Student Posts

Each of the four student participants will contribute a short post: 

Our four intrepid HPA student team members.

Animal Friends of Tranquility Resort by Annika Everett

While most of our time on Moso Island was spent exploring the beautiful and diverse house reef and beyond, some of our fondest memories were made with the terrestrial animals of Tranquility. When we first arrived at Moso Island we were welcomed by 4 dogs that live at the resort - Boots, Socks, Spots, and puppy Zula! While we actually met these doggies at different times, within a few days they became our best friends. They followed us to and from our fares, joined us on beach adventures and eventually became our guardians staying with us at night! Spots was my and Mrs. Jim’s favorite as she visited our fare often, greeted us home after our night long field work, sleeping aside us!

Along with the dogs, we shared the island with tons of hermit crabs to the point where the first day of being there I saw one on the beach and ended up naming it Hermie! Knowing my appreciation for hermit crabs, Alden, Charlotte, and Catherine pointed them out to me every chance they got! This was quite often!

It has been special getting to know these animals of Tranquility!

Our friend Zula

Spot guarding the Fare.

Little Gifts by Charlotte Kassis

Vanuatu shells

Collected along the shore 

Bright colors galore

Hermit crabs houses

Weren’t for taking back home

But more were on shore 

Pretty little gifts

From mother nature’s ocean

Found in our front yards

LITTLE GIFTS

Food of Tranquility by Catherine Hulugalle

From the very first evening we spent in Tranquility EcoResort, we were welcomed by the amazing food and kitchen crew. The two chefs always came up with creative and delicious meals. Thomas, who’s part of the kitchen crew, was always a smiling face to welcome us. 

All of our meals always included a platter of fresh fruit which included a combination of pamelo, papaya, pineapple, lilikoi, and coconut. For breakfast, our meals spanned from beans, toast, and scrambled eggs, to French toast. Or my personal favorite, pancakes with sugar and lime. 

Lunch was always the same with a sandwich bar including a selection of veggies and fruit, sausage and steak. I will say we all got pretty creative with our sandwich making. 

Our dinners were always amazing. Our dinners ranged from rice and curry with papaya and coconut, chicken and potatoes and, one of my favorites, spaghetti bolognese. According to Mr. Rice it’s worth dreaming about; I completely agree. Every dinner concluded with a dessert. To top it all off, a crowd favorite was a homemade hot sauce. Owen, (the owner of the resort and the holder of the secret recipe of this sauce), refuses to tell anyone how he makes it. We finished the whole jar within the first week we were there. 

Other than the food, meals were a time to talk to members of our team and other people at the resort. This included getting to know the couple who are running the resort, Finn and Marie. They were amazing in that they were incredibly flexible and took us diving a lot, they gave us snorkeling recommendations and told us about their life journey! Mealtime was an amazing time for the food and environment it provided us. I am definitely going to try recreating the meals we were gifted while at Tranquility at home!

Undersea Explorations by Alden. Mazo

During our four days on Moso Island, we were able  to do four boat dives and countless snorkel adventures. The dive sites we explored were Coral Gardens, White Rock, Cyclone Mooring, and Owen’s Reef. We have been searching for nudibranchs on all of our dives, and have found some really pretty ones of various species. The soft corals are absolutely amazing, and other highlights for all of us have been anemones and clown fish. While we were not able to get into the field as much as we would have liked due to weather issues, we have seen a few hawksbill and green turtles in the water—so we know they are out there somewhere! It has been great to dive in a new place and try different gear, like using weight belts instead of an integrated BCD. It is warm enough to dive without a wetsuit this time of year in Vanuatu, which was very nice as well! 

Tomato clownfish, so beautiful and interesting.

Alden taking a picture of a sea anemone.

A close up of a scribbled pipe fish.  Many of them that we saw were males carrying eggs.