We left Las Cuevas this morning. After all the amazing animals and plants we saw, I think I could have spent the whole trip at the station exploring the rainforest, but I’m also excited to see what the reef has in store for us. We started the morning with a 3-hour drive out of the forest reserve to ATM cave. On the way, we passed through a massive tree farm where they were growing mahogany, cedar, cohune palm, and soursop, among other things. They were clearing land and burning logs to enrich the soil in the region—it was interesting to see, although from my research I know that method is imperfect.
At ATM cave, there was a short hike which was easy relative to the hiking we’d been doing on a wide path lined with balsa trees and several other interesting plants such as wild ginger. There were several shallow river crossings which were a preview of what was to come: in the cave, we started out by swimming for a short stretch and then wading through the cave. We got to see tons of artifacts and even human remains. Apparently the chambers became used for ritual purposes aim an attempt to secure good rain and, as drought impacted the Maya, they moved deeper and deeper into the cave in a desperate attempt to save their society. The most amazing thing, to me, was almost all of the remains and artifacts had been calcified to the cave, cementing them in the structure of the floor. It sort of seemed like they were being reclaimed by the cave. It’s difficult to describe, and pictures weren’t allowed, but if you’re curious I believe one of the more complete skeletons we saw was featured on the cover of Natural Geographic.
We got to the Tropical Education Center, the ecolodge we’ll be staying at tonight, around dinner time. After dinner, we had a night tour of the zoo and we got to see tons of nocturnal animals. It was exciting to see many animals we didn’t get to see in the rainforest. My favorite was the kinkajou—so cute! It rained a bit while we were at the zoo. Maybe the rainy season is finally beginning?
Tomorrow is another travel day—most of it will be the ferry to Glover’s Reef. It begins the exciting second part of the course and I’m so curious and excited to see what’s in store. You’ll be hearing a lot more from me about cryptobenthic fish, that’s for sure.
