Semana Santa East Coast Style

This year Semana Santa feel on the last week in March which Noelle, Chalin, Ryan and I decided to treat ourselves to one last big trip.  We took off on Friday to Little Corn Island.  I had been twice before to spend a few days with my mom and Kevin when he visisted, but was never able to finish my Scuba Diving certification.  This time, I was determined and so glad I made the investment.  The four of us hippies had a sweet group dynamic and an amazing time together on this island of no shirts or shoes. The four of us snuggled up in a cabin at Casa Iguana enjoying basil mojitos and our own little private stretch of beach.  Granted this time around I didn’t linger on the beach as much I spent underwater exploring. 

When I tried scuba diving the last time I was on Little Corn I immediately feel in love with the underwater world.  There is an immense difference form snorkeling and free diving versus floating at the ocean bottom amongst sea creatures and their habitat.  Since I’m typically in to more “high impact” sports I wasn’t sure if I was going to get hooked or not, but my obsession with the sea took over.  The mermaid in me found complete serenity floating over the coral reefs and ducking under shelves and arches searching for sea life. Some of the highlights where encountering a ancient female sea turtle with the enormous amount of barnacles on her back revealing her age.  On that same dive we saw Dolphins before diving down and could hear their clicking noises underwater and enormous puffer fish with one eye When I was finally certified I went on a night dive which proved to be magical as  we turned off our flood lights to see the bioluminescence which were activated with each kick of my fin.  I swam amongst various sea turtles that decided to leave the comfort of the caves in the coral as I passed over them.  My last dive Chalin and I went with a dive master who was hunting Lionfish with a spear gun since they are not native to these islands.  As he killed and collected more fish the blood started to attract other creatures, two of them being Nurse Sharks.  As they tracked the sent you could see their bodies twitcing back and forth.  It was a feeding frenzy as the dive master fed them the fish one by one of the end of his spear.  Even though he was handing over their prey dead, the sharks still acted like they were on the hunt which was amazing to see as we floated only feet above them.

The diving was truly amazing, but Noelle and I got a sweet snorkel sesh in as well where we saw an enormous Eagle Ray. When I wasn’t pruning in the salt water or on the boat I was playing volleyball, chillen, or stuffing my face with amazingly fresh seafood. 

The four of us conveniently were in the same place as far as pursuing grad school after Peace Corps and agreed that this would be our last shebang before hunkering down to save for school.  In fact the night we decided to go all out with a big group and eat at the nicest place for dinner was the evening I checked my email on Ryan’s phone to find out that I had been awarded a merit scholarship to USC cutting my tuition in half!  The trip was an awesome chance to process all of these changes and opportunities before me.  We drank well ate like Kings for no more than $8 a night.  We indulged in margaritas, crack Pina coladas, run down seafood soup, lobster, coconut bread French toast, pork ribs and so much more.

I left Little Corn with a clearer view of what my next few years were going to look like and finalized that I could live with my buddy Chalin at USC after 5 nights of living on top of each other in our little cabin.