Today Scott and Adrienne gave us a new question about how hurricanes affect the Chiquibul, to come up with an experiment around. We came up with a preliminary experiment to test the growth of pioneer species in areas of hurricane gaps versus areas without hurricane gaps. However, once we got out into the forest we decided the hurricane gaps were too dense to be able to go through to collect data, so we revised our question and decided to test how grounded vascular plants were affected by hurricane gaps.

While on the trail, Elena spotted a Helmeted Iguana on the side of a tree. It had to have been at least 10in including its tail. Seeing this iguana was so amazing because it was the one reptile that I wanted to see the most and it’s really cute. We all took fun pictures by it too.

After collecting all the data, we spent a large chunk of time working on our poster to present our data, and my overpacking came in handy because I got to use my highlighters and pens to draw the graphs.

When we finished dinner, we got geared up for our first night hike and set off into the forest. It was a very different experience than just hiking during the day, mostly because bugs are flying directly in your face the whole time. We found a large stick insect that I let crawl on my arm and felt like Newt from Fantastic Beasts holding BowtruckleJ. Pedro was with us and was able to point out a Red Backed Coffee Snake, and once we got to the frog pond we also found mud turtles and (I think) a smooth anole. We also saw a Yucatan Banded Gecko, which was super cool because it looked exactly like the one from my ID card.