Today, I really just had one of those days where I did not feel good. In the morning, I felt fine and excited to catch sea urchins, but as we were on the boat observing our caught sea urchins, I think that is where I started to feel “sick”. As the day progressed, I just did not feel up to par and, unfortunately, I missed night dive with the class. One of the things I can say I did not do is that night dive which I low key regret, but I needed to heal. It is sad to say it is almost time to leave, and we only have one full day left.

Food here in Belize will never stop to amaze me. Aunt Annette and Jamelle, you guys are seriously the bomb. Breakfast, I had John cakes and ham and just wow, like those cakes were the bomb. Like I could eat the cakes plain for days. Lunch I had honey mustard chicken with a nice cabbage salad, and that salad was so so good. I’m not a salad eater, but the food here has definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zones. I don’t like mustard, yet I had the chicken. Dinner I had BBBQ chicken with rice and beans, and again, mind blown away by how good the food is. You have to come to Belize to try the food. You will not regret.

I feel like I got more bites in my sleep. When I woke up today, I could not stop scratching my arms and legs. Yes yes yes, I know you are not supposed to scratch them, but I could not help myself. I saw five new little bumps on my right arm and said to myself, “wow these sand flies really trying to get me in my sleep”.

Went out to do our second to last experiment and we wanted to know if there was a difference in urchin community structure in and out of the MPA. Got to touch/collect of sea urchins in the MPA and did not touch any from the non-MPA since these urchins were huge and dangerous. Did not see any annelids since I could not see half the time and the other half I was just not feeling well.

Picture: Urchin that was caught at our first site (MPA).

Saw a fire worm under a dissecting scope today and lots of Christmas tree worms around the MPA protected reefs. Kaela straight up grabbed the fireworm, and some fireworms are dangerous. Luckily this fireworm was small and had few bristles so it did not hurt her as much as a mature fireworm. As a class, we all collected a wide variety of different species in under an hour, just by standing and waiting in the seagrass bed. Straight up chilled for about an hour and we ended up with so many different species!

I woke up today at around 5:50am and I was just super hungry. So you can say I was excited for breakfast, and Aunt Annette and Jamelle came in clutch. Breakfast we had tortillas, eggs, sausage, and juice. As we were on our way back to Glover’s, I literally told myself that I could use some good fried chicken, and at lunch we had friend chicken, fries, and cole slaw. Literally made my day. Dinner, we had mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, beef stew, baked chicken, and as an added bonus, we also had birthday cake since it was Kaela’s big 21. Hope your birthday was great Kaela!

Went out for our surveys today and we collected data from both MPA protected reefs and non-protected MPA reefs. Class biased on first survey but better on second. But still could have been better. I was very tired after this and I definitely felt like I was dehydrated. I nearly drank all the water in my water bottle (48oz)! That does it for today’s blog, see you tomorrow!

Picture: two bearded fireworms that were found!!

First time having banana pancakes, and they were so so good. Belize just has great food and I will be sad when I have to go home and make my own meals i.e. cereal for breakfast. I will continue to talk about food until I am home crying about my “homemade” meals. Lunch, we had something similar to what we had a Las Cuevas, and this beef soup was so good. Just everything I have eaten here in Belize has blown my mind away.

First part of our day we looked at the percent coral cover that was on the coral graveyard. We then went on to our first snorkel experiment today with our transect and handmade quadrat. We looked at how the seagrass beds and algae interact on the reef flat. It was not bad until my mask starred to fog up and water flooded into the mask. Did not see any annelids since I had mask problems are the patch reef which sucked. Other than that I enjoyed the actual data collection!

More bugs got me again today! As we were working on identifying corals based off of the remains they left behind, multiple bugs bit me on my leg. Bites on my is now at 24 and it looks like it will only go up from here. I hope that I will make it out alive.

The view is really just a lot to take in. You have beautiful trees, with never ending wind, and it all complements each other for the best. Even the cloud cover does not ruin the scenery, but only enhances the view. The wind however does help with the sand flies, but yet I am still accumulating bites. Only a few days left, and it is sad to say that. That does it for today’s blog, catch you guys tomorrow!

Picture: Team Epiphyte collecting data at seagrass site (I am not pictured since I took the photo).

Today we made our way to Glover’s Reef research station. As we were waiting in Belize city for our captain to arrive, the smell was unbearable, but the scenery was great. Lots of marine debris were along the coastal line. Applied lots of sunscreen since I did not want to get burnt, and I didn’t get burnt since I sat near the front under the hood. On the boat ride to Glover’s, the open water was very “choppy”. I was sleeping when suddenly I woke up to a loud bang. That bang being my head against the hard seat. Great way to wake up!

We went for our first swim today in full gear and let’s just say it was a rollercoaster for me. I put way too much sunscreen on my forehead and that was a bad idea since it started to flow down into my eyes while we were swimming! It hurt so bad to the point where I could not open my eyes for a bit. So that was scary. Other than that, I enjoyed our first swim!

On our second “swim” I saw a Christmas tree that Amanda had pointed out. That was the one annelid that I really wanted to see since I knew they would be seen here in Belize. I also saw a Variegated feather duster that was on top of a rock near some coral. These feather dusters were the exact image on my taxa id cards, and also very small. Now that I have seen the annelid I wanted to see; I hope that I will find a Split-crown feather duster.

The bugs got me good today. Even away from the Chiquibul, I still manage to get bit by bugs. As were walking through the “Mangrove of death”, literally death, lots of sand flies were on me and they sure got me good. I ran through this, yet still got over 20 bites! Even on the way back, I accumulated more bites on my back and legs! Let’s hope that we do not encounter that area again or else I might not be home next week. See you tomorrow?

Left pic: view as we were pulling in. Right pic: just running through the mangroves.

Today we left Las Cuevas early and the last meal ever at Las Cuevas. This morning I had eggs, bacon, tortilla, banana bread, pineapple, and pineapple juice! My favorite drink! As we were driving away at 7:03am, I took a last glimpse of the research station and closed my eyes for a nap.

The ATM cave is a living museum and it was soooo much fun! The water was cold, and as expected, I fell at one point in time. literally always falling!! Seeing lots of Mayan artifacts and even some human remains very well complemented my expectations and the overall cave exploration.  Who knows how long this extraordinary place will be around and now I can say I have been to the most sacred cave in the world!

The sodas here at Belize are so good and they are so much better at keeping plastic pollution down compared to back home. We have plastic bottles and aluminum cans for our sodas while here in Belize, it is all glass. The drinks are so cheap!! $1 Belize dollar ($0.50 US Dollar)! They reuse the glass bottles saving the plastic waste, and this helps the environment. 

At the Belize zoo, I saw every animal that I did not see at Las Cuevas, and the zoo made the rainforest portion of the class more fulfilling. I feel like having the taxa epiphytes, I see them everywhere. I was fulfilled as soon as we entered the Chiquibul on our way to Caracol, but seeing the crocodile, watching the jaguar do his somersault, holding a snake, and even feeding a tapir definitely fulfilled my expectations and beyond. I hate snakes, never liked them, but after holding boba, I can say some snakes do not scare me anymore. See you tomorrow as we travel to Glover’s Reef Research Station!

Picture: Me feeding the tapier!

Picture: Me holding the “scary” boa constrictor snake!

Today we collected our camera traps and we all examined the results later that night. We got some cool photos like a super up close picture of what looked like a puma, skunk, and a tapir! We all had refreshing drinks and a nice desert as a last taste of Belize before all heading down for the night. Man Belize, you got good food. 

We went on an ant hike where Scott told the class all about leaf cutter ants. He showed the class two nests, one young and one mature. The solider ants from the mature ants were so big compared to the workers! Such a cool sighting of Scott in his natural habitat, you know digging up leaf cutter ants. 

Epiphytes were every along both trails as perusal, since epiphytes are so diverse.  It is just a great feeling walking out with the class on the monkey tail trail and just looking around to see epiphytes. Clearly not excited about the 13 ticks I found on me yesterday, but I am alive. 

Last full day here at Las Cuevas Research Station and it is a sad day. One thing I will miss is definitely the food. Food here at Belize is so so good! Thank you Las Cuevas staff for just providing such an amazing experience. Good night and off to the ATM cave in the morning!

Picture: What looks to be a puma

Picture: Tapir!!

Got to see a toucan today even though I woke up late for bird watching. I’m glad I finally got to see a toucan, and I can say I have seen the two most iconic birds here at Las Cuevas. I do feel bad for not actually getting up at 5:00a.m for bird watching, but I tried very hard.

The bird tower hike was very VERY tiring, but once I got to the top of the tower, it was all worth it. The view was such a pretty sight, and the sunset was great as well. Got a couple photos during the golden hour which only lasted for about 10 minuets. That’s nice. The walk back was definitely faster, and it probably would have been faster to take that route.

As we were walking along the shortcut road that leads to the bird tower, I saw more and more lichens. We went down this trail to tackle our afternoon experiment, and along the way I looked for epiphytes, which were everywhere. Bromeliads were everywhere as they usually are and so were these never ending loops of lianas.

After lectures, I just enjoyed the view with Elizabeth, and we talked about the day. We looked at a moth that had she had caught, and she would not playing with him. Before going to bed, I talked to Pierce about how he has an eye of an eagle, and how awesome it is for him to just see lots of things at night. Today was definitely the longest day, but a good one. See you tomorrow as our stay at Las Cuevas winds down L.

Picture: View from the bird tower

Today I woke up at 5:30a.m. to see birds so go me! During the whole hike to retrieve our pitfall traps, it was very cool, and I don’t think I was even sweating during that trip. At lunch today, we had a delicious soup that was full of vegetables and chicken but was very hot! I don’t think I was sweating as much as I did today eating that soup, but it was worth every bite.

Along the hike to retrieve our pitfall trap, I saw bromeliads, lianas, lichens, strangler figs, long roots along trees, and mosses. The lianas that I saw today were called the monkey ladder, in which it looked like a latter, and it stretched the length of the tree. Once again, I saw lichens the whole trip, large bromeliads, and two strangler figs. These plants are just everywhere and everywhere I turn my head, I see epiphytes looking at me.

The frog that was sleeping on leaf was such a thing of beauty. Scott disturbed the sleeping frog by picking him up. I wanted to hole him but I had sunscreen on my hands earlier so I couldn’t hold him. The black-eyed leaf frog then went back to the leaf and we got to see this guy stretch out and it was amazing. He stretched from Scott’s hand to the leaf and it was like a few couple inches!

After the retrieval of I hung out with Keagan and Brendan and we talked about many different things (mostly them telling me lies since I am so gullible). We played ultimate tic-tac-toe and that was fun and just something to kill sometime. Listening to Brendan telling jokes while I was trying to concentrate made the game so memorable. Brendan is seriously funny, and he can really sing his heart out. That does it for today’s blog, catch you guys tomorrow.

Picture: “Sleeping beauty” i.e the morelet’s tree frog

Today I woke up late and missed the bird sighting which was sad since they saw two toucans. As I was enjoying one of the best breakfasts I have had here in Belize, Scott comes in and tells us to take two vials. Then he tells us that we have to pee in these vials without telling us why. We thought he was kidding but nope, we all collected 50mL of our urine, which we found out will be using as pitfall traps for our experiment.

Along the Maya trail and the 50-hectare plot, I saw bromeliads, lianas, lichens, strangler figs, long roots along trees, and mosses. Bromeliads that I saw today were bigger than other bromeliads I have seen yesterday. These tank epiphytes had long leaves and they were filled with water and even some arthropods! The lichens that I have seen today were everywhere and seem to be found everywhere on other plants. It’s pretty great to see epiphytes everywhere you go in the Chiquibul region.

We got to explore the cave that lies underneath a Mayan site here at Las Cuevas. I did almost slip a few times, but I had rocks to grab on to for safety. Today’s lectures were given in the caves and that was a great experience since we were at nature’s natural air conditioning unit. We all sat around on the rocks and listened to the lectures given.

After dinner, we all went on a short night hike and I can say it was an adventure. We saw this cockroach that has this glue-like substance near the rear-end. Very cool and we got to “play” with it. As we were walking towards the pond, Brendan pointed at a stem and told me he thought it was something. It turned out that something was in fact something and that it was a stick bug. It blended in so well it took lots of “work” to see this stick bug, and I got to hold this little guy. And that wraps up this blog. See you guys tomorrow!

Picture: My reaction to nature’s air-condition unit (the cave at Las Cuevas)

Today has been a full day of hiking where we went to set up our camera traps for our research. Let me tell you. If every day is going to be me walking up HUGE hills, I don’t know if I will make it. Observing other taxonomic groups and my group, epiphytes, has made it worthwhile. Oh, and hopefully we will see a jaguar! I can say this whole day of hiking feels like the most exercise I have ever had in my life.

As we were walking towards the top right corner of the 50-hectare plot, this bee would not stop hovering over me! Brendan and Keegan were both there and it was hovering the three of us for a good amount of time. Also, every time I have fallen, Brendan was behind me (at Rio in the pool and our hike today). EVERY TIME. I will keep this in mind on our next hike and hopefully Brendan will not say, “Be careful Michael”.

Along the 50-hectare plot, lots of ferns and mosses were present. These epiphytic plants were found to be on one side of the trees, and it was cool to see that characteristic on multiple trees! Along the monkey tail trail, I saw lichens for the whole 45-minute hike to the end point of our methodology. I could identify more and more species today as we saw more bromeliads, large veins, and lots of lianas hanging from tree to tree.

After the hike back from the monkey tail trail, I took a shower and as soon as I finished, Scott yells, “Scarlet Macaw!!”. I quickly ran to the balcony by lab/dining area and I saw two just chilling up on the trees! Rare site guys, and I can say that life is complete. Hearing the calls that they make; it is just so loud that you cannot miss it. Well that does it for my blog today since I have had a very tiring day. See you tomorrow! CAWWCNAW!!

Picture: Sheer beauty of the Scarlet Macaw.