I'm On a Boat!

After watching a stunning sunrise while walking to the lab in the morning, I fixed myself a cup of coffee and speed reviewed my notes.

Sunrise in Chora

As soon as class started at 7:00am, the entire class wrote the juvenile osteology bell ringer followed by the lab methods theory test. I suppose it’s too early to really judge it but the bell ringer seemed to go incredibly well. I took a lot of time on the dentition questions because I really struggled with adult dentition, and other than that there was only one question that had me a bit stumped. We were allotted 2 minutes per question, and I finished nearly every station in under 15 seconds! The theory test was a bit more difficult; I think I spent too much time studying for the other component. Oh well – I feel fairly confident about both tests.

After breakfast (new favorite creation: cornflakes and greek yogurt with a drizzle of Astypalaia honey… delicious) we had about an hour of free time before the boat came to pick us up! Emily, Gen, and I decided we should take a team picture with our Tilley hats. The wind picked up as we were trying to do so, and this is the result:

Getting Ready for the Photo shoot

Where'd it Go????

Finally, success!

After the photo attempts, we headed down into the harbor to wait for the boat, which arrived at 11am. We all got onto the boat, and then waved good-bye to Chora and Levadi (where we are staying) and headed South around the tip of the island, and then West along the coast for about an hour. Since the entire island is comprised of extremely steep, giant limestone mountains with a single unpaved curvy road, the best way to see the island is by boat. We followed the coast and the super-blue waters around and saw some giant limestone caves in the side of the mountains, and some mountain goats traversing the nearly vertical drops with ease.

Chora is up on the right; Levadi down to the left (couldn't quite get the angle to see the bay)

Local fisherman by a limestone cave

The first beach we stopped at had about 20 people or so. The captain dropped the anchor, and then we took turns diving off the boat and swimming to a giant cave right on the shoreline. You can swim right into the cave and stand up inside as the water is only waist deep! The cave was big: easily 40 feet deep and 20 feet wide, with the roof of the cave soaring up and above us at xx feet. Many people brought snorkeling gear and followed the schools of fish around the cave walls. After exploring for a bit, most headed to the beach while Gen and I headed back to the boat. When Emily came back from the beach, we all decided to work on our diving / cannonball form by jumping off again and then climbing back aboard when our colleagues returned.

Taking a swim

Our boat!

Then it was off to beach 2! Beach 2 was smaller than the first with about 10 people total. There was also this random little tiki bar… when we all went in for a beer the owner looked like he had never seen so many people in his life! In fact, his son went around to the front of the bar and took a photo on his phone. After a while the owner brought around free shots for all of us and thanked us all for stopping by. After the beer pit stop, the wind really kicked up so the little dinghy came back to pick most people up. I decided to challenge my swimming skills and swim back – man was it hard work! I made it though, and was really happy with how much stronger I’ve gotten in the last week.

Awesome Beach Bar

Then, holding on to our hats, we went to beach #3 which was completely abandoned. After another brief swim, we were fed a gigantic lunch on the boat before hanging about lazily for another hour. As soon as lunch was over I pulled out my fancy long-sleeved surfing SPF – 70 sunshirt and board shorts, and am I ever glad I did. Many people wore sunscreen and long shirts/trousers but were terribly burned by the end of the trip anyway. After lunch and lazy time we headed back to Levadi, where the boat operators dropped us off at around 6pm.

Today was incredible: the bright blue sky and the crystal clear water keep making me think that I am on vacation instead of being here to work. Having said that, I am extremely excited to get back into the lab tomorrow morning to keep working on the twin excavation.