Today was super cool! In the morning morning we collected our pit falls from the forest and analyzed all the arthropods we collected. We got a lot more than I expected! Our results were complicated and inconclusive for the most part, so I’m not going to discuss them here.
After lunch, we walked down the the cave! This is the cave that all our water at the station comes from (maybe that’s why it’s so cold), and it is the cave that Las Cuevas is named after. It was amazing!!
Entrance to the Las Cuevas Cave from the Inside
The archaeologists are coming next week to work on excavation, so most of the cave is closed. We got to see more than expected though! We walked through the huge first chamber and then squeezed through a restriction point into the large second chamber. In there, we did two of our lectures for the day! That was a really cool experience, and we’re the first 319 class to present inside the cave.
After the cave, we listened to another lecture back at the station before we went out for our night hike. We hiked to the bird tower, which is a slightly sketchy observation tower on top of a large hill. It swayed a little bit in the wind, but the view was stunning. There, we listened to our fourth and final lecture of the day. Before we left, we took some cute photos by the tower! No new epiphytes here though.
Slightly Sketchy Bird Tower
We came back to the station and ate a late dinner. After dinner, several of us played cards. We went out to look at the stars, and it was one of the most beautiful views ever. I’ve never seen that many stars!
While we were out there, some howler monkeys started grunting and growling. At first we thought it was Scott snoring, but it got very loud very suddenly. That spooked us, so we ran back to our rooms and locked the doors. Now it’s bed time!
Tomorrow is our last day in the Chiquibul 🙁 We’ll be picking up the camera traps, so it’ll be lots of walking. I’ll let you know how it goes!
