“We definitely don’t want to do that!” I said. That sounded terrible. “I really want this to be a community thing where we all work together to create this festival and we all learn from it—even us.”
My dad smiled at me. “Exactly. Proud of you for thinking that way, Adrianna. Many adult researchers don’t even think that way!”
My dad turned around to talk to my mom, so I got my phone out to text Alessi to see how things were at the zoo when I saw Feye grab for his towel and make his way to the bathroom. Oh no! Feye always took forever in the bathroom. He says he needs to “take his time” because “his fans love his look.” Whatever that means! But before I could even get two steps toward the bathroom, he was already inside and locking the door.
Sigh. We were going to be here awhile.
After quickly showering and changing into a plain T-shirt, khaki shorts, and some sandals, I was ready for whatever the day was going to bring.
“Are we going to film elephants today? I know Mr. Savage said something about that?” I asked in the elevator.
“We already found the Pondicherry shark … so the show is basically done, right?” Feye joked. I nudged him with my elbow.
“We don’t know yet if it’s a Pondicherry shark, remember?” I said.
Feye shrugged as we walked out and toward the delicious smell of food.
We met up with the crew in the hotel’s restaurant and were soon stuffing our faces with pani pol. Also known as Sri Lankan pancakes, they are made from wheat flour, coconut milk, eggs, and turmeric, with fresh-grated coconut, spices, and some cane sugar. According to our waiter, they are best enjoyed with a cup of tea, so all of us had various hot teas, steam wafting up from the cup in mesmerizing tendrils.
“I hope you enjoyed the small tour yesterday, familia Villalobos, because today we are leaving the city and will be going to Pigeon Island National Park! You’re going snorkeling with some fierce ocean animals!” Mr. Savage announced during breakfast.
I looked down at my outfit and sighed. Well, I wasn’t prepared for that! I would have to put on a bathing suit. I wondered where I had left my traje de baño …
“Assuming there will be sharks at this shoot?” our sound producer said in a sleepy Australian accent. Connor was also eating pani pol, which might have been the first time I’d seen him eat something else besides toast and Vegemite for breakfast.
“You assume correctly, Connor. We will just be snorkeling, not diving, so no need for the fancy microphone masks,” Mr. Savage said before turning to our videographers. “Mark, Alice, please bring the waterproof gear for the cameras.” All three nodded, and I noticed they had two mugs each—one for tea and one for coffee. Strong coffee, by the smell of it.
Well, Mr. Savage was getting his “fierce animals” shot, I guess …
“The bill, karauṇaākara,” asked Mr. Savage of our waiter when he came by. I recognized the word karauṇaākara, which meant “please,” because Zev had explained what it meant when he said it to a person yesterday. There are two official languages in Sri Lanka: Sinhala and Tamil. karauṇaākara is Sinhalese. I had practiced a few phrases in both languages before we came, but my pronunciations were still a little rocky.
I had no idea where Pigeon Island National Park was. As we made our way back to our rooms, I typed the park into our maps app on my phone to see where we would be going. A notification popped up letting me know I had a text from Alessi.
“Good morning from home! Good luck, luck, luck today with your idea and filming! Please don’t get trampled by elephants.”
I had told her about my experience with Zev yesterday while I waited for Feye to finishing showering this morning. She was super interested in hearing about the elephants but seemed a bit more interested in Zev himself.
I sent my best friend back a heart emoji and then looked at the map results. Whoa, that was a heck of a drive!
As we walked into our room, I spied my neon pink bathing suit peeking out of my backpack. Grabbing it, I dashed for the bathroom before Feye could get there first.
“Mom? Dad?” I asked from the safety of the locked bathroom, where I quickly tugged off my shirt and shorts.
“Yes, mija?” Dad asked.
“Are we driving to this national park? It seems awfully far away,” I said.
“No, I think Mr. Savage said we’ll be taking a small chartered plane,” Mom answered.
“Will we be meeting Mr. Manil and Zev there?” I heard Feye ask. I hoped we would see them. I liked Zev and thought this trip would be a lot more fun with him coming along. I loved making new friends. Plus, I needed to talk to him about the shark festival!
I didn’t hear the answer, though, because Feye pounded on the door and complained, “Come on, Adrianna, you’ve been taking forever!”
Flinging the door open, I stepped out of my brother’s way and practically flew to the other side of the room. I busied myself with packing for the day, shoving the essentials into my backpack: trusty notebook, waterproof pencil, camera, hat, sunscreen, and some sweet-and-sour gummy bears. They were my new favorite snack that I was determined to bring everywhere!
We met Mr. Savage and the crew in the lobby and were guided to a taxi, which then took us past the airport where we had arrived yesterday and to a body of water behind it. I didn’t understand why we were going toward water and not the airport until I saw the plane. Even Feye was excited, taking off his sunglasses to explain, “Holy guacamole! YES!” He took a quick selfie as we walked closer to the plane.
The blue-and-white seaplane had animals of all sorts painted on it. Elephants, octopuses, fish, and what looked like a snake … or an eel? I couldn’t tell. Our pilot stood next to it, facing away away from us and talking on the phone. When he turned around, a big smile broke out on my face.
“Ayubowan, Mr. Manil. I didn’t know you were a pilot!” I said, practicing my Sri Lankan greeting.
Just then, Zev popped his head out of the plane! My smile got even bigger, which I didn’t think was possible. Once all of us were piled into the plane, Zev began to tell us about the national park we would be visiting. “It’s one of only two marine national parks in the country! It was first a sanctuary but was changed to a national park in 2003. It’s famous for having some of the best coral reefs.”
“So why is it called Pigeon Island National Park and not Coral Reef National Park?” Feye asked.
“It was named after the rock pigeons found there,” Mr. Manil answered from the front.
“Is it super remote?” I asked Zev.
He sort of shook his head. “Kind of. It’s near a coastal town called Nilaveli. But Nilaveli and the park were affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.”
I remembered reading about that. There was a 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia, unleashing a massive tsunami across the Indian Ocean. It impacted even Antarctica and North America, and in Sri Lanka many people lost their lives.
I didn’t realize it had hit this place, too. I wondered how bad everything would look. Puerto Rico, where our abuelos lived, and where we spent every summer, recently got hit by a category 5 hurricane, the strongest hurricane there is. Even though a few years have passed, our family still struggles. A cousin had lost his entire house, and the walls of my abuelos’ home were crumbling. After the hurricane, they video called us as soon as they had reception. I remember seeing shattered glass everywhere, doors gone, broken wooden boards hanging where windows once were. Seeing their house destroyed felt awful. I wondered if the people here felt the same after the tsunami.
Once we took off, the trip itself didn’t take very long. Over the roar of the engines, Zev pointed out the national park below, which was made up of two bright green islands nestled in the calm turquoise waters. The coral habitat here acted like a breeding and feeding ground for over three hundred species of fish that kept the colorful underwater symphony alive. I once read that coral reefs were like the “rain forest” of our oceans because so many animals call them home.
Just as sharks are so important for our oceans, so are corals. I smiled at the view before us. Even from here I could see how white and inviting the sand was.
The beautiful landscape grew bigger as we got closer to the earth once again, and I couldn’t help but press my face against the window to drink in every detail as it whizzed past us. Everything here was so brightly colored!
My thoughts were interrupted as the seaplane landed with a loud splash. We had arrived! I could hardly contain my excitement as we docked, and I burst out of the plane and into a sprint down the rickety wooden dock.
“Hello, Nilaveli! We’re here!” I shouted. I could hear my parents giggle at my enthusiasm. The sun shone brightly, making the surrounding water sparkle as if thousands of shiny diamonds were on its surface. I took my camera out of my knapsack and snapped a photo, almost forgetting to take the lens cap off!
“Adrianna! Come on! We’re not there just yet—get into the motorboat,” Connor hollered. Out of all the crew, he and I got along the best. We were already friends from working together at home at the zoo, but since our trip to Cuba where I rescued Duke, a dog he ended up adopting, we had become even better friends. He gives me updates about Duke every day, and even sometimes brings him in to work!
I ran back to our group and climbed aboard, ready to have the salty sea spray hit me in the face. I sat up front, my favorite place to be on fast-zipping boats. And boy, was it ever fast! Zev, who sat up front with me, and I were practically soaked by the time our boat stopped over an expansive coral reef area.
“Alright, everyone, welcome to Shark Point Reef. I want you all to suit up for a snorkel! I want to make sure everyone is comfortable with their equipment. Mark, Alice, can you set up your cameras just in case the family sees something cool? Connor, same goes for you,” Mr. Savage instructed. He was in full director mode. At least he was out of his usual getup of white pants and a blue shirt and just in shorts and a T-shirt today. To be honest, it was kind of weird seeing him out of his normal attire.
Already wet, I was tempted to dive in with all my clothes still on. But I did the sensible thing and took off the wet garments, Mom taking them and laying them out in the sun to dry while we were underwater. Dad was on sunscreen duty today, making sure to rub some on all of us before we went swimming. As was our tradition, we all gave one another a kiss on the cheek before getting into the water. I cannonballed in, excited to get back into the ocean. Oh, how I missed it!
As soon as I put my head under the lapping waves, I couldn’t believe how many different fish there were! Angelfish, parrotfish, eels, wow! I moved my head from side to side to see Mark and Alice swimming not too far behind me, capturing both the fish and me with their large underwater cameras. I tried my best to ignore them because Mr. Savage always told us to “act natural” when being filmed, so I instead dove down a few feet to poke around the coral crevices to see if I could find any cool animals.
“Talk about what you guys see! Let’s hear it!” Mr. Savage’s voice carried over the water surface. Director mode was definitely ON.
Anemones, small cleaner shrimp, and—oh my gosh!—a neon green eel! I was pointing the eel out to Alice, who was closest to me with her gear, when a figure next to us with no snorkel let out a noisy stream of bubbles and pointed straight ahead of us. Even though the water was super clear, I had no idea how they spotted the huge sea turtle lazily swimming past. It glided by so effortlessly in the turquoise water.
“Tell us about that turtle, Evelyn!” Mr. Savage said, and I heard Mom giving her take to Mark.
I was so distracted by watching her that I hadn’t realized someone had come up behind me. A tap on my shoulder made my head jerk around to see who had poked me. Oh, it was Zev! It was hard to see who was who with these masks on. He pointed up and we both surfaced.
“Did you see the turtle?!” Zev asked. “I tried to make noise so everyone could see it.”
I spit my snorkel out of my mouth and gave him a big smile. “That was you?! Oh man, it was amazing! So big!” I said, accidentally swallowing some of the salty water. Yuck.
I heard Zev say he couldn’t tell if it was a hawksbill, green, or olive ridley turtle, which often visit the area. As he spoke, Alice surfaced and began filming our conversation. But to be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention because I was too busy spitting out the icky taste from my mouth. How could Zev swim without a snorkel to help him breathe?
Just as I stopped gagging, another head popped up near us. It was my brother! “Hey, if you guys stopped chatting, you would see the incoming surprise I know Adrianna is gonna love,” Feye said, pointing down below us and nodding to Alice to follow us. Feye and I put our snorkels back in our mouths. After we all took a deep breath, we followed him and made our way down a few feet below the surface.
When I finally saw the surprise, I practically let out a yelp of happiness. Sharks! Timid and skittish, they stayed far away from us, but I could tell it was one of my favorite species—blacktip reef sharks. As we bobbed at the surface, a small school of them swam ahead of us, all their black-lined tails flicking feverishly from side to side to propel themselves. There were different sizes circling us from a distance, from what looked to be almost as long as Feye to as small as half my size. I was sure we were seeing adults and juveniles, which were warily observing us as they flew through the crystal-clear sapphire water.
“I hear we are seeing bloodthirsty sharks! Adrianna! Tell me more about them to the camera,” Mr. Savage commanded. One of the smaller blacktip reef sharks swam in front of my face as he said this, quickly turning away from me when I blew out some air I had been holding in. I sighed, wanting their curious little faces to come closer.
Taking another deep breath, I dove down to point at the sharks in the camera’s view and was about to head to the surface when all the blacktip reef sharks began to scatter, zipping through the turquoise water. Looking in the direction they had been fleeing from, I glanced behind Alice to see my favorite shark ever—a tiger shark! Someone must have gotten Alice’s attention because she whipped herself and her underwater camera around to capture this gorgeous animal.
Powerfully kicking upward to gulp in some air, I dove right back down to see the large shark lazily swim past us. Unlike the nervous blacktip reef sharks, this large shark knew it was the top predator in the water and acted like it. This shark was my favorite because of their striking patterning and unquenchable curiosity—they tend to stick around for a bit to check things out!
“Adrianna, talk about what you just saw!” Mr. Savage reminded me. “Did the shark try to attack you?!” I watched as the protective “eyelid” of the tiger shark, called the nictitating membrane, popped up as it got closer to Alice’s and Mark’s cameras. This one looked HUGE, making the camera crew look quite small. Her mouth was slightly open, so we could see her rows of unique, deeply notched teeth.
“We’ve just had an awesome encounter here in Sri Lanka. A beautiful female tiger shark is swimming with us in this perfect coral reef here. How could I tell it was a female? No claspers!” I said, once at the surface, before Mr. Savage cut me off.
“Feye, explain what claspers are!” Mr. Savage instructed.
Why couldn’t I talk about a shark’s claspers, the bit of outer anatomy on a shark that showed if it was male or female? Sigh.
While my brother talked, I took the opportunity to take a deep breath and dive down to see the sharks again. I watched as the tiger shark slowly moved on from us, no longer interested, until I could barely make out her outline. It felt like a dream! A wild tiger shark in our first underwater adventure! But my dream burst when I realized I needed to come back up for air. I was no mermaid! Unlike Zev, who was still swimming energetically despite being under for what felt like a really long time. I felt my chest burning from not breathing and took a few powerful kicks before my head was surrounded by air instead of water once again. Gasping, I took my snorkel out and just floated on the surface.
“You okay, Adrianna?” C
onnor asked from the boat that had been trailing us snorkelers around as we swam. I looked over at him, seeing Alice at the surface as well, handing her heavy camera to the boat crew above as she chatted to Mr. Savage about camera angles.
I gave him the universal “okay” sign that scuba divers give one another when checking in with their buddies.
Zev popped up next to me as I was still taking big breaths, and I also gave him the okay sign. After a few more moments, I could finally speak.
“I don’t know how you do it, Zev. Swimming without a snorkel, I mean. You hold your breath for so long!” I said.
“That? It’s called free diving. My dad taught me when I was younger,” Zev explained.
I had heard of free diving before. You hold your breath for as long as you can until you return to the surface. It takes a lot of skill to be able to do it for long periods of time like Zev seemed able to do. I had heard some people could hold their breath for up to ten minutes!
Feye popped up next to me and that’s when I realized I hadn’t seen our parents for a while. I had been too busy looking at all the cool marine animals!
“Do you know where Mom and Dad are?” I asked Feye, who shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. He spat out his snorkel and said, “No. I thought they were with you.”
As I treaded water, I did a circle to see if I could spot them.
“What’s the matter, Adrianna?” Mr. Savage asked, now next to Connor. He must have heard the distress in my voice. He was probably worried I had been bitten by something again!
“I can’t see our parents,” I told him, continuing to look in the direction we had come from. Mr. Savage and Connor looked out, too, none of us seeing anything but the ocean’s surface.
“Okay, kids, time to get out of the water,” Mr. Savage said, and we didn’t dare disobey this order by the tone of his voice. One by one, Zev, Feye, and I kicked our legs with all our might and were caught by either Alice or Connor as they helped us onto the boat. Once aboard, I took off my flippers and ran to the side of the boat we had just been on to continue to look out. It was only when Feye wrapped me in a towel that I realized I was covered in goose bumps and shivering.
Swimming With Sharks Page 4