Panterra :: MySchool Journal

Daily Journal

McCoy High

Day 6

First order of business for the day, hiking Whale Lookout.

Our drop off point was at a Fishing "Casita".

Interesting little getaway.

Landing on the shore of the Casita.

Off to the side, in a small cave-like pocket, we found a Shrine
with candles and a shell pathway leading to a picture of Christ.
It may have marked the death of one of the fishermen.

Turkey vultures were feeding on the dead fish left behind by the fishermen.
They stuck around in case one of the students was captured by a deadly predator.

The front of the casita was adorned with an assortment of
interesting collectables, not to mention the crab drawing on the door.

A closer look at the shark was somewhat disturbing but nonetheless interesting.

Mr. Jarred on his 18th birthday. Jarred is
holding up the shell of a turtle found on the path.

A lizard lays in wait for a student to walk by. This is a student

eating lizard. Amazing to see how they take down their prey!
Turkey vultures aren't stupid you know.

The group scatters to explore on their own.

We spotted a whale blowing in the channel, watched
it for awhile and then decided to race back to the beach,

then the ship and head out to see if we could find it.

And we did! We had an amazing close up experience.

There were actually three whales total. Two can be seen here.

The whales came quite close to us not seeming to mind our company.

After about an hour they fluked and disappeared!

After lunch we headed to the sea lion habitat for a snorkel.

There were fish everywhere, in this pic there are a school of Sargent Majors.

The students looked on in anticipation of seeing the sea lions.

Sure enough, along came the sea lions.

One swims right under Shannon.

Two males swim past Glen.

It was a fantastic snorkel.

As we headed to our evening destination we had a
quick encounter with a small pod of Bottlenosed dolphins.

Mantas gone wild!

We celebrated Jarred's 18th birthday with the cooks baking a cake for
him. Paloma, one of the cooks, is absolutely taken with Jarreds height.

We had a great evening celebrating Jarred's big 18th birthday.

As always, we woke up bright and early at 8:00 for breakfast. We were served chilaquilla’s, which are chips with a spicy sauce, chicken, and refried beans on the side. After breakfast we were given an hour break to digest our food and relax before our busy day. At 9:30 we took the panga’s to Whale Lookout to go for a hike. When we arrived we stumbled across a fisherman’s house built by sheets of scrap metal and had a pink panther hanging from the roof. Right behind the house was a man made out house. Once we passed the house we continued our hike up the steep, rocky cliff. When we all got to the top everyone went their own way to explore then WE SPOTTED WHALES!!!!!! YAY!

We all quickly dashed down the cliff, hopped in the panga’s, and ripped back to the Narval. Once we returned to the big boat, Kailey spotted a Blue whale not to far away so we heaeded out to see it. Everyone quickly took out their camera’s to get a picture of the first whale we actually saw up close. Soon we realized there wasn’t only one whale, there were THREE! YAY! We all waited patiently for the whales to fluke but sadly they never did. BOO! After an hour the whales disappeared so we anchored at Lela’s beach and had lunch.

Lunch started out with an alphabet soup, which was fan-freaking-tastic. Courtney took individual letters out of her soup to spell Panterra in her bowl. Then we were served rice with beef drizzled with teriyaki sauce. Along with our meal we were surprised to receive a cinnamon tasting rice milk. When lunch finished we had a two-hour break where people sun tanned, relaxed, and played cards. After our relaxing break we geared up to go swim with the sea lions! YAY!

Many sea lions came into the water but none of them were very playful. We got to see them flip around and make weird noises. Along with the sea lions their were many colorful fish swimming in the environment. Unfortunately, the water was freezing so nobody could stay in the water for too long. We all hopped back into the panga’s and made our way back to the boat.

During our free time before supper a select few people saw manta rays going psycho. There were 7 of them all jumping together and belly flopping back into the water. We also got to see a few dolphins while we were making our way to Turtle Bay. Then we were served supper. Some people had beef taco’s while others had fresh shrimp in theirs. We were then served a birthday cake seeing as it is Jarred’s 18th and gave him his present, which was a Mexican blanket. Miguel felt the need to sing “Imagine all the people…” by Elton John repeatedly until it was stuck in everyone’s head. All in all it was a pretty great, fun filled day. We all took a vote and decided that by far, Mariah, Shelbie, and Raelee were the people that made the day as fantastic as it was. YAY!!!!!!!

Written by Mariah, Shelbie and Raelee

Day 1and 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 and 8

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