Giant Coconut Crabs

"Watch out I yell from the bow."  We were dingying through the shallow waters.  There were bombies everywhere.  Dad swerved left, narrowly avoiding the bombie.  Twenty seconds later we pulled the dinghy up the beach. 
We thought we were going in to shore to go coconut crab hunting, but instead the local people of Maupihaa had planned a whole feast for us.
Coconut crabs were passed, already cracked.  After the feast was done we realised the locals hadn't eatcn a thing!  But they quickly ate and were done in no time at all.  We washed the dishes and walked as a troop.  The locals obviously knew the place because we saw a crab in ten minutes.  It was under a large rock and it would have probably come out but someone said it was too small.  I was constantly alert and couldn't help noticing how much noise we were making.

We doubled back onto the track and then ran to the other side of the track.  It was dark, rocky and the ground had uneven foot holds. "Up ahead.  Big one."  I grabbed it at the back of its shell.  It was two kilo's.  I had to hold it with two hands.  It had pincers that could nip off your finger, a hard shell, 3 legs on either side, a square head and short black stripes all over its body.  Its eyes were beady and black.
This was one of my favorite hunts of my life so far.

Airbags

Kaboom, Dad jumped in as I was fiddling with my pockets.
I finally pulled them inside out and jumped in the water. They instantly inflated as big air sacks.
Is this true?  It is true. If you flip your pockets inside out, they work like lifejackets and for emergency air. So, if you are under water, you can get another breath (by sucking on your pockets).

River Chagres - Panama

Slowly we ghosted into the River Chagres.  Splash, Teo cast his pole and pulled it up while Baxter and I sword fighted.
Mum was looking for sloths.
Then I saw green parrots that took my breath away.  Then I saw a tree that looked a lot like a beech tree.

Hammerhead Sharks

The hammerhead shark can grow up to twenty feet and can weigh up to 1000 pounds.
Their favorite food is stingrays.  Over the years they have developed an immunity to their stings.
Baby hammerhead sharks live in the mangroves with black tips for 1.5 years.
The only part of the sharks body that has bone is the jaw and the teeth.  The rest is cartilage.
If the baby shark does not quickly leave once it is born the mum will eat them.

A Bike Ride - Galapagos

I was training to be like a man named Arthur Lydiard. 
We had taken a taxi to the very top of a hill that was in the Galapagos Islands.  I walked a wee way, then broke into a fast jog.  Twenty seconds later I crested the top of the hill.  I waited for five minutes then saw Baxter, Mum and Dad.  I yelled, "I'm going around the crater."  I set off at the same jog.  Three quarters around the crater sweat was slowly pouring from my forehead.  I was feeling a tincy bit tired, but I kept going.  I thought that the next day my muscles would be aching.  As I got to the top of the hill back to the beginning I lay down on a rock puffing and exhausted.
Me and my brother bombed down the hill.  We jumped on our bikes.  All four off us set off downhill.  It was a ten mile mission, but we were prepared for it.
Next we arrived at the giant tortoise sanctuary.  There were little, medium and big tortoises.  There shells were bumpy and the little tortoises surprisingly moved quite fast.
It was afternoon, so we biked back to Wreck Bay.
The next day my legs were burning.

Shark

I dived down as I saw a weird piece of coral.  I reeled back as I saw it was a shark.  It looked misshapen.  I flew up to the surface and told Dad what I had seen.  Dad dived down and then came back up.
"I have never seen a shark like it."
We were in the Tobago Cays.

Crabs

Scuttle, scuttle.  Rocks scuttle about.  Instantly I realise they were hermit crabs.  Overhead there were pelicans and frigate birds.  The water was crystal clear and the waves crashed against the shore.  The breeze blew against my face keeping it cool.  I see a mottled purple, yellowy, grey body with bumpy arms and two pincers.  A crab.  I saw another crab with navy blue pincers and a dark green body.