Today was our first day full day in the rainforest! We drove from the Tropical Education Center to Caracol, an archeological site full of Maya ruins! Along the way, we saw a Morelet’s crocodile laying on a rock in a stream. Once we got there, our guide, Leo, who had worked on the excavation of the site in the nineties, explained to us the relevance of the site. He told us that it was a large Maya civilization, home to about 200,000 people at its peak, and the pyramid at its epicenter is actually the tallest building in all of Belize. We got to climb the pyramid, which is both a temple and a palace, as the king built his home atop the temple to show his divine right to power.

We saw some other structures, including an astronomical observatory, a ball court, middle class homes, and a reservoir. The ruins were extremely impressive, and it was cool to imagine people living in that city hundreds of years ago.

We also got to see the ceiba trees, which although they were only about 200 years old, were already over one hundred feet tall! In the plants on the ground around the trees, Faith found a small lime green grasshopper. I think it was some type of nymph, as I didn’t see any wings on it. It promptly hopped away, but it was very cute, and I managed to snap a photo of it.

We got rained on towards the end of the tour, but we took refuge in the abandoned houses that were used for the archaeologists. We then had lunch, during which we got to hear howler monkeys. Their howls were a lot lower than I had anticipated. Some other cool things we had gotten to see were leaf cutter ants and their huge nests, as well as a wild cilantro plant, which is more potent than the commercially available cilantro.

After lunch, we headed to Las Cuevas! On the drive over, we saw some scarlet macaws flying overhead, a toucan in the canopy, and multiple turtles that were crossing the road. When we got to the research station, we were welcomed by Rafael, the manager, and then we enjoyed dinner and our class presentations. I’m excited for tomorrow and getting to truly experience the rain forest!

-Elena