Australia Post #2

I took all these pictures with my mom's digital camera. I can not believe how good they turned out. The picture above is a parrot fish. The picture below is a jelly tentacle. I got so close to him.

Oh my goodness! The Great Barrier Reef is the most beautiful place in the entire world! YEsterday conditions were perfect. It was about 89 degrees and clear skies. The water was crystal clear and was about 80 degrees. We went on a day cruise with a company called Cruise Magic. We cruised out to reef which took over an hour. The view on the boat was amazing and no one got sea sick, thank goodness! On our way there we had a Biology class were we learned about the reef ecosystem. The Biologist on board described all the fish to look out for. My favorite was the parrot fish, they are called that because of their colors. My other fav was the butterfly and clown fish because they find a mate and are monogamous for life- made me miss Stephen though. So when we got there we rented wet suits (that was attractive-let me tell you!) and got our snorkel gear and jumped right in. We had to wear wet suits because the ozone is much thinner here and you burn in seconds and also it is jelly season so the suits protected us against stings. Snorkeling is like riding a bike if you have done it before you just know how to do it. I took this for granted and was shocked by the number of students who were not good at it and did not know what they were doing. THey kept swallowing sea water and alot of them gave up after 30 min or so. So I was so amazed by the coral. IT was so beautiful. There were so many different kinds and different colors. I went underwater and I don't think I came back up for a solid 2 hours because when I did come back up there was noone snorkeling except me and one other person. They had the area we could snorkel marked off and had life guards watching other wise I might have swam off into the deep blue without knowing it. So I realized that it was lunch time and went in to eat. I had some Delicious Cuos Cuos (shout out Theodore!) and some fruit that was amazing and then I checked on my kids and went back out. Then after another hour of snorkeling I went on the advanced snorkeling adventure with 7 of my students. They took us out on a boat to wall (just like in Nemo) where the reef ended so we could see large schools of fish which attract large predators (SHARKS!) We saw a white tip shark that was about 2 meters in lenght, he swam right by us. He was so cute and I was not afraid of him. We also saw giant jelly fish and Gill from nemo (a moorish idol) and nemo himself. I did not get to see a giant sea turtle but we did ride the EAC (eastern Australian current) which was really strong. I am kind of sore today from my 5 hours of snorkeling. Yesterday was so amazing, God is so creative!
Today we are going to the Daintree Rainforest to take a canopy tour and then to swim at the waterfalls.

I would like to take this time to thank the inventor of Skype he is my BFF. I have been able to talk to my kids and Stephen twice. It is so good to see them and hear there voices. I miss you guys!