I woke up before 6 which I haven’t done since Las Cuevas to catch the early breakfast. I soaked up much of the island as I could before rushing to the boat. I unfortunately dropped my snorkeling fin right before getting on the boat, so I had to quickly change into my Lycra dive skin and quickly retrieve it. We then said our goodbyes to the Middle Caye and headed to the Smithsonean Research center. The island was so small that Scott said we could throw a hermit crab from one side of the island to the island. We got to listen to Nicole Fogarty from SouthEasten University talk about her research. She’s studying corals that are a hybrid between elk horn and stag horn corals. She said that they are relatively new in the evolutionary history, and that they are especially resilient, found in incredibly shallow waters that get up to 34 degrees. We got to see her experiment! She used small fish tanks, placing small baby hybrid corals in them and treating them to different temperatures. I’ve never seen any scientist’s experiment in progress, so I was captivated. We also talked about how excited Adrienne would be if she saw all of this (we miss you Adrienne!)

We then headed to the mangroves and swam in a single file along the tree roots. I was only able to see the outline of algae and sponges growing on the roots and the overall shape of some small nursery fish species.

After the ride back, we quickly hosed ourselves down once we got to the dock to have a restaurant meal. It was a weird feeling to sit down at an establishment without wearing my rainforest gear or bathing suit. After our meal we said our goodbyes to Rose and Javier.

We got to the airport and in unison we were surprised and shocked to feel the cold breeze of air conditioner. We hadn’t felt that in half a month and we were all so happy. Once we went through security we got our souvenirs and boarded the plane. Claire’s father was the pilot!!!! We were so happy for her and for us because we got another shoutout.