After starting the day off right with coconut scrambled eggs we set to the road again. I had two more Lepidoptera moments before we even left the resort. I found another deceased Hermeuptychia sosybius (Carolina Satyr). Aside from that I saw a cocoon that appeared to have a chrysalis inside. We loaded up and headed over to the Caracol archeological site. We climbed the tallest stairs I have seen- more so than the scary Wortham Center top tier. I was chasing butterflies (I haven’t identified any moths so far) and have found I can identify some of the butterflies quite easily, but am having a hard time with fast-flying butterflies. They never sit still long enough for me to get a good look. There’s also been a few that I don’t have on my Identification sheet. So far I have positively identified an East Mexican Banner, White Northern Segregate, and a Banded Peacock butterfly. We have seen a lot of interesting birds like the Oropendula with hanging nests and bright yellow tails. We also saw a coati while driving. After leaving the Caracol site, the van started to struggle even harder.
And it died when we reached the Tapir military checkpoint.
On-the-spot backup plan: load everything [and everyone] into two pickup trucks and make the rest of the drive to Las Cuevas Research station. From the back of the truck we saw more Oropendula and a few toucan. A bit dusty-but in one piece-we arrived at the research station in time for dinner. I am hoping to see a macaw at the research station while we are staying here. I still haven’t seen some of the butterflies I am hoping to either (I want to see a blue morpho).
Tag Archives: 2016
Travels + First Day at (Crystal) Paradise
Hello from a lovely room at Crystal Paradise (the name of the resort we’re staying at) near San Ignacio, Belize! Today was mainly a day of travel and adaptations, from the lack of running water and food at Houston Hobby airport to the technological difficulties with the projector during lecture time.
Nothing too noteworthy to mention about the plane or car ride, but after landing in Belize and going through customs, we took a van to this resort (stopping at a small grocery store along the way for snacks), had a delicious homemade dinner prepared by the locals, and then listened to presentations. Today’s lecture covered life in the canopy, and the taxa presented were trees and epiphytes.
As for my taxa, no beetles were spotted today, but I am confident that there will soon be plenty of them to see and identify once I have the opportunity to take a closer look at the trees and ground in the rainforest. Suffice it to say, it was a pretty great first day despite all of the adjustments we had to make! I’m looking forward to all the adventures sure to come over the next two weeks here. 🙂
Day 1: Broken water lines, disappearing laptops, and projectors with minds of their own
We are in Belize! We met at Rice and headed to Hobby airport. While we were in security, a waterline broke, and they had to shut off water to the entire airport. The airport was filled with swarms of people waiting for the few places that were still serving food. We had a fairly uneventful flight, and were picked up by a driver who took us to the Crystal Palace Resort. When we arrived, we were greeted by these adorable towel swans!
We are staying at a lovely little place nestled within the forest. It was dark when we arrived, but it looks beautiful and I can’t wait to see the grounds in the morning! They served us an amazing dinner of chips and salsa, fried rice, salad, plantains, and cake (Happy birthday Claire!). We were all pretty amazed by the salsa-it had carrots and cucumbers in it and was delicious!
Belize was impressively green from the sky, but the habitat destruction is clear from the ground. Much of the area we drove through had been cleared for agriculture, and we passed a hillside covered in massive trees being burned to the ground. The soil in many fields was black, and many trees had scorch marks from previous fires.
Although we spent the day in the car, we still saw a fair bit of wildlife. We saw a few arboreal termite nests in the trees off the highway, but they were too far away to identify the species. We also saw a house gecko and a snowy egret at a convenience store we stopped at on the way to the resort. However, my favorite sightings were after the sun had set. As I was walking back to my cabin, I stumbled across a leafcutter ant trail. We followed them back to their nest, and then tracked down the tree from which they were harvesting. There must have been thousands of ants, and they had worn a smooth path through the tire tracks on the road. As I’m writing this blog post, a boa constrictor is sitting in a tree only a few feet away!
A Bumpy Ride
Day 1 has been quite the bumpy ride, both literally and figuratively, but a blast all the same. After getting through security at Hobby Airport, we found no water and no food due to a water main break! The quick flight to Belize City was relatively smooth, until the very rough landing. And then it was into a van for two and a half hours, down some bumpy roads to the Crystal Paradise Resort.
We had a few wildlife sightings today, though none were wild mammals. At a convenience store stop we saw an egret overhead and house geckos near lights. At dinner (a wonderful meal prepared at the lodge), we saw huge cicadas and a cockroach or two. Later in the night, we accidentally stepped on the path of some leaf cutter ants carrying bright green leaves. We also saw a boa constrictor in a tree branch right next to the main lodge area, which was fantastic to see up close.
In terms of mammals, we did see some livestock, horses, and dogs throughout the car ride. I’m looking forward to spotting more wild species once we are deeper in the forest, and once we can utilize the camera traps. These domestic mammals were part of a landscape of karstic hills and underdeveloped communities, as poverty seemed to be common. The forest also looks somewhat starved of water due to many months of dry season.
Overall, what an amazing day. I’m soaking up as much information as I can, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day to see it all!
Day 1: Surprises at Every Corner
Today was filled with unexpected surprises. First day at Belize and I’m already feeling the heat (and humidity) of the class, with everything from the water crisis that closed every restaurant at Hobby Airport, to the crazy looking trees like the Ceiba during our drive to the hotel, to seeing a boa right outside the Crystal Paradise Resort dining room, to the cane toad that peed on Scott’s hand in defense. The Ceiba trees grew in plain view and were readily distinguishable from a distance. The Bridgewater book mentions that these types of trees tend to proliferate in disturbed areas of rainforest, like the sides of streets. To be able to see the example in person is like finally getting to meet your number one celebrity.
The boa Dr. Solomon located this evening was particularly active. According to one of the staff working here, the boa seemed to be on the hunt, periodically moving and stopping in the stems of trees.
But despite all the excitement in seeing these bizarre yet textbook creatures, I finally got to see what I came for, the cockroaches! Sure they’re disgusting, and I don’t really enjoy them, but witnessing one crawl down Adrienne’s leg during our outdoor dinner at Crystal Paradise, startling her in the process, made my day and got me pumped to document more of these unstudied and unappreciated insects. The cockroach we saw had a black body, but the small hood above its head, called a pronotum, had a black spot in the middle, leading me to guess it’s of the genus Blaberus, which is quite common in Central/South America. Alas, I didn’t snap a photo when I could have, serving as a reminder for me to keep my camera handy at all times. Typical of cockroaches, the insect slipped away into the crevices of the dining rooms wooden planks, out of sight.
Day 1: Houston to Belize
At 10:30 this morning our adventure began. We met up at Rice before going to Hobby Airport and then flying to Belize City. As we descended into the city, it was already clear that we were entering a different country. The houses here are painted every bright shade imaginable, which makes everything seem more festive and exciting.
The number of trees is amazing. Wherever wasn’t developed was being lost to the forest. We noticed lots of small fires as we traveled from Belize City to San Ignacio. The current theories are that they are for burning trash and for slash-and-burn agriculture. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a better idea of these fires when it is light out in the future.
We saw many species of trees. The most common were palms, which seem to be able to rise above other trees to take full advantage of the light, and Cecropia species, which have large palmate leaves. The leaves look somewhat like hands, with multiple lobes originating from the center. I haven’t seen any algae yet because we haven’t been by water, and I’ll give an update on more trees that we find tomorrow!
Day 1: A Bumpy Ride(literally)
Well we made it to Belize! And we made it to the resort we are staying at for the night. After landing in Belize City we had to a drive for a few hours. The van was bouncing like it was on a dirt road…but the road was paved…and got rather hilly. I did find a Lepidoptera today- I almost stepped on it. On a porch at the resort,I found a dead Carolina Satyr butterfly(Hermeuptychia sosbius). With the angle the wings had settled, initially I thought it was a moth. When I looked closer(it’s wingspan is about 2 cm) I saw the eyespots on the bottom side of the hindwing. I flipped the butterfly over to examine the upper and saw the solid brown. Definitely a Carolina Satyr- one I had added to the Lepidoptera identification sheet. With the lighting the camera was having trouble focusing on the tiny butterfly.
Day 1: Wow
Where did the day go? I woke up on my friend’s couch this morning exhausted and now I’m falling asleep to crickets in Belize! (Still exhausted)
I’ve had plenty of time to catch my breath today and do some personal observations. My favorite thing to do in the field right now is to listen. There are hundreds of voices in the darkness, each belonging to a different organism, determined to have his pulses or drones or chattering chirps heard by a mate. How romantic, no? Let’s not think about their creepier, crawlier side just yet—I’ll have close-up pictures of that tomorrow.
I heard a fascinating lecture on life in the rainforest canopy. One point stuck out to me, as I listened to Sam. These paradoxically nutrient poor soil conditions produce the most astounding variety of plant life on Earth, which in turn supports the entire trophic web here. In turn, without the wealth and diversity of life in the rainforest, each organism with an integral role to play in this game, these plants could not survive such oligotrophic soils. If you don’t think about it, you could take for granted the unique biodiversity hotspot we are in.
Simply put: Life… UHHHHH … finds a way. (Pictured: me, today)
P.S. Mom and Dad, our accommodations are like paradise. Dinner was outstanding, but also represented the only substantial meal I’ve eaten today. Hobby airport had no water, which meant restaurants were all closed; even the toilets were roped off. But here I am, stomach full and brain active all the same.
“Inauspicious Beginnings”
In the words of Dr. Scott Solomon, our group has reached Belize with “inauspicious beginnings.” Our journey began with a mix-up in buses, but eventual transportation brought us to Hobby airport for our departure. Alas, a water main break in the airport terminal proved unfortunate for the growling stomachs of biologists, but by mid-afternoon, our group of 16 had safely arrived in Belize City, Belize.
Our travels continued by van to the town of San Ignacio in the Cayo
District. The two-hour drive proved to be a great opportunity for “deer” sightings and views of the limestone karst of the Maya Mountains. A pit stop for snacks even yielded my first reptile sighting: a common house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus), an invasive species from Asia.
Our final destination was the tropical Crystal Paradise Resort in San Ignacio where we enjoyed a much-needed meal and birthday celebration. Misadventure followed with lost laptops and a dysfunctional projector, but even as I write this, the forest reveals even more of its wonders.
On a tip from a local, we uncovered a 7+ foot long boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) that has made its home here at the Crystal Paradise. The enormous snake slowly made its way down a tree just off the hotel’s balcony, amidst a chorus of chirping crickets and croaking frogs.
Maybe our beginnings weren’t so inauspicious after all.
Travel and Introductions
Hi loved ones, I’m alive and well. I’m sitting in my humid sticky bedroom recounting the excitement (good and bad) of the day in my head. It started out on a pretty bad note honestly.
We got to Hobby airport and there had been a power outage resulting in no water in the entire airport: no working bathrooms, no working water fountains, and no food except what was left in the shiny cold food sections that no one ever touches, but were suddenly the bell of the ball. I bought some snacks and the largest water bottle I could find and hoped they would hold me over till dinner which was scheduled to be >6 hours later.
Once we got to Belize though, I remembered why it was that I was here. The air was humid, the houses along the road were colorful and falling apart, the bumpy 2 hour van ride let us see the countryside from Belize City to Belmopan. I loved it.
The rest of the day had its ups and downs. The van barely had air conditioning and we were all 16 of us stuffed into a van made to seat 8 semi-comfortably. When we stopped for snacks though, the day took a turn for the better. Adrienne bought me a birthday snack of a slightly disturbing tamarind flavored crazy hair pushup pop and some truly fabulous birthday sunglasses.
We learned about the forest canopy, trees, and epiphytes after a lovely dinner of chicken and rice. But after presentations was when the fun truly started. I found a spider about an inch in length including its legs. It was visibly hairy and a dark grey/black color with very few markings on its body. I didn’t get a great look at it because it was very skittish, but I got some pictures, which will hopefully (internet allowing) be attached to this post.
The most exciting part of the day by far though, was the fabulous siting of an 8 ft. boa constrictor in a tree across from the porch where we had eaten dinner. It was super active and looked to be hunting. I’m so happy that I’ve already gotten to see some fun things, and it’s been barely half a day. I’m excited for what tomorrow will bring, and also so desperately in need of sleep. Till tomorrow!