Today was a great way to end our time in Belize and Las Cuevas! I woke up early and took a very cold shower and did some birding. There were several scarlet macaws very close to the station, and seeing them through Scott’s scope was surreal.
We spent the day out on the trails picking up the camera traps, but I wasn’t really paying attention to epiphytes. Whoops. We sped through the first trail; we did it in almost half the time it took us to set them out! The two big hills were not any easier to climb.
We got back to the station early, so we did lecture before lunch. I’m relieved to be done presenting!
After lunch, we went back out to the Monkey Tail Trail to pick up the last of the camera traps. We got lost again at the 3 km spot, like we did setting them out. I don’t know what it is about that spot, but it is disorienting! That trail took us almost 5 1/2 hours.
Sacrificing Scott to the Mayan Spirits Before We Ventured into the Woods
We got back to the station in perfect time for dinner, and after we ate, we got to look at all the photos from the traps. We caught some really great stuff on camera, including a Great Curassow, five Paca (big rats), a group of Peccaries, a DEER!!, and two ocelots! It was very exciting to see the pictures appear on the screen as they loaded.
Ocelot Captured by our Camera Traps!
We’re going to have a relaxing night here because we’re leaving early in the morning. I’m sad to leave Belize, but lucky for you, I still have two more blogs to write 🙂 I’ve learned soooo much on this trip, but somethings will never change: I still need to pack.
