Caves, Seahorses, and Sleeping on the Beach!

Waking up at 6:30 per usual, everyone was excited to have a somewhat relaxing morning activity: yoga on the roof of the dining hall. As we watched the sunrise on the horizon, we found our inner Zen in crow pose and downward-facing dog.

After finishing yoga, we packed up the vans for a one night “Down Island Trip.” A DIT is a camping trip in northern Eleuthera where we drive for over 3 hours through towns including Deep Creek, Green Castle, and Governor’s Harbor. We made a few stops along the way ending up at the beautiful “Daddy Joe’s Beach”.

Our Journey began with the smell of freshly baked doughnuts and scones from Governor’s Harbor Bakery. Although the goods weren’t pricey, many of us burned a hole in our wallets filling our stomachs with delicious calories. The next destination was a spooky underground cave named Hatchet Bay Cave. We trekked through the rocks as we learned about the formation of stalactites and stalagmites which created awesome rock structures. “The Birthday Cake” is a rock formation created by the mix of stalactites and stalagmites in the cave, which was one of the most scenic parts of the journey.

While we don’t support most vandalism, there was graffiti in the cave that dated back to as early as 1882. When we got to the third and lowest level of the cave, we were walking through waist deep water helping each other avoid rocks through good communication and teamwork. At the end of the cave, we had a “tribal party” covering ourselves in reddish mud from head to toe.

As our hunger started to get the best of us, we made our way out of the cave for peanut butter and jelly on tortilla. Many of us also stuffed our faces with the traditional cassava chips of Eleuthera.

Our next stop was right around the corner: seahorse pond. This body of water was filled with creatures such as bivalve mollusks, nudibranchs, and of course seahorses. While at first they were hard to find, everyone ended up seeing a seahorse through their camouflaged skin mixing in with the algae. Due to the cold water temperature we didn’t last very long in the pond and we quickly made our way back to the vans to change into warmer clothing.

Finally, we arrived at the amazing beach where we spent the night. We filed out of the vans and unpacked the tents, cooking utensils, and personal items. Each group of five people set up their tent with no help from the adults, and everyone, some faster than others, ended up with a pitched tent. The sun was already starting to set so everyone got to work with building the fire and cutting up vegetables for dinner. We all watched the beautiful sunset on the horizon and some of us decided it was a perfect Instagram opportunity or as many of you may call it a “Kodak moment.”

With natural light from the fire, we ate vegetable stir-fry over rice for dinner created by head chef Jessica with help from the rest of the gang. After dinner we gathered around the campfire for our daily “happys and crappys.” During this activity we each say our happiest and crappiest moment of the day. Tonight it was particularly special when multiple people said their happiest moment was sitting in the circle right there and then. One of the main principles of the Island School is about living in the present and these “happys” truly embraced the present moment.

The next activity was 10 minutes of alone time lying on the beach and watching the stars; the first minutes alone on the entire trip. We watched for shooting stars and a few minutes in we all saw something amazing. It wasn’t just a shooting star, but a meteorite shooting through the sky. After watching this legendary astronomical moment, we made our way back to the fire for some campfire games including everyone’s favorite: Mafia. By the end of the games, everyone was tired out from the long day of activities so we all headed to bed in our tents covered in sweatshirts and blankets. Looking forward to more surprises the next day, we fell asleep on the somewhat hard sand dreaming of doughnuts and new adventures.

We hope you’re all enjoying the snow,

Susie and Chapin