Location: Little Harbor, Jost van Dyke
Hi everybody! It is your Shape Up staff here to give you an update on today’s adventure. We started off the morning with a bright and early 6 am wake-up to prepare for the day’s hike. We carbo-loaded with some cereal and listened to Queen to pump ourselves up. Once on the dock, we began perhaps the greatest quest our shippies had yet to conquer, the Cane Garden Bay hike. A couple of miles up a very steep tsunami road and into a rain forest, the Cane Garden Bay hike provides a beautiful view of the island Tortola allowing intrepid adventurers to see the coral reefs hidden below the island’s aqua blue waters. I am pleased to announce that despite the steepness of the incline and the heat of the day, our entire team made it from sea level to the top of the mountain and had the opportunity to add their name into the AQ legend book. After the hike and some smoothies just before the peak, our students headed back down and into town for some lunch and ice cream. After shore time, we scooped them up at the dock, and after a rousing snack of brownies (the price was drinking half the water in your full water bottle), our students were ready for quest number two of the day: the sand castle building contest. Having been perfecting their teamwork all session, our students were able to construct an amazing sand sculpture with less than half the time of the other boats due to some trouble finding a good anchor spot. They came to the beach voracious and created a ten-foot-long hammerhead shark. We have made the top four, and our boat’s beautiful creation has been photographed and sent to an impartial third party who should tell us the winner soon (fingers crossed!). After a bit of a swim at Sandy Cay, the site of our artistic masterpiece, the students took some well-earned ocean showers before we headed over to Jost Van Dyke for the third barbecue of the session. At the BBQ, our students stuffed themselves with well-deserved traditional Caribbean food, bought some cool t-shirts, and danced the night away. Some even went for their second round of ice cream today! For the night, we are rafted with eight other boats on the dock, created what feels like a tiny village. Currently, our students are enjoying the positives of the raft with over-lifeline conversations with friends and sneakily watching another boat’s movie through the windows. We have been having an incredible time down here with our students, and we can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds!