The Berko-week

Hi! This is Ziva and Maya, the Berkowitz- Kimmels are back again on Kamaya for a breath-taking adventure once more. We don’t believe we have to start at the very beginning, even though Maria says so (Sound of Music). We hope you enjoy our post!



One of the funnest things we did this week was build sand castles and hermit crab habitats. Ziva and I made this ultra cool country out of sand and coral. There were coral forests and farms made of sand, small villages and market places made of clam shells or rocks. There were huge mountains and great rivers. We also built a gigantic wall around the whole place with a moat (or sandmine as we call it) outside.

My turn, sorry about that LONG paragraph. That was Maya, as most of you can tell. Anyway, another cool thing that we did was sail with dolphins. We are still in the long process of knowing what type they are. They were HUGE! But, in their lovely dolphin like way, they moved so gracefully and jumped so high, you hardly noticed. I loved that part, especially when I was at the bow and one jumped right next to me. Let me rewind a bit. Dolphins like to ride the waves that the bow creates. The faster you go, the more waves you make, the more they enjoy it.



Gosh Ziva! You call mine long? (How crazy is that?) Now let me continue and explain about the hermit crab habitats that SOMEONE rudely interrupted. It all started on this one island when Ziva and I were building another country, a bit like the one before but without walls. So anyhow, the boys built a castle with steep passageways and lots of castles/mountains. Then they put hermit crabs in it and we saw that the crabs couldn’t get out. We liked the idea, but their habitat was too shallow and the crabs were crawling out. So we made our own but it was too deep and kept caving in. I positively hate to admit it, but theirs was better. So we helped them, and made lots of other hermit crab homes along the way.


Another hermit crab habitat.

You just keep goin’ on ‘n’ on. One thing you did forget to mention what the hermit crabs look like. That is kind of important . I will tell them. Hermit crabs are like little lobsters-ish, in snail shells of all shapes and colors. So, another thing that I found interesting was the snorkeling. I’ll admit, Maya was a great guide, explaining lots of coral and tons of fish. She also taught me how to dive, and in turn, I taught my mom. When I say dive I don’t mean scuba diving. I mean snorkel diving. You curl your body and shoot down, sticking your feet straight up. Every few feet you go down, plug your nose and blow out. Then when you rise to breathe, you blow out of the snorkel (mouth piece). We saw parrot fish pooping sand, needle fish sewing and damselfish flirting with each other. How wrong is that???



These paragraphs keep getting bigger! (Thanks to Ziva.) I still don’t think I should have to write about the rugby game, after all, you watched it with the boring parents. {Then let me write!} That’s okay, I will. But the parents made us write about it so, oh well. Anyway, the adults at fault forced us to come ashore to watch a rugby game that they claimed would be a “cultural” experience. Yeah right. But I could see that there was no point in arguing, they would make us do it anyhow. So we went ashore and I could quickly see it would be dull. So could Noah. Can you believe we have anything in common? So we went to the seaside and Noah swam, but I just hung out. Soon we met some local kids and Noah and I played soccer with them. The whole thing turned out not to be as bad as I thought, but I’m glad I didn’t have to watch the game. Also my uncle Ethan (Berkowitz as we call him) went halyard swinging and the buckle was too small for his belly. (If you don't know much about halyard swinging then just research earlier posts.)



I have the honor of closing this lovely entry, but first, I have one last word. I disagree with Maya. It was not dull. The villagers were kind to allow us to visit them, and watch their rugby game. Lets close this up!
Can’t wait to hear some comments!

Some parting shots from our week ...

Here's Noah snorkelling. He liked looking at the fish, but he liked jumping off Kamaya with Kai even better.



Here's our Fourth of July cake that we decorated to look like the American flag. Too bad you weren't with us to eat it!