Day 11 - June 17: Lights Out

Shortly after breakfast (with bacon), we attended the Natural History of the Bahamas conference. Presentations are made by professors, researchers and students from universities around the world. This morning’s topics varied from preserving San Salvador’s archaeological sites and artifacts, to studying the critically endangered Bahamas Oriole. After a much needed coffee break that followed only two presentations, we returned back to the conference room to observe three more…interesting presentations.

After lunch, researchers, professors, and students met at designated field trucks to go to different sites (groups had been previously organized according to individual interests).Our class headed out to the Dixon Hill Lighthouse, one of the few remaining that use kerosene as a light source, and a counterweight rotation system. We all climbed up the steep, small winding steps, to the top and took in the breath-taking view of the surrounding inland lakes and pristine sandy beaches.

Next, we headed down through San Sal’s landscape to the old boat dock. Of course we couldn’t get there by ourselves. “Indiana Jones” (a professor from a college in NYC who explores San Salvador with memorized maps and his machete) led us down the overgrown trail. However, Indiana Jones’ machete didn’t protect us from the Haulback thorns that left us bleeding as we attempted to escape their wrath. After completing hiking the trail with scratches from Mother Nature’s not so nice plants and bug bites from the highly adaptive, fast flying, and blood thirsty mosquitoes, we worked our way back up the hill. We then hiked down the other side of the hill to explore Lighthouse Cave. As planned, it was low tide when we arrived at the cave, which meant we could walk around in it! During high tide, the cave is filled almost completely with water-not ideal or logical conditions for cave exploring. As we ventured through the damp cave, we saw sponges that have only EVER been found in this specific cave growing up the cave walls. Copepods of various sized were also o. With a large “room-like” area of the cave as our final destination, we had to walk through chest-deep, frigid cold water. The girls filled the cave with laughter as the boys voices went up a couple octaves when entering the water that was deeper than their comfort zones were ready for. Upon entering the “room,” we were told from previous Tropical Island Biology students that we all must sit absolutely still and quiet in the pitch black cave. “The first one to make noise or turn their flashlight back on springs for beers” is what kept us silent for a solid five minutes. Rob got bored and turned his flashlight back on, which deemed the rest of us triumphant. Then after exploring the cave, we headed back to the GRC to get cleaned up and attend the poster session of the conference, followed by dinner.

Two more presentations took place after dinner. We practically ran out of the conference room after the last presentation was made, feeling free. However, our mentally and physically exhausting day is not over. We have kite diagrams to draw for our intertidal projects, which will demonstrate species’ diversity and distribution across a transect, according to distance from the low tide line. It’s been a long day here in sunny San Salvador, and it might be an even longer night. But we are learning a lot and taking lots of pictures of our adventures!

- Mandy and Kelly