This morning, we went to breakfast at 7:30 and this morning had some good eats! Pancakes, bacon and some coffee helped us start our day on the right foot. After breakfast, we loaded up on the truck and took a little drive to Monument Reef. The reef gained its name by being located near a monument that commemorates the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. The Olympic flame was put in this monument from Greece on its way to the games. There also is a giant cross nearby commemorating the possible first landing of Christopher Columbus. Monument Reef is a snorkel site that is on the west side of San Salvador. The site has a series of reefs that stretch out towards the deep ocean, and they stop the bigger waves from crashing on the beach. At this site, our goal was to explore the reefs and begin to identify fish. While at the reef, we saw lots of interesting organisms such as a southern stingray, stoplight parrotfish, blue tangs, flamingo tongues, fan corals, smooth trunkfish and yellow stingrays. The water was sort of murky because of the movement under water as well as the weather today. It was cloudy for most of the day which made it hard to see the bright beautiful colors of the reef.
Lunch today was a hit to say the least! After a morning filled with snorkeling, we were eager to get back and get some chicken sandwiches. A little after we ate, we were off to our next site. East Beach was our second choice due to the waves at the original location having larger waves. The focus of this trip was to identify some plant species that are found on most of the beaches in San Sal. We learned that because of the harsh conditions of the beaches (sun, wind, lack of water) there is not much diversity found in beach conditions. For some context, we split into two groups, and we had found the same 5 species within both groups! We were able to have a more relaxed swim day at East Beach, but some still went to the few bunches of reefs just offshore. We saw a big spiny lobster, parrotfish, small mouth grunt, tomtate, and many others. Some also got to see a Barracuda that was around 3-4 feet long!
After a full day of snorkeling, everyone was excited to get back to campus and get ready for dinner. The Gerace Research Center cooked us a great meal of steak, potato, and vegetables. Afterwards we had a little down time before this evening's class. Normally for class we have a lecture but today was different because we are busy just working on all our own projects and were given free time to work on them. The professors always pause to let us look at the sunset each night and tonight definitely did not disappoint! Currently we are working on two different projects, one presentation on a specific organism and another presentation on a specific site that we have seen. Thanks for reading about our day!
-Kaitlin Colahan 鈥�27, Olivia Follick 鈥�26, and Kelsey Ragan 鈥�25