Rosa Blanca & Kicker Rock

Weather: Sunny, no rain, and 85

Today was an incredible day and definitely one that I will never forget. My class met at the pier at 8am, picked up our snorkel gear, and headed out on boats. I say boats because our group was split into two, one group went with Tammy and my group went with Daniela and Juan Pablo who are the leading researchers on the plastics project (they're also married with an adorable daughter named Risa who came with us too). My group was fortunate enough to get a bigger boat that had a nice cabin with a bathroom you could stand up in. The tour we were on was called a 180 tour which includes two stops typically, a 360 would be 4 stops and I can't imagine doing the 4 stops because 2 was pretty tiring.

Anyways, we headed over to Rosa Blanca, it was about a 2 and a half hour boat ride to get there, but it was well worth it. Along the way, our captain tried fishing for a bit but we caught nothing. We did have a giant sea lion following us for part of the time hoping to get scraps if we caught anything. Once we got to Rosa Blanca we had to hop in a tiny dingy that took us to shore. It's common practice on the tour boats but I can see some tourists being uncomfortable with it because some of the waves come over and they flood the dingy. The tour operators tend to stick more people than the capacity in the dingy's too so it saves them a trip to shore and back to the boat which is a funny/scary experience. Funny because you're on top of each other and just trying to hold on with the motion of the waves. Scary because when the waves start coming in you immediately think you're gonna capsize. Once we landed safely ashore at Rosa Blanca we all took in the scenery as it was gorgeous and the water was crystal clear and bright teal. We then started looking around for trash because part of this trip was centered on the plastics project. We saw a huge trash pile that was trash picked up by tourists, but they had no where to put it so they created one big pile away from shore. It was crazy, it went from surreal scenery to depressing reality in seconds. We ended up filling a third of a large garbage bag just at the main beach. We walked towards the opposite end of Rosa Blanca over a lava field that led to another accumulation beach where tourists don't usually go. It was devastating because this beach had so much more plastics that included everything from toothbrushes to shoe bottoms (they looked like converse), to several little plastic cups and big jugs. We ended up filling our bag we had and filling a bucket we found. By the time we went snorkeling all that remained was microplastics. I couldn't help but think about what the shore would look like with the next tide but every little bit helps. Apparently Coca-Cola helped out and removed tons of trash from this beach not too long ago. I couldn't imagine what tons of plastic would look like but with all the plastic Coca-Cola sells it's the least they could do.

We walked across from where we picked up the plastics to go snorkeling. It was a little bay that had ocean water coming in and out of it. There was a little lake that formed in between mangroves so we all took a lap around the lake too. We didn't see much at all, there wasn't too much clarity but I saw the top of a turtle at the surface in the lake we were in. When I was heading back to shore after snorkeling a big thing moved out of the corner of my eye and it was a giant sea turtle! I'd say it was close to Myrtle the turtle's size, and it had a tracker on it. I was doing the backstroke cause my mask was giving me a hard time, and the turtle came up for a breath of air and then before I knew it, it was gone. Seeing them doesn't get old, they're just beautiful. We eventually got back to the boat and had some lunch which was the usual piece of fish (today was grilled tuna), rice, salad, crackers that were addicting. I also had peach juice and that was to die for and so refreshing after the snorkel.

The captain lets people sit with him while we're moving, so I headed up top with him along with Morgan and Raina after lunch. Soon after, we were off to Kicker Rock or Leon Dormido, but we made a pit stop at Punta Pitt for a little bit to observe the birds and take in the

scenery. Punta Pitt is gorgeous and I'd like to make it back there as it looks like some good hiking. It's only accessible by boat and it's a 2 hour boat ride from Puerto Baquierzo Moreno which makes it a tad tough. From Rosa Blanca to Kicker Rock it was about an hour/ hour and a half boat ride. With the brief stop in Punta Pitt and riding up top taking in the scenery it didn't seem too bad. Raina ended up driving at one point which marked her first time driving a boat, not all captains are as chill so that was cool. Eventually we got to Kicker Rock and it is just so beautiful. We threw on our snorkel gear and jumped off the boat. Kicker Rock has two big cracks in it, we swam to the smaller one first and immediately saw some sea lions, tons of fish, and a few sharks swimming about. It was incredible and to say I've swam with sharks is bizarre to me as I never thought that is something I would do. We all went up and down as the current went back and forth in the crack. It was so much. Most of us including myself got stung by little jellyfish, we all thought they were like fish particles but they were tiny jellyfish. We swam back to open water and headed for the larger crack. We saw so many sharks it was unbelievable. At one point, I had at least 10 in plain view. There was a hammerhead too but he was swimming to deep and I couldn't get him on camera. Hesitantly, we all headed back onboard. We were all amazed and it was such a great way to end our trip. We headed back home which was about a 45 minute ride, I dropped off my snorkel gear at the dive shop once ashore and headed home for the night.

Tania, Anahi, and Mateo returned today so as soon as I saw them I gave them big hugs and they began asking me how I am doing and how's everything in general. It was great having them home, but it is a PACKED house now. There's the 4 kids (Kenneth should be leaving at the end of March), me, and Paco and Tania. I have my own room as well as Anahi, so Helena, Mateo, and Kenneth are all in Paco and Tania's room...I'm excited to have Tania back as I think her cooking is a tad better than Paco's and she tries to give me vegetarian meals more frequently. I only had one or two from Paco the entire time she was gone so fingers crossed more will come my way. On a bright note, breakfasts have been unreal lately, and I haven't been getting any fried food. It's been a lot of fruits, yogurt, cereal, and eggs...not much more I can ask for, and I am so happy with that. Anyways, I ended up playing legos with Tania, Mateo, and Anahi for awhile pretty much until dinner. I uploaded all my pictures from today and hung out as tomorrow is an early day as my class has an all day outing tomorrow for our plastics project. Today was a long and fulfilling day, I got to see 3 new parts of San Cristobal (including Punta Pitt) and my love for the islands has grown that much more after today.