Hi friends,

FINALLY HERE IN BELIZE WOOHOO!!! I wish I had pictures to show off the place but my camera is experiencing some issues now hmm. So I only have my first selfie to share with y’all.

But anyway, I have landed safely and soundly and can’t wait to start my journey as a budding tropical field biologist. The first thing we did after getting off the plane was to go to a general goods store to stock up on supplies and to pick up things that people forgot to bring. And now we’re all ready!

We reached out accommodations after a short bus ride. We’ll be staying at the Tropical Education Center (TEC) for a night before leaving 5.30am the next day for a long trip to Glover’s Reef. So the theme of the day is lots of travelling and then resting for more travelling. Nice.

I did not manage to see any animals that are part of my assigned taxon groups. But we definitely saw some animals even just in the TEC. Officially, the first organism that I saw in Belize in a really fat green iguana perched on a thin tree branch feeding on the leafs and looking very satisfied with its meal. As a mechanical engineering major, I was amazed just by the fact that the branch could support all its weight.

Besides the precariously perched iguana, we saw a trail of leaf cutter ants, as well as some frogs and insects.  Oh we saw a bunch of interesting looking plants as well. More to come when we go out into the actual undisturbed habitats!

Damien