Yesterday we hiked East Beach, better known as "Junk Beach." It's called Junk Beach because all of the garbage from across the world land on this part of the island. Since there is a East to West current, all of the debris lands on this beach. We hiked to a Christopher Columbus monument erected by Chicago Tribune in the late 1800s. On the way back, we collected glass bottles to aide in the GRC attempts to construct raised garden beds for the people to grow their own food. Kerry happened to find a message in a bottle!!!! We later found this bottle to be from the Greek Islands!

That afternoon we went to Long Bay where we saw four other Christopher Columbus monuments. One was dedicated by Mexico for the 1968 Olympics where the torch passed through. Another one was made from a U.S. citizen that resembled a cross for Columbus' landing to the new world. The third one was built by the government of Spain for San Salvador. The fourth was built by the Japanese. This is believed to be the exact location where Columbus landed in the new world.

After that, we snorkeled on the beach. We saw many interesting creatures including an eel. The water was very blue on the reef was deep. Our group then enjoyed playing the card game 'Mafia' where Jacob cheats and Drew always accuses Kelsey as the Mafia!

Today, we went to North Point which is only a 10 minute walk from the research center. We snorkeled for about an hour and collected plant and algae samples to identify later. This was the heaviest current we snorkeled in so far, but our excellent swimming skills saved us! Dr. Toering was generous and gave us the afternoon off while she explored the caves with another group. A few of us went to the beach and some of the boys collected conch shells for us to bring home! Luke also dug up a few anchors!

A storm is brewing up now. Nothing else to say-stay tuned in for more adventures from the Bahamian Ecology class!

Amanda Paige and Kelsey Kovacevich