After all our very early morning flights (nothing like being up before the sun!) the group arrived in sunny San Juan. We quickly gathered our belongings, and scurried off into our awaiting van somehow managing to fit 12 people and luggage into 9 seats, it was an interesting ride to say the least! The van drove us from San Juan to Fajardo where the ferry that would take us to Culebra (where we are spending the week) awaited. We made it the ferry just in the nick of time, and headed up to the open-air top deck, which of course, revealed to us the areas panoramic picture perfect views of the water.

After docking in Culebra, we met our host Carlos Diez who works for the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources as Puerto Rico’s national sea turtle coordinator. After introductions it was off to our first home away from home, a house owned by the fish and wildlife service. After dividing ourselves amongst three rooms, Wendy, Jen, Kristin and I headed to the grocery store and loaded up on supplies.

Back at the house we all spent the night bonding with the local cats, whom we have named Little Wendy and Blackbeard. Finally, it was time for dinner and after several failed dining attempts, we ended up at a local pizza shop. After chowing down, we could barely keep our eyes open and headed straight to bed, excited for the day to come.