Day 8: Even more snorkeling!

 Today, our day went similarly to Friday. The girls woke up at a bright and early 5:45, prepared all of our snorkeling and boat needs, ate a quick breakfast of granola bars and bananas, and got in the bus. Ten minutes later, we arrived at Innoceana, where we waited for the boys to finish packing up their suitcases, as for the last night they were gonna be staying with us at the Airbnb. Once the boys arrived and everyone had refilled their water bottles and bought their Innoceana souvenirs, we loaded everyone onto the bus and made our way to the town of Sierpe once again. Once there, we put on sunscreen and bathing suits in the Las Vegas cafe before loading all our belongings and ourselves into the Mokarran, our boat which we had previously used for our mangrove tour ad snorkeling on Friday. Today, we had two new guides, Sebastian and Karina, who were very informative and told us everything we needed to know about the area and the wildlife living there. 


Our first stop after getting through the mangroves was a small island where we spotted a bunch of different birds such as the Red-footed boobie, the Blue-footed boobie, and much more. One of our students even spotted a bunch of baby Red-footed boobies living on the island and we saw a turtle dive before we made our way to where we were gonna be snorkeling for the day. Once we arrived, everyone donned their snorkeling gear (masks, fins, and a very bright life jacket), and on our own time, we all jumped in. We were in the water for about 30-45 minutes following our guide, Sebastian, as he lead us to beautiful rocky outcroppings filled with life. Endless corals, parrotfish, surgeonfish, groupers, and more were substantial. Some students even spotted moray eels hiding in the cracks of the rocks! Once we had finished snorkeling round #1, we got back on the boat, enjoyed some fruit, and made our way to shark cave. We jumped in, and we managed to spot a variety of hawksbill turtles, and stingrays, and we even saw 9 white-tip reef sharks! It was a wonderful experience for everybody in our group and was truly beautiful getting to see the things we might usually find in an aquarium living their natural life out in the wild, undisturbed.


We got back on and made our way to the beach while listening to a playlist we created before the trip. We ate delicious food provided by Innoceana while we splashed around, tanned, and petted lots of dogs inhabiting the island. We got back on and got back to Las Vegas, where a few of our students did some water quality testing and got fresh coconut water. Once we finished off our snorkeling experience, we went back to Innoceana to say our final goodbyes and made our way back to our Airbnb, where we changed and prepared to go out for dinner.


We went out to a beautiful restaurant with a gorgeous view of the ocean and the mountains, and we got there right before the sunset, so we got some beautiful pictures. Everyone ordered their food (a mix of pasta, fish, and more) and we had a wonderful time getting to know each other better. Finally, after dinner, we got back to the Airbnb, had our nightly movie night, packed, showered, and got to bed, ending a wonderful day full of new experiences for many of us. Tomorrow, we will be traveling to Mastatal and living there for the next few days! 

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