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…