Hi Blog,

To be honest, I was quite skeptical if I would be able to wake up at 4:30 AM to leave for the bird tower to watch the sunset, but surprisingly I did wake up. At 5 AM, Ian, Lily, Sadhanah, Sam, Elise, Steve, and I  started our hike to the bird tower. The hike there this morning for some reason was much more difficult than last night. While walking up the steep hills, I almost thought that I would not make it up there. But still I persevered and made it to the tower.

Once we went up the tower once more, all of our sufferings were worth it and I immediately forgot about the ache in my legs. The way the bird tower and its ladders shake with wind scared me a little bit because of my subtle fear of heights, but I trust its constructors and architects. We all sat down with our legs hanging off the tower and enjoyed the sunset and the peaceful chirping of the birds and the refreshing breeze of the winds. We stayed up there for about 3minutes, until my alarm that I had set up for 6:30 AM (in case I decided to not go to the bird tower) started going off.

After we descended, we had delicious breakfast made by our lovely cook Angie. We then began our Taxon ID and topic lecture presentations before lunch. I presented my rainforest taxon briefing presentation, which was about rainforest mammals. Since we would be having a busy day tomorrow, we decided to combine the presentation schedule for tomorrow and today. After lunch, we finished the rainforest topic lecture (Elise’s amazing tropical medicine/disease presentation), and also began our coral reef lectures (hard corals, sponges, evolution of corals).

We then, after a short break, went on a hike to collect our camera traps to analyze. The results were very very exciting — we actually got 3 pumas on camera!!! My camera trap (located in the undisturbed area off of San Pastoral road) didn’t have as exciting results, as it mainly captured me testing out the camera, taking it down, and putting it in my backpack. But still, it was still so fascinating to see all of the animals caught in other classmates’ footage. For example, we got a couple of turkeys and tayras and birds.

During the short break, since we are leaving Las Cuevas tomorrow morning, I pre-packed my items to relieve the stress of packing. I somehow lost my detergent bottle, but I still have laundry soap, so hopefully that will suffice,

After this, we went ahead and had our bonfire. It was really relaxing (despite the countless moths and bugs that kept running into my face) and a cute bonding moment for all of the tropical field biology-mates.

I’m sad to leave the rainforest, but I’m so excited to see the ATM cave, Belize Zoo, and our upcoming week at Glover’s Reef. Well then, I will see y’all tomorrow!