Birthdays

Following the birthday of a guest, celebrated by a condensed milk pie, our own Sam was presented with a chocolate and carrot cake for his 22nd birthday.

Orchids

The strength of the island's orchids are astounding.

Boat Ride

The boat ride to reach the Island was longer than expected but worth it. Choppy water made for a rather fun ride. We also saw the island currently being used for a season of European Survivor. Who knew it wasn't all real? 

Trash Pick up with Students from East end.

      This morning, after breakfast we hiked to the East village to pick up trash along the beach with the students at the village school. We brought trash bags, as they are limited on that side of the island. During out previous visit, a couple days before, the school teacher had shared with us that the children often went on these beach clean ups once or twice a week. This frequency showed as they seemed to have systems, as two children would carry each bag and hold it open for the rest of the students gathering trash to put in it. Once the bags were full they would be tied up and carried to the other side of the village, presumably to be burned, as there was no other trash pick up.

       Most of the trash found consisted of styrofoam, shoes, sponge that appeared to, and plastic bottles. Though by no means, was there enough bags or time to pick up all of the trash.

Last nights sunset was definitely a great way to end the day. After a clumsy hike down a steep hill we made it to the village where we met the local kids and the Maestro. We gave them pencils and raffled out a box of crayons and a notebook. On the way back we went around the island causing us to stumble upon an abandon house, mangroves, and steep flights of stairs! Overall a great experience. Can't wait to see what else this island has in store for us!

First impressions

We arrived on the island this afternoon. Kona the island dog greeted us!  After we had lunch and settled into our rooms, we all went for a highly anticipated swim. In my short time on the reef today, I saw Christmas tree worms and a flamingo tongue snail! Others saw stingrays.
Tomorrow is our first full day on the island. I'm looking forward to spending the day exploring and our first class! 

2016 Off and running..

We are getting ready to leave for a new summer trip.  Half of the participants are in the Coral Reef Issues class and the rest are doing projects.  We leave on 3 July so the blogging should start after that time.  Keep your fingers crossed that we have good weather!  I have just returned from the 13th International Coral Reef Meetings where there are dire predictions for many of the world's reefs because of warming and acidification.  The amount of disease on the corals last year at Cayos Cochinos was minimal for both the hard and soft species.  We are looking forward to seeing how the reef is doing this summer.  As always, we thank the Honduran government for allowing us to work at this marvelous research site.