When I first agreed to join a major aquarium fish and coral importer on a trip to the Solomon Islands, I blindly agreed knowing that there would be lots of reef fish and corals and diving involved, but I really had no idea what would happen. Perhaps I should have done more research and asked a few more questions because the challenges I had to weather including countless coral bites, reef stings, and love kisses from the sun (read severe sunburns) would have been enough to make me think twice about the whole proposal.
我在开玩笑？我将遭受两倍的困难，只是为了与珊瑚礁，鱼类，珊瑚，尤其是所罗门群岛人民近距离地站起来。betway官网推荐下次有人建议我“很幸运”去旅行这些异国情调的地方“潜水”时，我会充分说明他们的挑战到达the far flung and secluded reefs of these exotic places.
远离opposite spectrum of armchair journalism required several days of cramped airplane rides, hours of unshaded, choppy boat rides, sleeping on beaches with no more than a nest of banana leaves, and definitely, absolutely, no electricity, running water, phone signal, and don’t even make me laugh about internet service. And if you are wondering where the bathrooms were, it was all natural, not even a hole to aim for, or soft leaves to clean up with.
对于对所罗门群岛的最后一次任务，我真的是“完全的本地人”，但这种betway官网推荐经历是无价的，非常值得。参观所需的已知珊瑚礁边缘，邻居，demandeda complete sacrifice of comfort to get up close and personal with coral reefs that have been exploited for food for millennia, yet most of which have never been seen by the eyes or camera lens of a diver, or even a snorkeler, and most definitely not from the point of view of an aquarist. As I catch up with the day-to-day of Reef Builders and begin to share my stories of the Solomon Islands with you, I hope you will appreciate the massive jetlag at work, while I nurse a severe ear infection and type away with battle-weary hands and fingers.
Thankfully, the trip to the Solomon Islands was fruitful with some great moments of accomplishment and connection with the local peoples. Overall the trip rewarded my tenacity with the collection of uncommon knowledge about the aquarium trade as a whole, about the species diversity of corals and fish in this region, with sightings of exotic corals, samplings of the water that supports them, and finally some dives on an exquisite “chalice coral reef” which is unlike anything we have ever seen, in person or in pictures.
