This morning after breakfast, we created our camera trap experiment in which we are going to use fifteen motion cameras that will take photos over the next few days. We are going to try to identify the different predators and prey and see where they might be most abundant in the different areas of the foot trails, untouched forest, and the “paved” roads. We set out for a couple of hours before lunch to begin our camera set up, mainly putting up our five cameras for the road areas. After lunch, we then set out for the true hiking experience to put up the other 10 or so cameras. I was impressed with the amount of elevation that we gained throughout the hike, rubber boots adding to some of the difficulty when we had to go down hill (they are super important for protection against snakes and also great for the rain and puddles) but I think this is because mine could do with some extra traction but I still very much enjoyed the hike. The vegetation within the forest was unbelievable. I just feel like everything is magnified by 10x, it’s gorgeous. I saw huge Give and Take Palms, plenty of fish tail palms, huge Tillandsia utriculata (the same genus as the small airplants but this one can grow up to 60cm) in many of the tree canopies, and a lot of house plants that were obviously thriving more out here in the jungle than someone’s plant room: Philodendron radiatum, Philodendron hederaceum and a lot of Monstera spp. I also saw a lot of air-plants that were both on the tree at around eye level but also a few that had fallen to the ground because the branch that they were connected to had broken off. These were Tillandsia spp. but they all are so similar that I’m learning that deciphering the exact species is going to be more difficult than I expected. Along the way, we saw so many different butterflies, a huge cockroach, lots of cicada shells, leaf cutter ants, and even got to eat some termites. Since they were so small, it wasn’t scary to eat them – they mostly had a woody aftertaste to them but I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to find and eat them.

After we finished the elevation climb, we made it to the Bird Tower where we went up this questionably stable structure that had the most amazing outlook I have ever seen. You could see so much of the forest yet only understand that it is only a part of the whole thing, it was gorgeous. On the hike down from the top, we stopped at the smaller Mayan cave were we found some Mayan clay pottery shards and got to explore the room that had been built by building a wall into the natural constrictions of the cave. The stalactites were so impressive and I could have stared at them all day, but I’m excited for the cave we get to explore in a few days. As we were trying to pass the time, I have also learned so many riddles and I can’t wait to stump everyone one at home. On the way back down Dr. Solomon also pointed out some orchids but I couldn’t identify them because there were no flowers. However, pseudobulbs led us to believe that they were orchids. Our final stop was a ginormous leaf cutter ant mound that was about 6ft wide (at least). It is so cool to watch the Leaf Cutter ants all line up and create their foraging trails as they cut down the vegetation to bring into their home to cultivate the fungus that they eat the byproduct of. I’m starting to understand why Dr. Solomon loves ants so much. We also stopped by a wallows (in the dry season)/frog pond (in the wet season) and found a bunch of Red-eyed Tree Frog eggs on a hanging tree branch – super cool!

-Sophia