Munene, the journey...

The day began at 9am after breakfast. We rode our boat back to Manado and back to the Aryaduts hotel where we had left the rest of the luggage. I was still feeling nauseous and a bit ill, but I took it in stride. At 1pm, we left for the Coral Triangle Initiative. The presentation was a bit dry, and when we left the 2-hour presentation, we were still confused about what CTI does. By this time, I was starving because I hadn't had lunch and I had not eaten most of my breakfast. We went to a local restaurant close to the hotel, which Zack recommended we try the grilled fish. It was a decent meal, and I left still confused about how big the fish was. It was almost snake-like, with muscle and a lot of flesh. Later, we returned to the hotel to prepare for the following day and catch up on my journal.

We began the day at 9 after breakfast. After the usual logistics, we took the boat to a snorkeling spot. The water was incredibly clear and beautiful. Unfortunately, due to a hangover from the previous night's drinking, I was feeling mildly nauseous and uncomfortable with the whole water and boating business. Once we got to the snorkeling area, Adriane and Daniela did diving, while the rest of the crew did snorkeling. I had my life vest on, and was excited to try out snorkeling. Once I jumped in the water, I knew I had made a mistake. I panicked, held my breath and was terribly scared of being in the open sea with nothing to hold on to. I have never been so terrified in my life. For some reason, my whole body refused to relax, even though I was not sinking, I could not breath. I flailed my arms around and screamed for help from those around. Andrea tried encouraging me to just relax, but I was in flight mode. One of the guides held me and motioned for the boat to come...