Life in Cuba
Life in Cuba has been amazing! Throughout my three, almost four, weeks that I’ve been here I’ve gotten the opportunity to travel around the island as well as the city I’m living in. I’ve gone to Trinidad and tried their local drink of Canchanchara (amazing), danced the night away in a discoteca in a cave, swam in the Caribbean at Playa Larga, seen the historical landmarks and monuments in Santa Clara, and gone to a coffee and tobacco...
Belize Part 3: South Water Caye
The next leg of our journey brought us to South Water Caye, a tiny island about an hour from Punta Gorda. A tiny paradise, the island is full of palm tree, has a constant ocean breeze, greets you at morning and at night with knock-you-socks-off sunrises and sunset…. Should you want to kayak, go for it. Should you want to snorkel, just jump right off the dock and see what is in store for you. The lodging was the nicest here...
¿Qué pasa Cuba?
Hello and welcome to my pre departure self. Currently, I am preparing to study abroad in Cuba for a month! Wahoo!! A place that the United States has been closed off to for over 50 years and only recently reopened its doors to Americans. A place with little to no wifi and on every corner a classic car can be spotted. This summer is going to be an adventure of a lifetime! And to add to my adventure, I decided to go with only my...
Save the Fishes!
What you’re seeing in the photograph to the left is a stoplight parrotfish against the background of the Belize Barrier Reef. Amazingly enough, this beautiful fish is incredibly common on the reef. While studying abroad, I saw half a dozen different species of parrotfish in every stage of development. Often they were darting between the coral, allowing smaller fish to clear them of parasites at a “cleaning station,”...
Hasta Luego Granada
Returning from Nicaragua was much more difficult than I had anticipated. I had just began to get used to the heat, the food and using Spanish more than English. Above all, I felt like I had not spent enough time in the clinic. It almost seemed unfair to go down to Nicaragua, recognize the necessities that the country has, help for a few weeks and then disappear. I know that there is so much more that I could have done to help if I...
Gaining A Bit of Perspective
Nothing compares to field experience. You can spend months in a classroom studying something but until you see it out in the real world your perception of it is never quite true. You need to see it in relationship to the other things in its environment and then you can form new questions based on those interactions. For example, this is a Xestospongia muta sponge. It is one of many sponges that I am responsible for identifying while...