Location: Rinca Island, Indonesia
Imagine youre in a peaceful sleep, dreaming about the beautiful sights weve all got to see these past days, and then the How to Train Your Dragon theme song begins to play in the background. I like to think thats how it was going for everyone asleep aboard Vela right before they woke up this morning, because that was the song I got to wake everyone up with! And it got everyone up and ready for an insane day full of dragons! After I woke up at 5, went on anchor watch and made some coffee, finally woke up the other students at 6:30, and ate an amazing breakfast of chocolate chip cookie oatmeal, we all excitedly got in the dinghies and took off towards Komodo National Park. We arrived, met our brave guides, and listened to a brief safety spiel before stepping through a gate and into the territory of the Komodo Dragons. Our park guides told us shocking facts about the Komodo Dragons as we stood among them, trying to take pictures but not bother the huge lizards. Apparently, the Komodo Dragons can grow up to 3 meters long and eat water buffalo. Unbelievable!
We then began a hike through the park, only protected by our park guides wielding large sticks. We hiked through a forest for about 1.5 miles or so and then looped around and headed back through grassy hills. On our trek, we saw many Komodo dragons wandering around, a water buffalo, a little dragon chasing a monkey, and some insane views. At the end of our hike, many of us bought a well-deserved cold drink at the gift shop and headed back to the dock. We got to Vela around lunch time and left our anchorage to embark on a short passage while we ate delicious nachos with beans and corn. After we had eaten and cleaned up lunch, we went down below and locked in through an Oceanography lecture despite being a bit overheated and low on energy from the long morning hike. We ended class with about 45 minutes left till our next destination, and many of us took a lovely power nap. Maia woke me up to tell me we made it to a pink sand beach! We all packed up our beach bags and went ashore to enjoy a laid-back and beautiful afternoon at the beach. We swam, tossed a football around, and wandered the remote paradise that was the pink sand beach. Never before have I been lying on the beach to see pigs trot by, but theres a first time for everything! I thought it was so cool, but we definitely had to hide our snacks from them! It was such a great beach day, and Thaxton had fun snorkeling, Destiny got some drone footage, and Rai-Ching built a sand castle. As the sun began to set, and our amazing chefs reported that dinner was nearly ready, Riley retrieved us from the beach and brought us back to Vela. We took some cold and speedy ocean showers and had a dinner of chicken, pasta, and bread rolls, which was definitely one of my favorites so far. We chatted at dinner about our favorite childhood movies and then cleaned up for the day and went downstairs. Im now sitting in my bunk listening to Jewel, Maia, Destiny, and many others parade down the hall laughing and singing about cinnamon rolls, I think. What a great way to end a great day. Im so grateful for our wild adventures today, and Im sure we all cant wait to see what tomorrow brings!
– Alice