What a great first day we had! Waking up at 4:30 was rough, but if it meant getting to the beautiful Crystal Paradise Ecolodge and embarking upon these amazing two weeks, it was worth it. We had a great day of travel, beginning dark and early (earlier than bright and early) at ABL, heading to IAH, then Belize City, then the 2-hour ride to the Ecolodge, with stops at Cheers Restaurant for lunch and a supermarket for last-minute supplies before heading off into the tropical rainforest tomorrow (among a swimming stop and ruins of the Mayan city Caracol, one of their largest cities!) The travel day, while exhausting, was great. I was excited to meet/ get to know everyone better, and I can’t wait for these next two EEPS with his group! We also met another class group from a University in Arkansas staying at the Ecolodge, so that was fun to meet and chat with a couple of them.

Ok, Ant-man suit on, I was skeptical of my ability to see ants today. I was wrong entirely! I saw some unidentifieable ones crawling along a pipe at the Cheers Resataurant (where we had lunch on the way to the Ecolodge from the airport.) When I couldn’t pick them out, I was discouraged, but luckily Dr. Solomon brought some tools to make identification easier when we get to Las Cuevas Research Station tomorrow for the week. At the Ecolodge, I was lucky enough to find ants on two occasions, despite being outside for not too long: first, I saw leaf cutter ants transporting their leaf cuttings to their fungal gardens (did not see their garden though 😔) and second, I saw ants making a little highway along the trail from the Ecolodge to the Macal River. I wonder if they trampled down that whole path. Both of these instances are pictured (in not so high quality) and attached below. Here’s to another day of fun, friends, and ants!

Sam Forman

2025