It’s Sunday so we only surveyed this morning- the heli dropped us in a terrible swordgrass and a’a field near a nice looking gulch. We stumbled around and finally got to the snails without breaking any legs. Small miracle.
S.M. just can’t stop dropping things! First it was the $250 marine band, 2-way radio dropped down a lava hole before the helicopter was even completely off the ground. Then he lost his gloves….then he dropped the only live Achatina we’ve seen down a hole… and today…he dropped his pen. It’s totally hysterical and he will be hearing about it for a good long time.
With our afternoon off, the boys and I decided to snorkel our way down the coast from the beachside saline lake, a ways north from camp. The lake was creepy…too warm, murky, tilapia building egg mounds and sh*t. We opted for the ocean. The rock formations were great and the coral heads not as developed as we’d expected though we did see many wonderful fish and colorful corals. The water gets very deep very quickly which might be one reason we saw two white tipped reef sharks. One took quite a shine to us and followed us for a good 20 minutes. I was the first to opt for getting out of the water (after 20 minutes) but the rest of the gang wasn’t far behind.
Food: Lunch was spaghetti and sauce with ubiquitous SPAM. It was a bit of overkill but at least did not actually involve killing. Tonight the camp team killed a goat and a pig and an octopus. Unfortunately it was the same octopus seen today by D.S. who felt incredibly guilty about disclosing its location. None of it was prepared anything close to delicious. I opted mostly for granola bars and leftover pancakes.
Coffee cups are a prized commodity. Currently the team has four that are in rotation among the 8 of us. No matter how early I get up, I never seem to get in the first round.
We’ve been eating a lot of the bits from the MREs (meal ready to eat). They have raisins and peanut butter crackers and usually some kind of candy or snack. The entrees are worth passing over or trading (for more peanut butter). Kevin raved about the chocolate shake for days. I ate my last packet of coconut M&Ms. They were delicious.
