Wednesay, February 18: Isla del Cano

Today we went to Isla del Cano, just off the coast of our campsite in Corcovado.  We stopped off shore of the island to snorkel, and it was so cool.  It's a national park rule that we had to wear life jackets, which was actually really nice because we didn't have fins.  We just got to float around and look at the reef.  There were so many beautiful fish.  I even saw a nurse shark that was 5 or 6 feet long! It was about 10 feet below me, so cool.

After about an hour of snorkeling we headed to shore.  Alan gave us a short lecture on island biodiversity, having us throw rocks on to circles in the sand to show how species become distributed.  After the lecture we went for a short walk on the island to see how it differed from the mainland.  

After lunch we had the rest of the afternoon free.  It was really hot, so I tried to stay out of the sun since I was already burned.  I did go snorkeling again though, but it was just so amazing.  Didn't see anything new, but it was still really cool.  On the boat ride back to the mainland I saw a really big sea turtle, which was also exciting.  We had more free time when we got back, which was mostly used to pick off ticks from the hike to Playa Llorna.   They were everywhere, and I mean everywhere.  That night we had a discussion about what we saw on the island.