Today was great. We started off this morning by visiting a beach and doing a beach cleanup. Before we started the cleanup, a few volunteers talked to us about how to find Reef friendly sunscreen. There are plenty of sunscreen brands that claim to be Reef safe. However, they aren’t. We explored the beach in search of trash. After about 30 minutes, the beach was nearly spotless. We also found a green sea turtle hiding under rocks at the beach and a monk seal! Seeing our progress reminded me of how humans can positively impact the environment. So long as we clean up after ourselves and respect nature, we can keep our environment healthy. After the beach cleanup, we had a sand castle building contest. It was amazing. Me and my partner got creative and used various rocks and (dead) crab legs to decorate our castle.
After the sand castle competition, we immediately began the 90 minute drive to our next destination. We parked the van on what appeared to be at the top of a large hill. From there began our descent to the bottom. After walking through a narrow rocky path for a few minutes, we saw our destination. It was a beautiful black sand beach with gigantic waves and a rocky shore. Me and a few students played in the waves for an hour. The bay looked like something out of a fairy tale. I was amazed at how clean the bay was. It is clearly maintained daily. I’m very impressed by the conservation efforts to keep the bay and the nature trail clean.
As we were driving home, we pulled over on the side of the road and explored what appeared to be a giant chasm in the ground. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the chasm was a large cave, filled with basalt rocks. The cave is believed to originally have been a giant fire hose (a lava tube). The displacement of the rocks and the uneven ground suggests that the cave might have partially collapsed on itself in the past. However I noticed that there were plenty of smaller holes that diverged from the main path. The geology of the cabe was very interesting. It has multiple entrances and is considered to be a big tourist attraction. I’m very excited for tomorrow. I can’t wait to hear about what about what the big research project is.
