Alaska Pt. 1

Hey, guys! So, I went to this REALLY awesome place over the summer, but I forgot to write it on the blog, so it’s really late! :( But anyway, I went on vacation to…Alaska! I was there for two weeks, from late July to early August, and we had a blast! First, we flew to Anchorage, and then we rented a car and drove around southern Alaska. After a week of road tripping, we took a cruise to Alaskan port cities, finally ending up in Vancouver, Canada, the end of our trip.

My favorite place was Denali National Park. It was beautiful, with plenty of wildlife that the rangers are working hard to preserve. When we got there, we first visited the dog kennels that housed the sled dogs rangers work with during the winter. Instead of snowmobiles, all the rangers are taught to use dog sleds, because the dogs are more reliable as a source of transportation during the long and cold winter months.

We also went to the Wilderness Access Center, one of Denali's information centers, where we learned about a very interesting topic: sustainable living.

Sustainable living is a lifestyle that attempts to reduce one’s carbon footprint on the world, and use the least amount of resources necessary. Both of Denali’s information centers employed this idea when they were built; for example, they are built into the sides of mountains, so as to reduce the material needed for one wall of the building, and both information centers are closed during the winter, as to conserve energy. Also, the materials that went into the buildings, as well as the designs, drew inspiration from the numerous species in Denali National Park, such as Dall’s sheep, grizzly bears, caribou, moose, ground squirrels, etc. For example, the idea to "hibernate" during the winter came from the grizzly bear, as well as the idea to build the centers into the mountain, because bears dig their dens into the sides of mountains, instead of building one that sticks out of the ground.

The next day, we took the Kantishna Experience, a bus tour during which a tour guide drove us into Denali for 90 miles one way, and 90 miles back, for a grand total of 180 miles. During this trip, there were PLENTY of opportunites to snap photos, especially since the ride took over 12 hours long!

Alaska was breath-taking. More so than any other place in the United States, Alaska is in tune with nature, and has not been overrun with cities that spout pollutants and smog into the air. Going there, I felt so peaceful and calm, especially because I could actually see the stars for once. The mountain ranges were so large, the landscapes so stunning, that sometimes you just want to cry.

A Cruise to Costa Maya, Belize, and Cozumel

This past week Dawn Faranetta took me on an adventure through the Caribbean. After two days at sea, we stopped in Costa Maya, Mexico. We got off the ship and shopped for a while and then took a bus ride to an all inclusive private beach. Upon arrival, we bought our snorkel gear, and rented our jet skis. Before going snorkeling, we went out on the free kayaks to see what that water looked like. We paddled out about 100 feet off of the shore, and just sat and watched to see if anything swam by. The only thing we were really able to see was a turtle. Then we paddled back to shore, and grabbed our snorkel gear. Into the ocean we went. We started were it was really shallow, and just looked at all of the fish and sea weed that was moving under us. Then we moved out a little deeper, where the sea weed got deeper, and the fish got bigger. Once we saw about everything we could see, we went to the jet skis. Although we really couldn't see anything under us because we were moving to fast, it was still fun to be out so deep, and just looking back at the shore, watching all of the seagulls flying over above. Since we still had an hour bus ride back, we had to catch the 4:15 shuttle through the washed up and poor streets of Costa Maya. Driving though these streets was extremely sad, because there was probably a "house" about every mile, and it was basically just a shack. The children were playing outside in little puddles of dirty water, and there were cats EVERYWHERE! After the bus ride, we boarded the ship and awaited the set-sail to Belize.

We had to wake up early in Belize because our tour guide was meeting us at 9 and we were tendered 6 miles from the island. You can tell that our ship was 6 miles away, because it was about the distance of the horizon. Once we met up with our tour guide, we boarded a van and we drove for miles through the city, until we were out in the open land. The driver was explaining to us all he knew about the island, and history of the island. We drove past the mountains of the sleeping man. When you look at this chain of mountains, it looks like a giant laying down sleeping. Finally we made it to our destination. We were in the middle of the rain forest, were we planned to zip line though the lush vegetation. The tour guide brought us to the spot where we were going to get suited up in our harnesses. We go helmets, and gloves to stop and our harness. Then we had to walk up a flight of 85 stairs to get to the first platform. Between the first two platforms was probably only 50 feet, but i guess you can say it was basically a warm-up. I got suited up and strapped in, and i was off. Within about the last 5 feet of the line, you have to pull down on the top rope in order to stop yourself, and then the guide on the other side takes your harness off of the first line, and puts your safety rope on the next line to go to the second line. We went through 6 different lines, and then we had to rappel from he last station to the ground. Although we didn't see any larger animals, we did get to see all of the plants that the rain forest has to offer. Once we handed in all of our equipment, we walked back to the bus, were the guide was waiting to take us to lunch. We went over the hill that we were parked at, and ended up at a place called Jaguar Paw. It was a
restaurant in the middle of the rain forest that looked like what most people would imagine a building in the middle of the rain forest to look like. Once we ate the only meal that they had to

offer, we went on a walking tour behind the restaurant to see some gardens, and the end of a 9 mile long cave. In the cave we saw bats and many tourists floating their way through the cave. This concluded our tour, so we returned to the bus. On the way back through the city, we say many more people, because it was rush hour on the island time, and there were homeless people, children playing in sewers, and emaciated dogs roaming the streets. There were cages on all of the doors and windows, and people selling things all over the streets.

Our last stop of the trip was Cozumel, Mexico. Unfortunately at this port it was raining, so all we got to do was shop, but we still had a good time. Get 8 kids and 6 friendly adults together, and we can make fun out of anything. We were supposed to go on scooter tours around the island, but we didn't want to do it in the rain. So, after we shopped, we went back on the ship, and hung with all of the other people who didn't want to get stuck in the rain. We had a 2 day sail back to Miami, Florida where we would be docking.

Since our flight out of Miami International Airport wasn't until 8:15 P.M. we decided to do an Everglade Safari. We had to get off the ship at 7 A.M. so we had to wake up early, and we met our tour guide, boarded the bus, and off we went to the Everglades of Florida. We were going on an air boat tour through the Everglade in search of wildlife. Our tour guide was quite a comedian, and he took us through the grass and water of the Everglades, and quickly found alligators. He told us plenty of interesting facts about the Everglades, and wildlife that the Everglades was housing. He ensured us that we would see a lot of wildlife because he knew were to find them. One of the major problems about the Everglades now is people are buying the land to build more houses. Since alligators never forget were they were hatched, they always return there to hatch there own eggs. If there was a house built where the alligator was hatched, that alligator will still return to that spot, and have its eggs in someones backyard. If the owner calls the cop, the cops call a trapper, and the trapper, by law, must kill that alligator, otherwise it will just keep on coming back. Once we were on a straight away, he put the boat into overdrive, and weaved around, showing us what the air boats could do. Then we stopped out in the middle of a wide open area, and if you looked all you saw was grass and water. Our tour guide jumped in the water, and started telling us how the water was naturally purified in the Everglades. It goes through the 6 feet of mud under the water, where there is limestone, where cleans the water enough to be drank. Unfortunately, more and more land is being taken away from the Everglade for building, but unlike the common rumors of he Everglade getting shallower, and starting to dry out, is a lie. In fact, the Everglades are getting deeper. In some areas, the water is up to 6 feet deep, and there are animals such as deer that aren't supposed to swim, trying to get to the other side of the Everglades.Once our tour was over, we ate lunch, and we watched a man "wrestle" an alligator, and he showed us all kinds of other animals. The reason you cant really consider it alligator wrestling was because was just lying on top of an alligator that didn't move at all. It would be more like alligator taming because he was showing us how if you put your hand in his mouth and don't touch anything, he wont bit down, but if you touch anything, about 2,000 pound of weight come crashing down. The the man took out a baby alligator, and let everyone hold it. Of course, I couldn't miss out on this chance, so Dawn and I posed with the alligator. That was the end of our Everglades excursion, so we got on the bus and headed to the airport, where we sat for 8 hours until we began boarding the flight back to Newark.

This past week, Brooke Freundlich took me on an adventure to the Riveria Maya in Mexico! Standing by the ocean, I couldn't help but think back to the lab Miss Eberhardt's third period biology class did involving life in a drop of water. Not only were there visible seaweeds and algaes in the water, but thousands and thousands of organisms were present not visible to the naked eye. Also, just hanging around on the beach like us, was a crab! Finally, Hurricane Ida, which was approaching Mexico, was fueled by the warm tropical waters in the Gulf.

The Adventures of the Traveling PBWiki Shirt!- Trip to NYC!

Recently, I went to NYC! When I was there I went to Spandex World, House of Spandex, and an awesome cafe. What I learned there was how biology is involved in ways you wouldn't imagine. First, just the fact that you need to be able to walk. There are many muscles that you need just to move your legs! Plus of course, your eyes need to be working properly just to see where you are going. Problems encountered when I started smelling the smoke and all the pollution that is in the NYC air. It was hard to breathe. I knew I would have to be washed or aired out in a clean environment. Plus the rain made me scared that all my fibers would get ruined! The best part was when we ate. My friends Lexie had to be able to digest food correctly so that she could eat! It was so interesting to see how much biology takes part in the simplest things.