Hi everyone! Guess what?! I’m still alive and am in Belize! So far, the wildlife we have encountered have been incredible and I am enjoying getting to learn more about them and Belize overall. Today was a whirlwind. We left Houston at 6:15 AM, boarded our flight around 10:00, landed around 11:30 (Belize time), rode on a bus for an hour and then another hour and a half to arrive at Crystal Paradise Ecolodge.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Cheers and I tried a fruit juice called soursop while we were there. I would describe it as a cross between pineapple and mango juice and would highly recommend it to anyone who has never tried it! While we were there, we encountered 3 iguanas, 2 of which dove into a small pond right in front of us. We also noticed a nest with about 7 eggs. We were unable to identify the bird species to which they belonged to. 

At the lodge, we encountered a bird through a spotting scope and heard many more around us. The night in Belize is very loud and I certainly heard many species of amphibians. It took until the end of the day to finally see the first amphibian of the trip: a gulf coast toad. I noticed something jump in a bush near the pavement path while walking back from listening to my classmates present their taxon groups and topic lecture in the outdoor dining area. It froze immediately once it was under the flashlight. I will include a picture below. Remarkably, I encountered an angelfish before an amphibian on this trip, which really surprised me because we have not been to the reef yet. The angelfish was a painting on the wall of Belize customs and I identified it as a queen angelfish as it had a distinguishable blue and yellow marking on its head (similar to a crown).

I am looking forward to birding tomorrow morning off the lodge veranda. We will be waking up at 5:00 am (and will be sleeping on the bus later for sure). We will be visiting the Caracol ruins tomorrow and will be stopping to swim before arriving at Las Cuevas. I am looking forward to learning more about Belizean culture tomorrow during the trip to the ruins and observing wildlife from the bus while driving into Las Cuevas. That’s all for now!