Day 2... of our Beautiful subtropical paradise

After a much needed rest, we had a fantastic breakfast of eggs, pancakes, sausage and fruit! Then it was off to Cooper's Island, which is a Bermudian Natural Reserve dedicated to bringing the animals, flora and fauna back to days prior to mass development. We toured the island with our wonderful guides Kyla and Lara. They showed us many beautiful plants and trees and also took us to the new observation tower overlooking Castle Harbour and St. David's. The main focus of our visit to the Island was to participate in the biodiversity action plan by planting two endemic trees, a Bermuda Cedar and a Bermuda Palmetto. As we have done in the past, the students planted their trees and marked them with GPS coordinates to track them for viewing in future days.

Following the grueling work of digging and planting, we then did a little sight seeing and discussed many of the animals we were going to get a chance to see. We saw long tails, turtles, roosters, Jamaican blue anoles and lots of kiskadees. As it was quite warm and humid, we then jumped into the turquoise water for a tutorial on snorkeling and some time exploring. The group was able to do very well and saw all kinds of different fish.

After Cooper's, we came back to BIOS and had another awesome lunch and headed off to the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo. There we saw seals, giant turtles rescued from the ocean, an American alligator, awesome lemurs, HUGE tortoises and the only two snakes on the island. Luckily enough on the way back to BIOS, we were picked up by a traditional island school bus and made it back early enough for a refreshment before dinner. Post dinner was ice cream and some well deserved quiet time with some exploration of the grounds.