This morning Jordan, Isaac, Damien, and I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:45am to watch the sunrise. Although waking up was a little difficult, the sunrise was worth it. The sun was very large and red as it crested over the horizon.

Today, we left Glover’s reef and that was very sad. But I am excited for our week in the rainforest. As we were boating back to Belize, we stopped at Carrie Bow Cay, the Smithsonian research station just inside the Great barrier reef. Clyde the station manager gave us a quick tour.

Then, we were off to swim in the mangroves. WE SAW A MANATEE ON OUR WAY INTO THE GROVE!!!!! Then, we got out and walked around the mangrove and got sufficiently covered in peat. We then snorkeled up the mangroves. I saw a baby Banded Butterfly fish and a few bright orange starfish. At the end of the mangroves, we found a bright yellow seahorse! It was a great way to end the marine portion of our trip. We then continued our trek back to Belize city and ate at a restaurant called Calypso. There lime juice was amazing!

We then got back in the bus and drove to TEC! After checking in, we went for a short hike around the station. I did not see any amphibians on the hike but we saw a ridiculous number of epiphytes!

After dinner, we went to the Belize Zoo for a night tour. While waiting for all the groups to arrive, but it hopped away before I got a closer look! Inside the zoo, I got to feed a Tapir! It was really cool. We also got to see four out of the five large cats of Belize. My favorites were the Ocelot and the Jaguar. The Ocelot, Rayburn, was really cool because when the zoo keeper gave him a piece of chicken he made an adorable NOM NOM NOM sound! The Jaguar, Junior, was raised by hand from a cub. When we arrived at the cage, he did multiple somersaults for treats! It was really cool to see all the animals at night in a semi natural environment! After we got back from the zoo, Scott brought me a large cane toad!