This afternoon we had our first activity focused more on human impact to the beach. We headed to East Beach (also known as Junk Beach) and planned to collect trash samples. The beach was split into three meter sections and each pair started going through each section. Junk Beach received its name because this is the first beach the garbage has the chance to wash onto, and there was lots of trash so it lived up to its name. Pairs collected as many pieces of trash as we could count and sort to be taken to the lab. Plastic bits were the most abundant pieces of garbage found, with a whopping 354 pieces in total from the class count. We even managed to find seven shoes! The highlight of this stop for me was finding the shell of a spiny lobster. The tail was missing because that is typically eaten (as seen with humans, who eat lobster tail as well), and a hole was in the top of the head. It was an awesome find given we weren’t particularly looking for anything, but we brought Fredrick (the shell) back to the lab.
The second place we went had two awesome attractions. We started at Dixon Hill Lighthouse. The view from the lighthouse was great (even if it was a bit of a tight squeeze to climb to the top). We were able to see the Gerace Research Center and some other stops we had been to previously. We didn’t spend much time there before we hiked to Lighthouse Cave. The hike was through the woods and the best part was the cacti we saw, which I hadn’t seen previously on San Salvador. The cave itself was amazing! We climbed down a rickety ladder into the dark cave and found ourselves surrounded with stalagmites and stalactites (depending on whether the rock formation was coming from the ground or roof of the cave). The cave is influenced by tides and we went during low tide which originally appeared to be disappointing, but I found myself swimming at least once. We saw a few bats and some small crustaceans. We also turned off every light in the cave and experienced total darkness. It was awesome and I definitely recommend visiting these places if you get the chance!
-Contributed by Taylor
Photo credit: Taylor
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