Swimming with Dolphins!


After a late night working on our figure analyses, we woke up early ready for a day at the beach! We had breakfast, gathered our things, played with tadpoles, and hopped in the back of the truck for our journey to Rocky Point. We walked through the trees and discovered a white sandy beach with crystal clear blue water and large dark patches of coral reefs. At the beach we snorkeled out to the first reef and saw an abundance of wildlife, including colorful sponges, a variety of corals, vibrant reef fish, and even another barracuda! We took notes on everything we saw using our PVC notepads that we had made the night before. After about 30 minutes of exploration it was time to head in and Drew was leading the way, suddenly he yelled, "Dolphin!" Kenzie and Becca were right behind and looked down to see at least 4 dolphins swimming and playing in the water around them. Soon the whole class had arrived and we spent a good 15 minutes splashing with and observing the dolphins!
Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our marine friends and head south towards our next stop, Grotto beach. The ride was a bit bumpy and a few trees tried to attack us, but we had it to absoLUTE paradise (pun intended). We ate our 'field lunches', which consisted of sweet bread and sandwich meat and then proceeded to run into the water... like ten times. After playing with Megan's friendly hermit crab, we drove the other way back around the island, with a pit stop at some mangroves, and returned to home base. The rest of our afternoon consisted of another lovely figure analysis from Dr. B and before dinner, an adventure to visit the iguanas on campus. Now it's time for class and some free time in the evening.

-Becca, Kate, and Sonja


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