Today involved a lot of long rides. We left the Tropical Education Center around 9 or 9:30 and headed for the Princess Marina. The ride back to Belize City wasn’t as long as I was expecting, I think because we covered most of the distance yesterday. The restaurant this class normally eats at, right at the marina, was apparently damaged in a hurricane, so we improvised and went for lunch around 11:30 in a touristy little visitor center called Old Belize. Then we headed back to the marina and got on board. By 1:15, the boat was packed and we were off.

The boat ride was beautiful if a little bumpy. Once we got past the reef crest it was even getting a little air. The view off the boat was beautiful and we passed tons of little islands. There was even a point where we weren’t able to see land at all, in any direction. The breeze made it feel cool on the boat, also, which was nice. After two and a half hours, though, I was glad to be back on dry land. I was a bit sore from sitting and starting to feel a little queasy so I was grateful to see Glover’s and step onto the dock.

The island was really beautiful. Almost immediately, we saw tons of new amazing birds and fish. I was most impressed by the frigate birds, which sort of drift lazily instead of flapping their wings most of the time. I also saw a pelican fishing which was neat—it would repeatedly fly up a ways and then swoop down to snatch fish from the water. There were tons of fish as well—bonefish were very common and we even saw a nurse shark. On the island, there were also tons of coconut palms to see, along with mangroves in certain places. We also got to see a ton of little hermit crabs and some larger land crabs, which were a treat and very cute. I haven’t ID’d any cryptobenthic fish yet—those are the little ones that live around reefs—but I think we’re going out to the reef tomorrow, so I’ll probably have more to share then.