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Daily Journal

ESSMY

Day 3

We headed out at 7:30 am on a morning adventure.

Our first stop was to collect "wavy turban" seashells.

Once we all gathered on the beach, we made our way through
the waist high vegetation cutting through the jungle with a machete.
Sorry wrong trip!!!!!!!!!! We took the path to the salt pans.

We arrive at a series of small salt pan mined by one of the local
fishing villages. Here we gave a naturalist talk on the different
salts of the earth, how fishermen use the salt to preserve their
days catch, and commercial mining of this natural resource.

We then moved on to "Cactus Alley" where we
had the opportunity to discuss and discover the
amazing adaptations cactus have made to
their harsh environment.

Once past "Cactus Alley" we headed
down to the beach to explore the intertidal zone.

Along the way we discovered a dead Balloon fish and trigger fish.

Poking around in the intertidal area
we discovered an array of invertebrates.

A cache of brittle seastars.

It was cool to see how fast and
agile they were when placed on the hand.

A young sea urchin is found feeding under the rocks.

A young brown spotted sea cucumber.

After breakfast we headed out for a mid-morning snorkel.

King Angelfish

A moray eel hides in a crevice. You can see the gills.
They look like the siphon of an octopus.

A puffer watches from the safety of the seaweed.

Sean dives down for a closer look at the marine life in the rocks.

After lunch we headed to San Evaristo.

We visited the local cemetery that dates back to 1940.

We then headed over to the commercial salt pans.

Here the students got a sense of a
more upscale (commercial) operation.

The salt harvested at this time was being used for livestock.

We hiked down the beach in search of treasures.

A quick stop to explore the terrain close up.

We ended the day looking for whales and dolphins.
Unfortunately all we encountered was a very brief
moment with a few feeding dolphins.

Very brief encounter!

We woke up really early, around 7 to visit an island and explore. On the island, we explored a salt pan used by the local fishermen. We also explored and talked about cactus. We went down to the beach and explored at low tide. We turned over rocks and found lots of cool stuff. Crabs, star fish, sea urchins and some really weird stuff.

A little later, after a scrumptious breakfast we went snorkeling. It was a different beach. There were square fish, hog fish, star fish and an eel. Josh was stung by a jelly fish and had to have it treated. He was fine in no time.

After lunch around five we went to yet another beach, saw some industrialized salt deposits, bigger than the ones we previously visited, where we only saw small deposits. we got to taste the salt, it was salty. Then we hiked a really long beach for about an hour and a half and collected a lot of shells and stuff. After that we went back to the Fiesta to eat dinner and chill for a few hours. Lela and Stasia did a slide show of the first 2 and a half days, lots of pictures of fish, hiking, all the cool stuff we had done. I didn't realize how much and how cool it has been. Also, lots of embarrassing moments of people in the shots. The usual, eyes closed, yawning, and some shots we weren't sure what they were doing. We played cards after for about an hour before we headed off to bed. Overall it was a pretty good day.
Can't wait for tomorrows adventures.

Day 1 and 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 - part 1 | Day 4 - part 2 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 and 8

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