This post contains student writing.

Yesterday was our last morning on Tobacco Caye. We had breakfast and took photos with the Marine Station staff, then loaded onto the boat and said our final goodbyes to the island. After the 30 minute boat ride, we got into vans that took us to our final lodge of the trip. After a couple of stops, we made it to Black Rock Lodge at about 3:00 PM. After settling into our rooms, we met for a sustainability tour of the lodge. 

We walked around the facility, stopping in their garden (where we tried cucumbers, limes, mulberries, and habanero peppers), tilapia fish pond, and chicken coop (where we may have traumatized some chickens trying to pick them up). On our final stop of the sustainability tour, we got to try cacao straight from the pod, which tastes kind of like lychee on the outside and is bitter and purple on the inside! We also saw the room the is responsible for powering the whole lodge.

Following the tour we had free time, which many of us used to go swimming or just relax. After dinner we began work on our final projects which range in content from Maya culture and our time at Lamanai to marine life and our time in Tobacco Caye. Then we had our nightly debrief and went to bed!

Today was our first full day at Black Rock Lodge. We began with a wonderful breakfast of either pancakes or a traditional Belizean breakfast of eggs with veggies and fry jacks. Then we departed on a 1 1/2 hour drive to Rio Frio Caves. Here we traversed through an open air cave and saw baby birds, a baby bat, and had a magical views of stalactites.

Our next stop was Rio On Pools where we went swimming and ate lunch which consisted of rice and beans (not to be confused with beans and rice), salad, chicken, and tortillas. Then we ended our outing with swimming at another swim hole with a huge waterfall. 

When we returned, we had free time, dinner, and more time to work on our final projects. We then ended our day with a debrief. We are all very excited for the last three days!

– Cam. C