My last 5am wake-up was today, although we didn’t see many birds in this time. After our breakfast at 6:30, we got ready to leave. As our van arrived to take us to the airport, a trio of scarlet macaws flew by to bid us farewell. We loaded up the van and promptly fell asleep as we got underway.

We stopped at a gift shop along the way, where I got rid of all my Belizean currency by spending it on hot sauce. We drove for a little longer and went to a restaurant for lunch, where we were given a large spending cap that some of us (Alessi) utilized to the fullest by ordering tons of food. We drove for another hour and then had reached the airport.

Going through security and customs in Belize was a breeze, and the fact that Sarah G. and Ellie got randomly selected meant they boarded the plane first and saved us a few rows of seats. We spent the plane ride doing crossword puzzles and chatting. Thankfully, I didn’t see any members of my taxon group today, or else there would have been snakes on the plane.

To start the day, I did some birding, where we managed to see a strange, turkey-like bird called the Crested Guan. After breakfast we went back to the rainforest to collect our traps, which we spent the morning evaluating our data from the last 24 hours and writing it up as a poster.

After a nice lunch, we were determined to see as many different places in our vicinity as we could. To start, we went into the cave close to the research station, which was another former Mayan ritual site. In the cave we saw one Helmeted Iguana (Corytophanes cristatus), and one Neotropical Rat Snake (Senticolis triaspis). We didn’t go to far into the cave, but we went in for long enough for me and Ellie to give presentations on our taxon groups in what would have been pitch-black without our headlamps. When we came back from the cave, we spotted a Litter Gecko (Lepidoblepharis xanthostigma).

After caving we hiked up to the Bird Tower, a short but difficult hike that left us with a spectacular view to see the Chiquibul forest from all angles. Therese gave us a presentation of her research up there, and by the time we descended it was dark out. We took this chance to have a night hike back to the research station, right on time for a late dinner to top off the day.

I started my day a little later today at 5:30 am (late is relative) for birdwatching, only to be greeted by two massive bug bites on my left ring finger, which have yet to go down. We didn’t see much until it was almost time for breakfast, when we saw two Scarlet Macaws nearby, which made for a nice treat. We ate at 6:30, and then got ready for our first experiment of the day. Our goal was to see if arthropod diversity and nutrient availability differed from the forest floor. This involved setting pitfall traps that included our own urine, which should be interesting when we go back for the vials tomorrow.

After that, we go to relax a bit before lunch and our second activity, where we went to leafcutter ant colonies of various sizes to dig in around the nests and see what they looked like inside. We were able to see the increase in complexity as the age of the colonies increased, as they got much bigger and had more pathways as they increased in age. Some paths in the nest were even wide enough that I could fit my whole arm in them. After returning and waiting for dinner, we saw even more macaws flying by.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to see any reptiles today. This was a disappointment, but I was beyond thrilled to have gotten the chance to see the macaws, which are incredibly beautiful and very rare. Now, I can only hope that my bites go away soon and that my finger can return to normal size.