much more this time. They went over every step and made sure that each one of us knew how to do each thing we were taught before we ever started out on day one. I still don't know all the names of the fish I saw, but I liked the school of pretty blue fish the best. We saw a lobster. We each have a buddy that we are always with and we will point out to each other when we see something special we think they may like to see. We snorkeled about 2 1/2 hours today. After lunch we went to another beach and just played in the waves and had lots of fun for about 3 hours. After about 2 hours, Phill asked if we were ready to go back. No one wanted to go back, so we stayed another hour, just time to take a shower and get ready for supper. I think it is fantastic that I can be with other people that like the water as much as I do.

 

Missy turned "sweet 16" today. The cook made a pineapple cake with delicious cream cheese frosting. There were 16 candles wrapped in leaves of a palm tree, very creative and tasty. It took two breaths to blow out all the candles.

 

Our class after supper was on trash. There were two teams of young students from about 15 to 23 years old who had to find trash on the beach and build a trash castle. Us older adults were the judges. They were both very creative, but we picked a winning team who would be able to be first in line for food tomorrow. The instructor pointed out how we all have to be more concerned with what we throw away no matter where we live.

 

I am looking forward to beach time tomorrow!

 

Lorraine

Hello parents and friends! You have probably noticed that we have not been able to post pictures of the group this week (July 19-25). We will continue to write the blogs and will have pictures posted as soon as we fix the technical glitch.  

Tara

We arose to a stunning sunrise, just to the right of clouds creating a miriad of colors stretching across the sky. We then ate delectable french toast, and then went diving. Outpost reef is phenomenal even though it lies just 30 yards off shore. Tons of coral, huge heads of Elk horn coral, brain coral, and fire coral. There were trigger fish, parrot fish, schools of chubs, blue tangs, and grunts. It was a great dive, that lead to a trip to town to eat Stubbs Bar-be-que. A Bahamian style bar-be-que filled everyone's belly We then returned home for a cornecopia of activities that included diving, kayaking, beach volleyball, and shelling. Jamie had a wonderful class on the Web of Life and Corals. We look forward to tomorrow.

 

-Tiburon 

What a great day it was in the marine paradise! We woke up to Jamie's conch horn blowing followed by a hearty pancake breakfast.  After some debriefing we headed to the ocean.   Every one of the students did an excellent job today becoming accustomed to the water.  We started in Alabaster Bay which is a shallow, calm area perfect for learning.  They soaked it all in and were free diving in no time.  In the afternoon we went back out to Alabaster and swam over some active reefs where some of us saw a lion fish, while others saw baracudas, stingrays, and nearly endless schools of fish.  We ate  bar-b-qued chicken for dinner and learned about the different adaptations of the many fish we will see this week.  Tomorrow we look forward to diving right in front of where we are staying, which should be a highlight of the week. We will follow this up with a traditional bahamian bar-b-que in James Cistern a local town. 

We have had a fantastic week and are looking forward to our luxuries at home. We did our longest dive today, at Current Cut. We saw stingrays, starfish the size of the our heads, sea urchins even bigger than that, and a few barracudas. We also picked up conchs and sand dollars to bring home (those should be fun to pack!). We're set for souveneirs, still sandy from beach volleyball, and stuffed silly from our crab salad picnic on the beach. When 6 am rolls around we'll be watching the sunrise and getting ready to come home even though we're not ready. See you soon!

Ms.Vogt

We had a wonderful time at Naked German beach this morning. Some of the highlight fish included hudreds of grunts in rivers of fish. We also saw a couple triggerfish, a black durgon, lobster, schools of blue tang, a eel, a flounder, and many flamingo tongues on the sea fans. After the fun dive we went to the Rainbow Cliffs. Jamie entertained everyone with a captivating talk on the geology of Eleuthera, erosion, and the Sahara dust that has added to the strata found in the cliffs. We meandered amongst the limestone, down into a couple grottos, and then did some shelling before we headed home. After lunch we offered to different choices of Shipwrech beach or diving around the Outpost. Half went to Shipwreck beach and searched for sea glass and shells. Our booty included dozens of pounds of sea glass of all colors, a king helmet shell, and some gorgeous conchs and tritons. The other group enjoyed the bounty of fish and invertebrates that have made the outpost reef their home. Dinner was Pauline's famous Lasagna, and then everyone enjoyed Jim's History talk. He wowed them with artifacts found on Eleuthera and his wild adventures finding many of the sites that we go to. The night wanes and we dream of Current Cut.

 

-Tiburon 

Turtle hole was loads of fun yesterday. The hike in was full of interesting plants to see, even a few huge cacti plants! Many of the sinkholes we passed were providing the perfect home for banana spiders to spin their webs. Once we got there, we donned our gear and thankfully got into the cooling water. We saw so much!!!! We saw a turtle in the cove, an entire school of squid, a few cleaning stations, rivers of fish, squirrel fish, parrot fish, blue tangs, soldierfish, doctorfish, and more and more...The second dive was fun for students to try out their free diving skills. We went to a swim through and many of them tried it out. Their skills have improved so much!

 

After diving we hiked back out and enjoyed a breezy ride back to the outpost. For the afternoon we allowed independent activities and a few people went out to snorkel the outpost with their buddy. Most of us decided a good cat nap was the best option after all the hiking and diving. Class was on beach trash and students got to build trash castles while learning about garbage.

 

 

Sorry parents and friends, the internet here is really unpredictable and for the last two days we have been sweet talking it just to make it work. Today it's up and running though, so now we get to fill you in on all our activities! Arrival day went great with two groups coming from Colorado and Wisconsin. They seem to really love the water and the sun! After everyone got aqainted with the view from their dorms and got to play in the waves, we did an introduction game to get everyone familiar with one another. Dinner was great and everyone slept soundly.

 

Yesterday we woke students by the sounds of dogs barking and the conch blowing. We ate a great breakfast of Melvise's french toast and then learned about the island critters and some marine life. We passed out gear and headed over to Alabaster to instruct the students how to use their gear. Learning to clear their mask, their snorkel, and free diving are just a few of the things we instruct the students on in order to make this week a great one. Everyone did fantastic with their skills.

 

That afternoon we dove right out in front of the outpost. The tide was out, so all the structures were fairly low, but there was tons to see, parrot fish, chubs, blue-heads, yellow tailed snappers, damselfish, the list could go on and on...Overall the day was a success and everyone is well on their way to becoming a great snorkeler! What a day!

Greetings from Costa Rica!

 

It was another great week with our second group.  Here are some of the highlights…

 

After the initial 2 days touring in San Jose, the group came down to Puerto Jimenez where we loaded up the trucks and drove out to La Leona Eco-Lodge.  The walk down the beach from the drop-off point to the lodge was beautiful.  This group was from Nebraska and Iowa, so they started right away enjoying the Pacific – playing in the surf all the way down to La Leona.

 

That evening, we took a night hike on the beach to look for nesting sea turtles.  The nesting season has begun, so we were hopeful!  We wound up not seeing any tortugas that night, but the hike was well worth it with all of the different crabs we saw.  In addition, seeing the night sky from Costa Rica is a sight to see!

 

We had great luck with spotting wildlife the next day between the canopy traverse and the La Leona hike.  Some of the animals the group encountered were a spectacled owl, spider monkeys, poison dart frogs, great orb spiders, severe macaws, and coatis.  For a while, it seemed that a spider monkey was following us on the hike!  Even when we were spending time at camp and not necessarily looking for wildlife, it found us in the form of a cat-eyed snake, bats, geckos, marine toads, and lots of whiptails.  Although it was raining, we attempted to take a short night hike to try again for turtles, but the weather conditions won out and we reluctantly decided to turn back.  Some of us did have fun playing an international Scrabble game, though (in Spanish and English J)!

 

The group did a great job repelling down and climbing back up the waterfall.  The weather cooperated for the most part that day, but did rain on us for some time while we were at the waterfall.  That evening, the students presented their Creature Features they had been researching and working on. 

 

We woke up to a very rainy final day.  It is a rainforest, after all!  After some delay and without much faith that the weather was going to clear, we had the flexibility of options.  We weren’t going to let the rain get us down!  Some of the group decided to stay and take advantage of the beach.  The rest of the group did not want to miss the opportunity to see one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, Corcovado National Park, and trudged on with poncho gear with Reade on a shortened hike.  Despite the initial rain, they had great success seeing wildlife within very close proximity to the trail.  The sun did wind up making an appearance which made the hike back to Carate down the beach much more enjoyable.  We spent that afternoon exploring Puerto Jimenez. 

 

The next day, we, again, woke up to a very rainy start.  But, we persevered and took the Delphin Blanco boat tour across the Golfo Dulce and visited the wildlife sanctuary.  On our walk to the dock, we were escorted by one of the neighborhood dogs.  He apparently also was looking forward to dolphin watching because he walked down the dock with the intention of getting onto the boat.  When his plan was thwarted, he took to the water and tried to swim out to us.  We stopped at another dock to pick up passengers, and, you guessed it – he was there waiting!  We again had great success spotting spotted dolphin on this trip.  It was the same pod as before and they were extremely active.  Again, the weather cleared and the day was beautiful!  The students were able to cool off in the Gulf off of a picturesque private beach.  When we pulled into the Wildlife Sanctuary, we were met by Carol, one of the owners, on the shore with a tiny, injured howler monkey wrapped in a blanket.  They were bringing it to San Jose the next day for surgery and, in fact, wound up being on the same flight the next morning as some of the group.  The resident monkeys were again very social, following us as we toured the facility and hitching rides on some of the students!  A couple of students were able to hold Rhonda, a resident sloth, and experience first-hand how those claw-like toes work.  One we returned, we spent the rest of the day walking around and shopping in town – even briefly joining a futbol game with some of the local kids.  Our dinner at the Mango Real restaurant was fantastic and it was a nice way to end a great week.

 

On our walk to the airport the next morning, we had one more up close glimpse of Osa wildlife seeing white-faced capuchin monkeys in the mangrove along the way. 

 

Our next group arrived today and we are excited to see what adventures await us!  I will report back later.

 

Ciao!

Anne

Our final day of diving startred out just beautiful. The drive was pleasant and we were excited to get in the water. The current was going ou,t so some of us got in right by the dock, while others walked down to the harbor for a more scenic and slow dive. The North shore of current cut was full of great things to see. A barracuda slinked up to us for a closer look and Adam found two octopus! Students enjoyed searching for sand dollars and sea biscuits on the sandy shore. After that we walked back to the truck and had a fantastic picnic on the shore. Our second dive was cut short becuase the current switched directions shortly after we got back in to it. It was still a blast though and now these students can say they got to drift a current!

 

Pam's Island Made Gift shop was open just for us becuase of the Bahama's day of independence. I think everyone found what they were looking for. Several even enjoyed ice cream over at Ida's.

 

Yesterday we got to handle a boa constrictor and there are a few more photo's that Julie shared with us. I found that snake in my outdoor shower hunting for an opening to get in the shed for some rodents. She was an awesome find and many of the girls got the chance to prove their bravery with handling her! Even some of the more skittish girls took a turn, so way to go!

 

Tomorrow is departure day and everyone is tucked away in bed, dreaming about palm trees and sunshine. This had been such a great week!!!

 

 

Today was another wonderful day on Eleuthera!

We started our day with another great breakfast!  The food here is wonderful.

Our morning dive took us right out in front of the house.  No getting in the trucks this morning!  It was amazing to see the reef in the water that we have been enjoying looking at all week.  We saw some schools of fish, but the best part was the huge coral structures.  After the dive, we had some time for independent snorkeling and also some hanging out on the beach time.

We had grilled hamburgers for lunch and an hour later headed out for our afternoon dive.  We tried to go to Hidden Beach, but the waves were too big, so we headed to Alabaster Bay (the nice calm beautiful bay where we had our initial checkout dive).

After our burrito dinner, we hiked out on the road to see the sunset.  Wow - the sun is so beautiful setting over the ocean!

Tonight's class was a candlelit history talk given by Jim.  It's so neat to hear all his stories about the history of the island and to see the artifacts that he's collected over the years. 

Hope you all are enjoying our pictures!

Julie from Iowa :)

Today was an exilerating day!! We started off with a beatiful sunrise-- one of the best of the summer! and with some french toast for the long day that was ahead of us.  We headed off to Naked German Beach!  Surprisingly, there were no naked germans! We split up into our different dive groups and both groups had the opportunity to see a shark!  We saw a bunch of cool things like flamingo tounges and parrot fish!  We finished our dive then headed off to rainbow cliffs; we got to climb the cliffs and look for shells!  We got some hotdogs, fruit,and pasta salad.  After that we went to a shipwreck beach and found a bunch of sea glass and played in the waves for awhile!  We headed home and hung out, had dinner and then went to class where we made trash castles on the beach!  IT soon got late, our eyes felt sleepy and we rested our heads on the homey pillows that were provided by Wild Studies :)

 

Chelsea and Val

The Blog is a new addition to our website. I want to let you all know about a FABULOUS group of women we had here in March during a time when blogging was just a twinkle in our eye. I was looking over the photos and testimonials and thinking about the fun adventures, laughs, and new experiences we all shared. The hardest part about doing what I do is that I have to say goodbye to all of the wonderful and interesting people I meet in paradise. We have hosted Wild Women here at our field station in the Bahamas once a year for about 4 years and a trip to Costa Rica as well. There are probably some Moms, sisters, gal pals, and daughters  out there that would love the opportunity to explore Eleuthera like no tourist will ever do. The program we offer Women is the same as the students but we add cocktails and a little more sassiness! In addition to learning outdoor skills like snorkeling and kayaking we provide lots of R&R if you want to lay on the beach and exciting adventures if you are the get and explore type. There is something for everyone. Our cottages are rustic to blend with the beautiful scenery but modern with hot showers and indoor toilets. The finely knit screens keep the bugs out and the ocean lapping against the shore provides a soothing and stress-free atmosphere. Coffee at sunrise, cocktail hour at sunset, no phones or email, combing undeveloped beaches, mingling with friendly locals, snorkeling fish filled tropical waters, kayaking on shallow white sand flats, too many shades of blue to count...you get the point. Paradise. You can learn more about our property in the Bahamas by going to www.outposthotel.com We are in the process of designing the 2008 schedule. Let us know if you want to be included on our Wild Women's Adventure's email. There is a Costa Rica Adventure planned February 2008. Click here to learn more: http://wildstudies.com/wildwomen/costarica08.asp and a Bahamas Blue Adventure planned for March 20-28, 2008 click here to learn more:

Not sure what type of women participate in our Wild Women Adventures??  Read the bios of some of our last participants and be sure to clck on the photo album in the Photo Gallery!

 

Contact tara@wildstudies.com to be added to our email list for upcoming trips! If your kids can travel with us, you deserve to as well.

 

__________________________________________________________________________________

By Lisa Higginbottom:

I have been teaching high school in Detroit at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High for 26 years. I teach Earth Science, Biology, Environmental Science, Physiology and Anatomy to 11th and 12th graders. I attended the Wild Women Week with my sister-in-law Gail Chapman. While attending the adventure I met many new and wonderful people.

Day 3....

 

This morning we were woken up by the conch shell/ the dogs going crazy!  Breakfast was delicious pancakes and fruit.  American food, YAY!  We then shoved 2o people into the back of a truck and trekked through the cacti and sink holes for 30 minutes, and we finally reached our destination, Turtle Hole.  Swimming along the four-finger shaped coral reef encountering sea turtles, baracuda, and a nurse chark and a caribbean reef shark. While we were snorkeling we were able to take many pictures with our underwater cameras of tropical fish and other exotic animals.  Before leaving, we deep dove to 25 feet and were able to swim through a natural tunnel/arch/hole.  Racing back to the trucks through the brush again, we made it back to J C Beach for a fabulous BBQ lunch.  Ribs, chicken and many sides were on the menu.  WE were thankful for finally being able to drink something COLD!!!!  After lunch, we were sweaty and exhausted, all climbed back into the truck and headed to The Hatchet Bay Cave.  First floor, many bats.  Second floor, stalagmites and stalagtites.  Third floor, waste deep, underground, bracken lake (salt/ fresh water).  Wicked awesome, after wading through numerous caverns, we came upon red clay. We came out of the cave looking like warriors!  ARGH! On the way home, there were multiple debates between pronounciation of the Iowa clan and the MinnesoDA clan!  It was quite hilarious.  By the way mom, we have some beautiful stained clothing you get to decide what to do with! :)  Tired, and disgusting, we were excited to come home for a refreshing dip in the ocean.  Relaxing the rest of the afternoon in the beautiful sunshine.  Dinner once again was amazing, and we devoured banana nut cake! YUM!   WE LOVE THE COOKS! Ending the night with a entertaining group game, and a interesting lecure on coral! We are now heading outside to the beachhouse where we are able to listen to the ocean and gaze upon the twinkling midnight stars.  Goodnight for now, love and miss you all!  (Even though we are totally against leaving anytime soon......  :) ) 

 

That's SO ISH!

 

ST, EB, and SO

 

 

We let the students sleep in a half an hour today after all their traveling...the dogs were really disappointed when they couldn't howl to the conch at 7 sharp. After a great breakfast we headed over to Alabster Bay for the snorkel checkout. We split the groups into 3 and iwent nto the water to learn our snorkel skills. We saw a ray, an eel, several crabs, some angel fish, some grouper, and even a drum fish!

 

This afternoon we went to JC beach for a dive and students worked on their free diving skills, some of them are getting really good! We saw a hogfish, another angelfish, some grouper, and some mermaids! Haha...ok, but maybe some mermaid seaweed. Actually, some independent snorkelers did luck out and saw an octopus!

 

Phil taught his lesson on fish tonight and everyone had some time to enjoy the great stars afterwards. It's lightning off to the north and everyone is tucked away in their dorms...hopefuly we can get in to turtle hole tomorrow!

The 2 groups arrived on time and in great moods. Within minutes they were already diving in to the beautiful waters. This should be an amazing week, and the groups already have taken time to start their homework assignment.  For parents checking our blog, please feel free to write in our guest book and leave comments on photos. We had a delectable spaghetti dinner, and wonderful dinner conversation. But with long flights, I think everyone will turn in early tonight, with dreams of Alabaster Bay snorkel check out dancing in their heads.

 

-Tiburon