Today our group visited Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI) in Larnaca. CMMI was founded in 2019 and funded primarily by the government. CMMI’s main goals are to find new ways for the shipping industry to become more sustainable as well as trying to preserve the marine life off the coast of Cyprus. During our presentation they explained the importance of keeping the water clean and also their current plans for expanding their company. These plans consist of building a public university as well as renovating a lighthouse into an information center. I found it very interesting to hear about some of the many sectors that CMMI has within the company and how small the sectors are. CMMI has roughly 40 employees with about 9 sectors in all. I thought this was a very smart structure has having small specialized groups allows for many different projects to be completed at the same time. The Robotics sector was the most interesting to me. This sector is where CMMI researches and develops some of its own robotic vessels for various tasks within the ocean. These tasks include monitoring the ocean for trash as well as checking vessels and collecting information on them. Another cool component that we learned about was how they implemented AI into their work. They used the AI to analyze current wind patterns and mark whether it was safe for swimming at certain distances during the day.

After visiting CMMI we spent the rest of our day visiting historical sites. One of these sites was the Saint Lazarus Church in Larnaca. The first thing you notice when you walk into the church was all of the gold. Everywhere you looked there was gold plated paintings, chandeliers, candle stands, and more. Underneath the Church is where Lazarus was buried where you could actually go and see the burial site. We also visited the Angeloktisti Church which was much smaller in size. Inside this church was the one of the oldest religious mosaics to date.

After visiting the previous two churches we stopped in Lefkara, a small village. This was one of the most beautiful places I have seen on the trip thus far. The streets were very narrow with stores lined on each side. I’d almost describe it as European towns you would see in a movie, very tight with overgrown plants and foliage everywhere. Most of the stores were authentic silver stores and there were also many Lefkara lace shops. The view from atop the city was also incredible.