We woke up at our earliest time here on Glover’s to finish up the last bit of packing and get our stuff down to the docks. It was pretty sad to clean up after all the time and memories that we’d made here. We had a special early breakfast with our last bits of Maria Sharp’s Mango Jam before getting on the boat to sail off. Bye Middle Caye!

We sailed for about an hour before landing on Carrie Bowe Caye to tour the Smithsonian Research Institute. The station manager, Clyde, ha actually lived in my hometown Midland for a while, which was really cool! We also got a tour of one of the labs where they were looking at the heat stress effects on hybridized corals. The research station was a really cool place with some great views of the reef crest.

We got back on the boat for a short sail to Twin Caye, where we jumped off the boat to snorkel among the mangroves. The water was pretty murky so it was hard to see much but we still got to see the fish and sponges among the roots. Javier saw a manatee too but the rest of us didn’t get to see it. We hopped back on the boat and sailed for an hour until we reached Belize City. We rinsed off and changed and ate lunch at Calypso’s by the dock. We said bye to Javy and Rose before bussing ourselves to the airport.

Being in the airport was odd because it was weird seeing tourists who had experienced a completely different side of Belize from us. We shopped for quick souvenirs and chilled until we got on the plane, where Claire’s dad was the pilot! After we landed, we went through immigration and customs and everyone who was leaving gave their gear to Scott. We took one last photo before I said goodbye to everyone, which was really sad to say the least. It’s hard to imagine not waking up to everyone every day and not going on crazy adventures with these people. I flew home and was picked up by my Mom, who was predictably distressed by my bites and dark skin #tookoolieforyou. I tried to explain everything that we did on this trip, but it was hard to condense two weeks into a just a few words. It’s hard to realize that this is the last normal blog I’ll be posting but get ready for some exciting music in my reflection!