CWW 8th Grade
Golfo de Morrosquillo
By: Felipe Echeverri, Tomas Cortes, Santiago Valenzuela, and Hector Cure
English Prompts
Small Moment-Animal Stick
Hector Cure
I was with my CWW group in a boat, navigating through the Caribbean Sea until we reached a canal between green and beautiful mangroves leading to a lagoon. When the boat stopped at the huge lagoon surrounded by mangroves I got ready by putting my snorkeling kit with my goggles and fins. My friends and I jumped excited from the boat to the lagoon, were amazing colorful jellyfish were waiting for us besides the huge mangroves covered with mussels and colorful stringy corals with different fishes.
Everyone was very excited and they said they saw blue, orange, black fishes, and a large barracuda. I couldn't see the fishes everyone recalled. I swam through the lagoon besides the guide, Jose, which showed me other fishes, which startled me and also jellyfish with different colors like some that were almost transparent, but when the sun illuminated them rainbow colors started to appear, others were pink, white, etc.
After swimming for a while I decided to swim really close to the mangroves and see what they have under. Suddenly a large stick dragged my attention. I was getting closer to a gray fat stick still trying to shape it. Suddenly, I heard someone shouting at me, "Don't get close! It's a large barracuda!" I open my eyes wide in shock when I started to see its large shape perfectly, his eyes pointing at me, and its big teeth showing. I immediately swam back, scared to die in my CWW trip.
Santiago Valenzuela
Small Moment-Close Encounter With a Barracuda
As I dove into the green water of the lake, I saw the world change from the thick greenness of the mangroves that floated on top of the water to an underwater color parade. The mangrove roots were covered with mussels and bright stringy corals. My body sank into a state of complete relaxation were my arms slowly propelled me forward as I gazed at the underwater wonderland that surrounded me.
As soon as my eyes got used to the verdant waters and the ever present mussel covered mangrove roots, I started noticing schools of baby fish swimming right beside me and jellyfish with vivid pink and purple sparks of electricity coursing through their bodies.
The stillness and quiet of my solitude in the water was making me feel drowsy. That all changed in an instant. A two foot long barracuda appeared in front of me. Its slender body was covered in shiny silver scales. Under that fishy smile, rows of razor sharp teeth hid ready to tear me apart limb by limb. I will never forget the one menacing eye that looked at me as it continued its path through the murky waters of the mangrove. Surprisingly I followed the creature. I was addicted to its beautiful form and shiny color. The sun fell on its silver scales and the glow drew my eyes towards it. After swimming beside it for a couple of minutes, its speed increased. The barracuda was scared of me, it had no idea how terrified I was of it. This was a very interesting experience for me, very beautiful, very scary.
Tomas Cortes
Snorkeling In The Mangroves
The small motor boat finally stopped, the mangroves and the murky dark green colored waters didnāt really look that inviting. I put on my flippers and my mask and jumped into the water surrounded by the mangrove forest.
The water was warm and not as murky as I had envisioned. Visibility at first was terrible yet once I started moving it cleared up. I swam to the closest mangrove and saw a new ecosystem I had never seen before right under the waterās surface. There were a lot of plants I could have never imagined. No organism stuck to the floating mangrove roots was bigger than my hand.
I was next to the guide when he showed me a plant that had about 10 to 12 āleavesā that were brown with little strips of white. The āleavesā were about 2 inches long. When you touched the leaves they instantaneously drew back into the main part of the plant. The leaves were then not visible. A little later the guide showed me another cool trick. This one involved a tiny plant that had a neon pink colored hole at the end of it. This hole was no more than a centimeter in diameter. The hole was mostly empty. I put my pinky at the edge of the hole and then suddenly it closed. This was definitely a carnivorous plant. The pink attracted tiny fish. When the plant felt something it closes the hole trapping itās prey.
These plants showed me that there are amazing things waiting to be seen in the most unpredictable places.
Picture taken by Juan Baldion
Small Moment-The Dock
āThis is your last task,ā Juan Diego told us. āYou have to run through the beach to the dock and jump into the sea. Once inside the water, you have to form a circle with your group. The first one to do it, wins the Eco Challenge.
āWe are tied. The two groups names are the Juandiās and the San Pepes. Both groups really want to win the exhausting Eco Challenge, a group activity that made us do things we would never want to do in the real life, like running over crabs, proning through wet mud, and running around two kilometers. The last challenge, a easy one, was the last thing I wanted to do. āPlease leave your BIG MARKS here so that they donāt get ruined.ā
The beach was as white as a ghost and the temperature was as high as living hell. The only thing all of us wanted to do was to reach the sea. We are all sweaty, dirty from the mud, and exhausted. Suddenly I heard a voice saying āGO!ā and I started to run as fast as Forrest Gump. I touch wood. The breeze hit my face as I ran towards the sea. I can look at the crystal sea one meter in front of me. I jump. It feels like the jump takes 2 hours, although it only takes 2 seconds.
The water is reviving. I would never feel better in my life. I submerge from the water where the sun hits my face with heat. People start to jump into the water. We finally won the challenge at the nick of time.
