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Day 9: Traveling to Glover’s Reef

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This morning we slept in! (until 7:30 am). Then we left the ecolodge to drive to Belize city. We got to go to a fun lunch boardwalk/beachy area. After I had my delicious smoothie, we boarded the boat and drove to Glovers Reef. 

The boat ride was about 2.5 hours mostly along the barrier reef. The water was a gorgeous shade of turquoise prior to crossing into open ocean, and when we crossed into the open ocean, the sea immediately got so choppy and dark blue. At one point we could not see any land around us in any direction. 

 

When we got to Glover’s and got off the boat, the FIRST thing I saw was a nurse shark!!! Prepare to be blasted with shark/ray information as that is now my taxonomic group of interest. Loved the reptiles, but it’s time for some marine creatures! After dropping our stuff off on land and coming back to the dock, I also saw a small lemon shark!!!!

I can’t wait for the adventures w are about to have here. It’s going to be a movie

Claire C

2016

Sea-rious Business

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On the boat
On the boat

Today we traveled to the reef, which was very exciting for me. It has been a long time since I went to an ocean, and it was so nice to remember how much they make me happy. I feel so calm tonight looking out at the moon rising above the waves through the palms.

We also got a chance to do a short hour of snorkeling before dinner tonight. I saw a few Queen Conch, but other than that not too many molluscs. I was spending too much time trying to figure out my snorkel to spend a lot of time looking for them, so tomorrow hopefully I will find more.

Queen conch in the sand
Queen conch in the sand

On the island where we’re staying (Middle Caye) we have seen about a hundred hermit crabs and a whole bunch of larger crabs as well. While we were snorkeling we also found a blue tang surgeon fish and some barracudas.

I was able to identify some of the stony corals still even though coral reef biology was a couple years ago by now. I definitely saw some Porites Astriodes and Sudodiploria Strigosa.

It’s going to be an incredible week here at Glovers. I’m very excited.