We had a surprising amount of free time today, which hasn’t really happened in… ever. After dissecting a little lionfish (invasive species!) and promptly eating it in Scott-made ceviche, we were effectively left to our own devices. After a quick nap on the hammocks, we had lunch and then some of us went out snorkeling in the fore reef. I wasn’t necessarily excited to put on my dive suit and fins for the seventh day in a row, so I stayed on the shore and we spent about an hour collecting hermit crabs and putting them in a hole we dug. Sami and I thought it to be a little abusive but we watched anyway.

Afterward, we all piled into the boat and sailed off to our final activity at Glover’s, and a TFB tradition. This was maybe one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We arrived at Southwest Caye, an island that houses a fairly traditional Caribbean resort. It was just us at first, and I commandeered the music (against Ceyda’s wishes, but with the support of everyone else). We ordered drinks around a picturesque wooden Tiki bar, and sat on the pier overlooking the water and talking. Rose taught us how to dance in the Belizean way (kind of similar to the Brazilian way). We walked around the island and took lots of pictures. We all signed a Rice t-shirt, with different sketches next to our names, and the tiki bar put it up on the wall.

We sailed home under a beautiful sunset, the sun setting on one side and the moon rising directly opposite. We spent the rest of the night after dinner sitting on the pier, talking to the coast guard guys and writing our journals under the light of the dock’s only lamp. I briefly taught Chloe and Claire how to fence. We told stories and joked until about midnight, and I fell asleep already missing Belize.

As a note–I didn’t see any green algae today because I didn’t go in the water, but I’m sure if I had I would’ve seen many Halimeda tunas  and Rhipocephalus pinecones.