This morning, the entirety of EBIO 319 boarded a plane and headed to Belize City, and luckily TSA did not take away a single one of the 6 animal trapping cameras I had in my carry on. Once we we had all passed through customs, complete with a vague recollection of where we were going to the customs officer who made the mistake of asking where exactly Las Cuevas Research Station was “in the jungle,” we all boarded a 15 passenger van and headed down the road to our first destination: lunch. As we drove, the smoke from several wildfires lighting up the grassland clouded the sky. May is towards the end of the dry season, so wildfires are a common occurrence during this time, however unlike in the US there were no firefighters trying to put out the flames.
Though haggard from our 5:30am wake-ups, a delicious meal complete with a variety of fresh fruit juices woke us up, plus the venue- a roadside open-patio style restaurant was adorable. While we were there, Scott pointed out a huge termite nest in a nearby tree and the tunnel the termites built down to the ground to protect themselves from the elements. After lunch, we rode about an hour to a roadside grocery store where we picked up some last minute snacks and the elusive cold drink. As we drove through Belize, it was interesting to see the flat savanna land turn into scrubland, and finally into more densely forested areas.  Also, I kept seeing these super beautiful orange flowering trees along the side of the road, which turned out to be acacias (tree ID cred to our resident tree expert Amy).

When we finally made it to our destination for the night- an eco lodge part of the way to Las Cuevas, we were all very glad to be out of the van and to check into our rooms. After we saw another group at the lodge head down the hill, we decided to follow them in search of the promised river. It was an idyllic tropical river, though the people on the rope swim killed the nature vibe for me. While the others hiked back up the hill to get their swim suits and join the other group, I elected to chill out in the hammock outside and listen to all the birds as the sun set. Because of all the time we spent traveling today, I didn’t have much time to look for my assigned taxon (amphibians), however one girl in the group found a toad that based on her size description sounds like it was a gulf coast toad. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for amphibian hunting…