We took our first field trip out to Middleton Cay yesterday, which is an archological site nearby that has evidence of a culture that lived before Columbus tripped over the islands. These are some of the conch middens, some of them were like 6-7 feet high. It was incredible.

This is the spider that almost attacked because I almost ran into it...haha. I just think that's a cool picture.

Pre-Columbian conch!

That's a cushion seastar. They're native and really cool.

Hola!

Sorry it's been a while, the internet hasn't been up and functioning very well. It should be good, but you'll have to bear with me, it may be a while until I can get on again.

Anyway, we went on our first field trip Friday to Middleton Cay. We're studying TCI culture and Middleton used to be home to some kind of culture. It was pretty cool. Someone took a conch out of the middle of one of the middens once and had it tested, and it was a couple hundred years old. We also had our first field ID session, we walked around with one of the interns and she pointed our plants and organisms and we had to ID them by their latin names. It's pretty tough, but I've got quite a few of them down. Some of them have the craziest names.

Last night we had a cookout at East Bay which was the home to a hotel before the hurricanes, but it has a beautiful beach. It was so much fun! We all sat around the campfire and ate and people played the guitar. AND we saw flamingos, which are native, and I think that's about the coolest thing ever. We're planning on going back today on our day off.

Classes are in full swing and going really well. We have our first exam on Thursday, about the seagrasses and mangrove ID. Everything is going great here!