Our first SNORKEL!

Hello, 

Today we started snorkeling earlier than planned, due to a flood that occurred in our dorm from a toilet malfunction. After attempting to clean it we rushed to the flagpole, and sang the national anthem. We sounded good after so much practice at home! After that, we were led to the boathouse. At the boathouse, we received our snorkeling equipment and proceeded to a swim test to make sure that everyone was able to swim. Once we all proved that, we continued with our snorkeling lesson. After snorkeling for a little bit we went back to the dorm room, where we continued cleaning the water from the boys dorm and the girls did their first round of morning chores. After that we were off to breakfast which was really good. We had bagels and scrambled eggs, and they had some homemade peanut butter that was fantastic. 

We just got our snorkel gear and made 'snorkel sandwiches!'

The gang's all here! First OCEAN swim! We made it!

After breakfast we started our first activity, a trip to the mangrove creek (Stan’s favorite ecosystem). To get there we all had to get our bikes. We tested the bikes to make sure they were working and we could all safely ride, and then we rode for about a mile to the beach. Once at the beach, we had a short minute walk to the creek. When we were at the creek we immediately saw a variety of fish, and some juvenile lemon sharks! We followed Stan and sat down in the water to learn about mangroves and their importance to the land. We specifically looked at a red mangrove and how it is helpful to fishermen when hurricanes come. We learned about its roots, leaves, and why they are able to resist a storm’s strong wind while other plants can’t.

Check out this juvenile lemon shark!

After the session, we snorkeled down the creek where we were able to see the fish up close and more clearly. At times the water was very shallow and at times it was fairly deep so it was a mix of walking and snorkeling. The tide was going out so it was like a lazy river ride! Once we got to the end of the creek, we discussed the mangroves and their offspring even more. At the end of the creek we could see black, red and white mangroves and we learned about their differences and similarities. When we finished talking, we headed back to the bikes and back to the Island School.

The group learning about red mangrove trees

Ladies in the 'lazy river' that is Page Creek!

When we got back, we had lunch. Lunch was sandwiches and leftovers from the day before. We sat on the roof and enjoyed the beautiful view of the light blue ocean. Once we finished we were given a campus tour where we learned about the significance of each building and what makes the Island School sustainable. After this two-hour tour, we had a Jeopardy game about the things we had just learned about in our tour. Turns out everyone is a winner.

After that we had free time where we snorkeled in the ocean just outside of our dorms—our new backyard! We were able to find a sea star, several sea cucumbers, a massive crab, and couple of fish. We really enjoyed this because we were able to go out by ourselves and find these things on our own that we had learned about back in Cleveland.

When free time was over we had dinner, which consisted of macaroni and cheese, Bahamian pork chops, and some other homemade salads. We saw the other group from Canada that we will be interacting with for the next couple of days who had just arrived. When dinner was over, we went to the press room where we were able to construct our own Turks’ head knots, which took a while to make. At least for tomorrow, we all have new matching bracelets! Outside, we could see how beautiful the stars were and it was nice to see how many there were. As always, before we called it a night we had our daily quiz about the various things that we did today.

Overall today was a very exciting day because we were able to spend a lot of time interacting with nature and snorkeling. It was a very tiring day, but it was a very good day. We think that tomorrow will be even better.

Des & Alfonso