Today in Salvador, our GCSU Study Abroad group reached the one-week mark from arriving in San Sal! Day 7 consisted of hiking to the Lighthouse Caves in the morning, and snorkeling at Sandy Point. This morning, our group drove back up to the lighthouse for the second time this week, but this time, we went down a narrow steep trail to get to a fossilized sand dune with a cave system running through it. Most of us climbed down a wobbly metal ladder to get to the bottom of the cave. Because this cave system communicates with the ocean, we could not get much further than about 20-30 feet without touching water because it was high tide. While others went back up to go back, a small group of us stayed in the cave with Mrs. Sandy and Dr. Weese and turned off our lights, made no noise, and tried to see if a minute felt longer than it was. It was very relaxing and once we all stopped moving, it cooled down a lot. We also saw a few bats in the cave! Eventually, we all went back up and made the trek back up to the entrance to the lighthouse trail. While we were waiting for others to come back, we tried some tamarind from the tree which tasted super tart, but it was cool to eat something right off the tree. We made it back to the truck to go back for lunch, but we had to turn around, so Dr. Devore drove us to see the local landfill where all of the trash goes. It stunk but we saw a pile of old cars and a ton of tires.
We had a little break like usual for lunch before we headed out again at 1:30. Before heading out, Mrs. Sandy talked about the difference between a juvenile queen conch (illegal to harvest) and an adult conch (legal to harvest). The adult conch has a lip on it that is non-breakable. On the way to Snapshot Reef for snorkeling, we stopped at an area where harvested conchs are discarded and counted how many we found were juveniles and adults. I believe the ratio was 68% illegal from the one area we were in, which was super upsetting to see. A few of us picked some out to take home for our families as a souvenir for the trip. At Snapshot Reef, we had to enter from a steep side of the road and climb down some rocks to get on the rocky beach shore. I was a little nervous about it, but once we got in the water, it was beautiful! We saw lots of urchins, a southern sting ray, and a barracuda. The current was super rough again today so it took a lot of energy out of us, but again, it was super pretty! Overall, day 7 was very packed with adventure!
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