Our Summer Vacation - Days 1 and 2 (Arriving at the Carnival Victory and St. Thomas) - Blogged by JME

When N8 returned from Germany at the end of July last year, we decided that we needed to go on a nice vacation, just him and I. At the time, I was still finishing school and so we postponed it so I could finish my current classes. By the time I finished the semester in December, some things were up in the air with an opening for a Chaplain's Assistant in the Air National Guard, and so we postponed the trip again until we had a more solid idea about N8's career. When N8 was hired in March with the Air Guard, we decided to wait until after my graduation and his enlistment that would be taking place in May. Finally, at the beginning of June, almost a whole year later, we decided we either need to take this vacation before life takes over again. After much thought, and because we are DINKS (Double Income-No Kids) we decided to go on a cruise. We'd been on one before for our honeymoon, but that was over seven years ago, and so decided it was time to go again. This vacation would be a celebration of N8's return from Germany, my accomplishment of getting my associates degree, the job offer N8 received to transfer to the Air Guard, and our seven year anniversary, which we celebrated in April. The first day of our cruise was mostly travel. Our airplane took off at 12:55 am on August 28th and took us to Atlanta, where we had a connecting flight to San Juan. Once in San Juan, we boarded the Carnival Victory and spent the rest of the day exploring the ship. There were a lot of options of things to do. I was really excited that there was a miniature golf course. We also had a slide on the deck and some pools and hot tubs.
 

St. Thomas

Driving on the wrong side of the road

The next day, August 29th, we arrived at St. Thomas. We took a cab to get to our destination. Fear took over as the cab pulled onto the road. We noticed that it was driving on the left side, opposite of how we drive here. That's pretty hard to get used to.

Feeding the Sharks

N8 and I spent the day at Coral World. We had made reservations for the Sea Trek, but the whole park, although small, was amazing and educational. First, we watched some of the guides feed the baby lemon sharks and the nurse sharks. As they fed them, they told us about them. They taught us that a momma shark will go to shallow water to give birth to her young. Once the baby is born, the mom leaves the baby to learn how to hunt by itself. Also, the nurse sharks get their name because of the way they eat. They have large throat cavities and use this to suck in their prey. Their sucking is so strong, they can suck a conch out of its shell. We heard them suck while they were eating and it was pretty loud. We also had an opportunity to touch a shark after the presentation.

Touching a shark

Next, we went over to the sting ray exhibit, where we were able to touch and play with the sting rays and also feed them. We gave them pieces of shrimp and fish. They are very friendly and playful creatures. The guide told us that the sting ray only has its stinger to use as a protection against predators. It is very dangerous for a sting ray to use this defence mechanism and it may be in vain. The stinger has jagged edges, so if it embeds itself into something, it is stuck, like an arrow. The sting ray then looses its stinger, which is like loosing a fingernail. It hurts the sting ray and also makes it bleed, causing it to be in danger of a shark, who can smell one drop of blood in one billion drops of water. If the sting ray survives, it may grow back another stinger, but during the many months of growing the new one back, it has no weapon to defend itself. That does not mean that a sting ray is completely helpless. Stinger or no stinger, the sting ray has been given other ways of avoid predators and to survive. One thing that a sting ray will do, is cover itself with sand. It does this for two reasons. One reason, of course, if for protection from predators. The other reason is to protect it from the sun. Sting rays have very sensitive skin and use the sand like sunscreen. Being in the sun for too long may cause the sting ray to become very sick. Also, sting rays can "tan". The darker the sting ray, the more time it has spent in the sun. The sting ray must cover itself completely to avoid being seen by predators and to protect itself from the sun. Being covered completely blocks the sting rays gills and makes it so it cannot breathe through them; however, they have little pockets behind their eyes that suck in air and they are able to exhale underneath their bodies, so it does not disturb the sand covering the sting ray.

Mr. Sting Ray

The sting ray comes to the wall when it is being fed. They need to be pulled away from the wall so that the food may be dropped in their mouth. N8 is in the process of pulling one away from the wall to drop a piece of fish or shrimp into the sting ray's mouth.

N8 feeding the sting ray

So far, we had only been at Coral World for about an hour, and had already pet a shark and fed and played with a sting ray, not to mention learning so many neat things about the animals we were interacting with. Next, we did a Sea Trek. It was kind of like walking on the moon. We put on a helmet that was about 75 pounds that had a tube pumping in a large amount of oxygen, causing our helmets to be high pressured, enough to keep water out. They put the helmet on our heads as we were heading down a ladder into the water, so we didn't really feel the weight of it. They also had us each wear a black glove. They told us this was so that we would be able to hold on to the rail and chain they use to help us walk around the ocean bottom.

Sea Trek Helmets

JME getting ready to go on the Sea Trek. 

Helmet being placed and JME heading down the ladder.

Once on the ocean floor, we had to give the guide a sign to let them know that we were okay. We had to use signs as that was the only way we were able to communicate. They instructed us NOT to give them the 'thumbs up' sign, as that meant that we were not having a good time and wanted to go back up. Instead we were to give them the sign for 'okay'. We followed the guides as they showed us around and helped us explore.

N8 giving the okay sign

JME following the group as the guide led us around

The guide had us gather together as a group. He then took out food and started throwing it at our helmets. A ton of fish flocked around us to eat the food. It was so crazy to watch them come right up to our faces.

Feeding the fish

As we continued walking around, the guide would find little sea creatures for us to hold. The first thing we held looked like a sea urchin, although it wasn't. When we held it, it would suction itself to us so that we could hold it upside down and it would stay attached to our hand. We couldn't talk to each other, so the guides weren't able to let us know exactly what we were holding, but everything was really cool.

We stopped numerous times as the guides passed around each creature. While waiting, I started leaning on an algae-covered chain that we used to help us get around. Suddenly, I felt some stinging on my right upper arm, right around the area where the chain was touching. I thought maybe I had scraped against a part of the chain and got scratched. The salt water didn't help but made my arm sting all the more. I noticed some fish swimming around the algae-covered pole that attached to the chain and got down to get a better look. As I grabbed the pole, the fish came up to my arm and started biting me. It alarmed me and it hurt. I tried to wave it away as I would have a wasp, but it is more difficult to try to wave something away while 20 feet under water. I realized that the stinging that I thought was the chain was from the fish biting me. I stepped away from the chain and just tried to keep away from the fish and that seemed to help. I tried to tell N8. I pointed at my arm and chomped my teeth. N8 smiled at me. I'm not sure he knew what I was trying to say. As we walked a little more, I had to grab the chain again, and as I did, I felt a tug on my glove. I looked down just in time to see another fish bite me. This time N8 saw. N8 just laughed and laughed, not realizing how much it hurt.

JME not having much fun anymore because of the fish bites.

Later, after we had climbed out and as we were drying off, I mentioned to the guide that I had been bit by a fish. A couple other people in our group said that they had too. The guide smiled and told us they were Damselfish. Damselfish grow and harvest their own algae and are very territorial. Basically, the fish biting us was just telling us to get off their lawn. Apparently, that was what the black glove was for that they gave us to wear for while we were holding on to the chain. I wished they had told me. I would have been a little more prepared.

Damselfish

Aside from the aggressive Damselfish, we had a great time and it was an amazing experience.

N8 and JME trying to give each other a kiss through our helmets.

N8 climbing out of the ocean after Sea Trek.

Coral World had so much to offer. We would recommend this place to anyone going to St. Thomas. One thing that we were kind of disappointed we were not able to do was feed the birds. It wasn't tuppence a bag, but it was $3 for a cup of nectar. The birds would land all over whoever was feeding them, just like on Mary Poppins. It was really cool. We tried to do it, but when we went over, the birds were all full, and then we never got a chance to go back. We did get to walk around the enclosure and see all of the birds. They were beautiful.

One thing that we couldn't help but notice in St. Thomas was the amount of Iguana's we saw everywhere.

One Iguana

Two Iguanas

Four Iguanas

Everywhere we looked, it seemed like the Iguanas were multiplying. It was like seeing pigeons at Central Park in New York. There were signs everywhere that read, "Do not feed the Iguanas," but a little family decided that they were an exception and kept dropping food off of their table to feed them. They had 12 iguanas around them. Their son reached down to feed one of them and got bit. He was okay but it startled him quite a bit. As he was screaming, one of the Iguana's jumped into their empty stroller and wouldn't get out. It was hissing at the mom anytime she got near. One of the park workers had to come to get it out. N8 and I just rolled our eyes as the mom said, "Well, I guess that is what you get for feeding the iguanas." Ya think? We watched as one of them jumped into a garbage can and grabbed some trash. It jumped back out and we watched as it ate some paper with ketchup on it. We hope it didn't hurt it. We didn't want to get too close to them. We've heard that iguanas can be pretty mean and didn't want to get bit like the little boy.  I did make friends with one of them, though.  We had a nice talk. 
 

JME making a new friend.

It was a really good day in St. Thomas. We didn't get to see a lot of the island, but we loved spending the day at Coral World.