Tropical Marine Ecology - San Salvador, Bahamas

We woke bright and early to catch the shuttle from the hotel to the airport at 5:00 AM. We took another picture in the shuttle (before is our first day in Nassau and after is our last day) Once we arrived at the airport, we dropped off our bags and headed through customs. While we waited to board the plane, some of us bought last minute souvenirs. We were happy to see a Starbucks in the airport and got our early morning caffeine! The first flight was full of sleep and movies, and we were happy we had no test to study for this time.  Once we got to Atlanta, we scouted out the food and got busy working on our final projects. Although we had a five hour layover, the time went by fast. We had an amazing trip to the Bahamas and we are sad to leave. We learned a lot about the coral reef fishes and the corals. We got a small taste of the Bohemian culture. We are very grateful for our experience. We appreciate all those who supported us as we embarked on our three week adve

Today was full of exploring Nassau! The group split up in the morning to search for breakfast only to reunite a few minutes later at the nearest Starbucks. After our caffeine fill, half of the crew found the Straw Market to look for some souvenirs. The others went to Fort Fincastle, an army fort from the 1700s. On the way to the fort, we passed by a local named George who gave us directions to the fort. In addition, he gave Luke a rattler that came off from one of the trees by the fort. After the fort, they stopped at the Pirate Museum to learn about Nassau's actual history with Disney's favorite pirates. We also had the pleasure of locking Mike up pirate style (photo included). In the afternoon, most of us ended up back at the beach trying to take in our last few hours of sun before returning to winter in Washington. A few of us tried a local delicacy from beach vendors- conch fritters. The others returned to the Irish Pub with Mary to enjoy a late lunch and

Today was a sad day for all of us. We had to say goodbye to the island we have called home for the past 3 weeks. Some of us started off our morning with a short hike to our favorite sunrise spot. We enjoyed each others company and watched the sun come up over the clouds. Then we enjoyed a pancake and bacon breakfast and found out that we didn't have to leave for our flight until 2pm. Most of us took our extra free time to continue working on our research proposals and finish up some packing. A few others went out for a final swim in Graham's Harbor. We enjoyed a final lunch and then gathered our belongings onto trucks with our St. Olaf compatriots and headed for the airport. We jammed out in the back of the truck for one last time, and pulled into the airport not quite ready to say goodbye. After getting checked in we made one last stop at Wendy's Snack Shack for some treats and dominoes. Our flight was a little delayed due to weather, but eventually we were on our

Today, in order to enjoy our last full day in San Salvador, some of the group went to Club Med while others did some final site seeing. For those that went to Club Med, as Megan said, "It was a dream!" They got all-inclusive access for several hours, during which they lived luxuriously. There was some rain off and on in the beginning of the day, but that didn't stop any of us. Those that stayed behind decided to swim to "Egge Island" off the shore of Rice Bay. It's a several hundred yard swim to a small island covered in iguanas and crabs. We hiked the whole island and discovered an awesome viewpoint off the backside. Monkey man (Mike) caught a crab, and Alex tamed an iguana named Carlos. Unfortunately, on the long swim back, we didn't spot any sharks... After lunch, while some of the group was still at Club Med enjoying paddle boarding and "gourmet" chicken nuggets, the other 11 of us decided to go to Monument Beach. We na

The morning began with working on our final scientific paper, as well as meeting with our research groups to continue working on our proposal. After a few hours of work, we gathered for lunch before beginning our adventure for the day. We briefly stopped at Bonefish Bay, stopping to collect shells and toss the frisbee around. After hanging out for a few, we hopped back onto the truck and headed to the main attraction: the Club Med boat. Our first stop on the boat was to Natural Bridges reef, appropriately named for how the reefs were connected by elevated bridges. Our second stop was at Snapshot Reef, a favorite amongst the group when we previously visited. We snorkeled around for about thirty minutes, seeing an array of fish and a rather large crab. After a while the group decided it was time to simply have fun, doing flips in the water and attempting to sit on the ocean floor, some of which were rather successful. We made our final stop on the Club Med

We started the day off heading to the western side of the island due to the strong eastern winds impacting the tides. On our way, we caught a glimpse of Mary walking to Club Med - a program assistant tradition. She spent a luxurious day sunbathing. We, on the other hand, stopped at Bamboo Point briefly to check out the conditions and see if it was safe to swim out to the drop off in a hunt for sharks. We decided to go further down the coast to Vicky's Reef where we spent the morning snorkeling. A few caught a glimpse of squid and Kenzie managed to harass a juvenile damselfish. After that we stopped again at Bamboo Point to collect some conch shells and coral. We proceeded to Wendy's Snack Shack where Aiden chose to make a root beer float.... which promptly splashed on to Becca in the back of the truck. We made it back in time for lunch. We used the afternoon for group time to work on our projects, then met before dinner to discuss our figure analyses. Immediately afte

We started our day off with some free time to work on our figure analysis and our group proposals. A lot of people took advantage of the 28 mph wind by doing laundry and putting their clothes up to dry on the line. Some of us went on a run to North Point to see the view and get in a good workout running into the wind. After lunch we made plans to go to Bone Fish Bay for inter tidal examinations using transects and quadrats to identify living organisms during low tide.  After a brief discussion we were free to explore the inter tidal. We found many cool things including spider crabs, little sea urchins, a large and old snail, and a baby Sergeant major (aka Sarg). We proceeded to play in the sand as many children would do.  Finally, we ended the day at Wendy's to get our day's fix of ice cream (there was only coffee flavored) and dominoes. Kate won 3 games in a row but sadly, Mike didn't win once.  -Megan and Luke

We had a relatively slow start to the day today. We all rose as usual for breakfast but instead of gearing up for a day of snorkeling we buckled down and got to work on some figure analyses and our project proposals. After a pretty productive morning we hit the cafeteria for lunch and soon after started our journey to the highest point on San Salvador, the lighthouse. The lighthouse was a quick a walk from the road where we parked the truck and we could already see more of the island landscape before even climbing up the stairs to the top. Half the group went up the precarious set of stairs/ladders to the top to take in the full view. From our high vantage point we could see more of the island than we ever had before (with the exception of flying in) and witnessed the multitude of hyper saline lakes that are in the interior of the island. Most of expected the light in the lighthouse to be a grand fixture but it turns out it was just a large florescent bulb magnified by a compl

We spent the morning at church! One of the students in the group even went to two services. The message from the sermon was about the importance of friendship. It was a wonderful message for a group of students bonding over a month of exploring the ocean. We meet for class in the afternoon to discuss the results of our group research projects. We learned about sea urchin dispersal and sea fan and gorgonian abundance in reefs. In the evening, the majority of the group went night snorkeling and swam with a lot of turtles. They were waiting for a shark to swim by them, but it never happened. The group was in the water for nearly an hour and a half and spotted squid as well as lion fish. In attempt to summon the sharks the boys pretended to be sharks. A few of us went to hangout with the St. Olaf group in the evening. It was so much fun getting to hang out with our sister school in the Midwest. The weather has shifted from sunny skies. This evening we got to watch some incredible l