Today I woke up late and missed the bird sighting which was sad since they saw two toucans. As I was enjoying one of the best breakfasts I have had here in Belize, Scott comes in and tells us to take two vials. Then he tells us that we have to pee in these vials without telling us why. We thought he was kidding but nope, we all collected 50mL of our urine, which we found out will be using as pitfall traps for our experiment.

Along the Maya trail and the 50-hectare plot, I saw bromeliads, lianas, lichens, strangler figs, long roots along trees, and mosses. Bromeliads that I saw today were bigger than other bromeliads I have seen yesterday. These tank epiphytes had long leaves and they were filled with water and even some arthropods! The lichens that I have seen today were everywhere and seem to be found everywhere on other plants. It’s pretty great to see epiphytes everywhere you go in the Chiquibul region.

We got to explore the cave that lies underneath a Mayan site here at Las Cuevas. I did almost slip a few times, but I had rocks to grab on to for safety. Today’s lectures were given in the caves and that was a great experience since we were at nature’s natural air conditioning unit. We all sat around on the rocks and listened to the lectures given.

After dinner, we all went on a short night hike and I can say it was an adventure. We saw this cockroach that has this glue-like substance near the rear-end. Very cool and we got to “play” with it. As we were walking towards the pond, Brendan pointed at a stem and told me he thought it was something. It turned out that something was in fact something and that it was a stick bug. It blended in so well it took lots of “work” to see this stick bug, and I got to hold this little guy. And that wraps up this blog. See you guys tomorrow!

Picture: My reaction to nature’s air-condition unit (the cave at Las Cuevas)