Now it gets more interesting

On a day off from classes, a group of us decided to finally go to the beach; our hotel was very near the ocean, but no one had ventured into the water on their own yet. So, on Saturday Feb. 14 we took a bus to a beach with boats to ferry us to a nearby island. The day was gorgeous: hot, of course, with a strong sun and smooth water.

The beach where we caught a boat

The first boat was too full and heavy, so we decided to wait for the next one.

The island beach! Someone loaned us snorkels so we were able to see beautiful coral and extremely colorful fish. I wish we had an underwater camera because the coral dwellers where amazing. Oh well, you all will just have to visit some day...


Next, we decided to walk around the island. We were told this would take about 40 minutes, but between the many stops to watch crabs scuttle out of the way, and the sea urchin obstacles, we were gone for nearly 2 hours. All along the coast of the island we found these cool, extremely sharp rock formations.
Enter sea urchins. Their spines are poisoned and can cause lasting pain or numbness if stepped on. So, just avoid them, right?


What about when there are this many?

Sea urchin skeleton.

Sand dollar remains, unfortunately a bit broken.

Can anyone remember what these are called?

More cool rocks; Tony got a bit scraped up climbing on them, but it was worth it.

All in all, the island day was wonderful, despite the fact that almost all of us were extremely burnt afterwards. We all applied a high spf sunscreen at least once every 2 hours, but far be it from the tropical sun to be deterred by so little! One of our friends had brought a bottle of Aloe Vera, so over the next few days a very powerful threat if we mistreated this friend was a response of, "no aloe for you!"