7:00 Breakfast
7:30 Marine Bio Field Trip "Coral Reefs"
11:00 Scuba Pool Lesson
12:30 Lunch
4:30 Marine Bio Class
7:00 Dinner
8:00 Scuba Class
Today we went on a cool field trip to a coral reef! It was a reef right off the shore so we could wade in from the beach. We had to wear our sandals because of the sea urchins! "I walked at first but it was really unpredictable where your next step would take you. I got a sea urchin spine in my heel, it throbbed." I switched to snorkeling once we got to about 2 feet of water. When it was shallower I was afraid of my legs, knees or chest touching or scraping the bottom. "When I went to stand up I lost balance, falling over onto a pile of sea urchins. Right into my leg and hand went a bunch of spines. I could pull the ones out of my leg, they left a nasty spot of bloody pin pricks." After that we had to squat in the water to do our experiment. I was fascinated by the stuff around us, I'd never seen a coral reef before! There were lots of little fish, sea cucumbers, a pipe fish and coral I couldn't identify. "It was was not comfortable to be squatting in the water with urchin spines 10cm long under your butt!" 
Back at the resort I asked Doctor John (our Canadian doctor who was traveling with us) to cut and tweeze out the spines in my heel and thumb. I felt waves of nausea and pain. He couldn't get the tip of the spine out of my thumb and said as it healed it would get pushed out.... 10 years later, I still have that sea urchin spine in my right thumb and can still feel it.
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