A day with Indiana Jones

The other day was very exhausting but very cool at the same time.  Rob and I were invited to go bushwhacking with John Winter, an archaeologist who is responsible for finding most of the ruins on this islands.  Unlike most of the archaeologists that do work on this island, John has no problem fighting his way through the brush to the interior.  Much of the land at the center is untouched and has remained that way for hundreds of years.  The locals build their homes on the coast and the trails do not go very far inland.  I think Rob and I were both humbled while watching John at work.  I'm pretty sure that if that man even looked at a redwood, it would cut itself down. 

Our goal was to get to a pond that nobody has been to since maybe the 1700s.  Along the way we found an old rum jug from the early 1800s, and some carvings in the rocks that could possibly have been made by the lucayans who first inhabited this island.  We were very close to the pond, and I could actually see it after climbing to the top of a lignum vitae, but we had to turn around to get back in time for dinner.  Rob and I are going back to the trail in a couple days to finish clearing our way to the pond.  I am very excited to find out what sort of artifacts may still be in this area.

Today we set traps in Lighthouse Cave.  This cave has a conduit and the water level rises with the tide.  We went in at low tide and the water was at our shoulders.  Besides the small beam of light from our flashlights, we were in complete darkness.  We set traps in the closest thing to a conduit we could find, so tomorrow we will know if we found them or not.  Hopefully, something will be in them.

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!  I hope you had a great day.  I love you and I miss you!  I have been trying to post something all day, but the internet has been out.  I can't wait to get home, so I don't have to blog anymore.  I love you guys!

Halfway Point

I'm excited to have working internet on my computer again.  A group of 40 from The University of Exeter came and they internet has been slow ever since. 

Since the one day off we had we have been doing pretty much the same thing every day.  We try to get into at least two "blue holes" in the morning and retrieve traps in the afternoon.  It might sound simple, but there have been many challenges along the way.

One especially aggravating  morning was when we decided to dive Mermaid Pond.  This included walking the half mile trail with two tanks, dive gear, and traps.  The trail was very overgrown from when we were here last year.  Most over what is overtaking the trail is either poisonous (poisonwood and manchineel) or full of spines (haulback)...  so that was fun.  When we were finally ready and in the water, we swam to the North conduit first.  The only problem was our lack of communication.  I thought Rob had found it before, and he thought I knew where it was.  So we wasted a little bit of time swimming back and forth on the northern side of the lake until I stopped over a spot where the bottom seemed to disappear.  I called for rob and we both descended to the bottom.  It was definitely it, but there was so much flocculent that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.  Rob swam off to check to see if he could see the opening while I sat over my head in muck waiting for it to settle... it never did.  At one point I started thinking to myself that I might be sinking, but don't worry I wasn't.  That's just what the mind does when you're stuck at the bottom of a creepy lake not able to see anything.  After sitting there for about 10 minutes I ascended a bit to try and find Rob's bubbles, so that I could drop into the muck by him.  We surfaced after that and swam to the South conduit.  This one was very clear and easy to find.  However, I didn't get to dive it because somebody... dropped the keys into the lake.  So, I got to spend the rest of the dive scanning the bottom of the lake.  After 4 hours we packed up our stuff and rushed off to the next spot. 

I'm starting to notice a reoccurring theme on this trip: losing things.  The next day when we went to retrieve the traps, the Go Pro ended up at the bottom of the lake.  That was a little easier to find. 

On another note..  I have yet to find a pair of shoes that can survive this island.  The soles of my Keens are coming off.  They are almost to the point of being flip-flops.  Also, I'm down to one field shirt.  My others have fallen victim to the haulback and don't offer much protection anymore.  And it's only the halfway point.

While Rob was exploring a small lake by the side of the road on our lunch break, I decided to follow a mysterious trail across the street. It ended up being very short and it lead right to this beach.

This is one of the palms (Cocothrinax argentata) that we were sampling last year.  They are doing a genetic analysis of the palms found on this island. (not my project)

I have never seen white passion flowers, and I wish I could take a cutting of this.

This is Barbouria cubensis (what Rob is studying).  It was still alive and swimming around the edge of the petri dish.

 

We made a discovery!  Not a new species, but it will be the first time anybody has documented Parhippolyte sterreri (another cave shrimp) on this island.  It made Rob happy...

 

A much needed day off

Yesterday Rob and I took our first day off, which we needed more than we knew.  The Tropical Island Biology course is here now, so we spent the morning with them.  We went to Lindsay's Reef, which is an amazing white sandy beach with a patch reef 50ft from shore.  We finally got some snorkel time!  Rob speared a fish as we were making our way in, and as we were getting out we saw a pretty good sized black tip coming to the shore.  Of course the class rushed it to get pictures and it was scared off, but it was pretty cool to see it come in so close.

After that I spent the afternoon on the beach across from the GRC and helped the students with their assignments.  We also went with the class to the beach at sunset to collect jellyfish.  We found 3 sea wasps that will be sent to the Smithsonian as voucher specimens. 

As the bugs started coming out we started a bonfire, and we all spent the rest of the night talking to the other groups that had just arrived.  It was a good day, and it reminded me why I love this place so much. 

This is the view from the truck at Lindsay's Reef.  When you walk past the grass it's nothing but fine white sand.  Beautiful!

This is Bryan.  

Happy birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday!  I wish I could be there...  or wish you guys were all here.    I hope you are having a good day.  I miss you guys.  Love you Mom!

Not a good day

I have great news!!  I'm not allergic to hornets..  Found that out the hard way today.  We cleared a trail for hours today only to get into brush that was way too thick to cut through.  So we started ducking and pushing through, and with foggy sunglasses I didn't see the giant hornet's nest above my head.  They were not happy to see me..  and yes, I did scream like a little girl.  Tomorrow we will be taking our first day off.  I think we've earned it.

 

Losing track of the days..

The days are starting to run together, so I've decided not to give updates by day.  Since my last real update we have explored almost every inch of this island...  Well, at least every inch of the interior.  We haven't had a chance to enjoy the beaches at all.  Our time has been spent bushwhacking through haulback and poisonwood to find blue holes...  None of which are blue.  They look more like iced tea, but they are anchialine/hypersaline and not brackish.  Even though it's been very hot, buggy, and the lakes smell of sulfur, I love this place.

Today we went into a lake called Merman Pond.  Luckily the trail in was already cut, so it only took about 20 minutes to walk to.  The entire trail consisted of boiling hot flocculent, which almost took my shoes off with every step.  Once we got to the lake we split up and snorkeled in different directions to find the conduit.  We thought it would be fine since we were told that nothing lives there.  It only took me about 5 minutes to see that wasn't true.  I about jumped out of the water when I came up on a giant sea monster...  at least that's what it looked like to me at the time.  I think it was just a snapper, because Rob saw some hanging out at the mouth of the conduit.  Whatever is was it was at least 25 inches.  I have to admit I was a little scared while floating in deep dark water over a large hole while baiting traps.  But we made it out safe and now we know to be on the look out.

The first picture is of the ruins we found on the new trail we made.

The second picture is of a dead giant land crab.  They get about four times this size.

 

Attention Project Potcake:  I know you guys had good intentions by having a spay and neuter clinic on this island.  However, now the locals are poisoning the dogs and there is an abundance of feral cats.

Homesick

Trapped in paradise and I just want to be at the yacht club...

more pics tomorrow when I'm not so tired

Up to yesterday..

First day: plane was delayed due to heavy rain.  Flying over Nassau we saw that entire neighborhoods were flooded. Apparently the rain was waiting for us to get to San Sal, because they hadn’t had much until we arrived.  It has poured every time we have gone out into the field.  Which is kind of nice because we are escaping the heat, but being cold and wet hasn’t helped my cold any.

The afternoon of the day we arrived we walked down to beach called dump reef.  Here we searched the washed up debris for buoys that we could use to tie to the minnow traps we will be putting in the lakes.  That’s really all we had time for on the first day since our flights had been delayed.

Second day:  We were very ambitious on the first full day.  Our plan was to re-clear a trail into Stout’s Lake.  Since we could not find the trail that was used a few years ago, we decided to cut our way in following a wall made by the early settlers.  We spent six hours in the freezing rain hacking our way into the interior.  We decided to call it a day when we found ruins that we had never seen before.  For those who don’t know the island, there are ruins scattered all over the island.  The island was inhabited by settlers after Columbus first landed here.  At this point, we are not sure if anybody has seen the ruins we found.  We will be returning to this site when we have recovered…  I may have broken my wrist while bushwhacking.  It is twice its size and I can’t do much with my right hand without excruciating pain.  I’ll survive.

Day three:  We gave our arms a rest and hiked the nicely cleared trails behind the GRC (Gerace Research Center where we’re staying) Again it was raining and everything was under water.  Rob broke his toe and now we are both hobbling due to blisters.  But we were able to set traps in two of the three lakes we visited.  FYI:  Rob is researching cave shrimp that live in the conduits that connect the anchialine lakes on the interior of the island to the ocean.  We spent three hours swimming back and forth in the third lake trying to find the conduit, but we finally gave up so we could make it back in time for dinner.  The next day we found it…  It was hidden in the mangroves 20 feet up the trail from where we stopped.  Love it when that happens.

Today (yesterday at time of posting): We went back through the trails to retrieve the traps we set yesterday.  We thought it was supposed to be sunny, but again it was cold and wet.  I’m exhausted and we’re both banged up pretty bad, but that’s expected.  So, please excuse the terrible grammar and if I didn’t go into much detail.  We’ve been labeling samples in the lab since we got back and I’m too tired to say much more. 

Some fun facts I’ve learned on this trip so far:

1.       Buffs are great until they’re wet... You can’t breathe through them

2.       Keens are great waterproof shoes, but they’d be better if trees didn’t get stuck in them

3.       Electrical tape is a great alternative to an ace bandage… actually it might be better as it doesn’t come off in the water

Goodnight…

We have internet!

It has been pouring since we got here, so we haven't been able to get online.  Today looks like the sun might decide to show itself.  I just wanted to let everybody know we're safe.  Right now we're waiting for the breakfast line to go down, so I don't have much time to write anything.  Since it won't be raining today I can bring my camera out with us, so I will have pictures and more to say later.