Today we went into the water! Swimming felt so nice, especially with the humidity down here.

For breakfast, the pancakes had banana in them!! 😋

First, we went to the patch reefs near the dock, where I found 4 queen conch shells. It seems to me like these are the most obvious molluscs present at the reef, especially since they tend to be large, had a very definite crown, and a pink lip! (I learned today that they’re called queen conchs due to their spiral looking like a crown!) We were in the water for about an hour, just getting a feel for what it’s like to snorkel in the ocean. I got So. Much. Water. In. My. Mouth.

So after we got back, we had some time to rest, then we put some equipment together that we’ll need in the coming days. Lunch consisted of some chicken wings with BBQ sauce, fries, and coleslaw. The food here is so good.

We then “voted” (really well we’re coerced by amazing speeches of Caio and Nyala) to take a trek through the mangroves of death. NEVER AGAIN. Imagine you are wearing a long sleeve shirt with a yellow sleeve. Your sleeve is now black. It is covered with mosquitos. It may as well be made of mosquitos. You try to run. They smell your fear. They know they have won. They take no mercy. They swarm. You try to jump into the water to escape them. It’s too shallow to dive under, your effort is futile. You accept your death and continue on, knowing that they are the rulers of this island.

Ok, but once we were in the water for the second time, with clipboards and cameras, we tried to do a scavenger hunt with varying levels of success (I kind of forgot to write things down, the waves kept pushing me over).  We saw a sea cucumber! It was quite large! (See picture)

once we got back to land, 2 people (Ava and Rusty) presented their taxon lectures. We broke for about an hour, and then had dinner. The cheesecake was so good! Then we finished the day with 3 more lectures (1 topic, 2 taxa) (Maegan, Phoenix, and Michael).

good day over all. The aliens in Lilo & Stitch were wrong. The mosquito population is thriving. They are the apex predator.