Tag Archives: bat

The Ruins of Caracol!!! (Day 9)

Hi all, it’s Faith with Day 9 updates from the 2022 Belize trip!!!

Today we left the TEC to visit Caracol, one of the largest Mayan cities. I got kind of car sick on the way there, but it was OK because we sighted a Morelet’s crocodile (crocodylus moreleti). While I couldn’t get the exact size, it was obviously a younger crocodile. It even had the black tail bands that characterize young morelet’s. We saw it sunbathing on a rock near a freshwater river in the Chiquibil. What an exciting find!

After that, I fell asleep and awoke at Caracol. This ancient Mayan city was home to over 200k people at one point and spans over 7 miles. The temples are in a pyramidal shape and come in groups of threes and sixes. The property had a wide variety of trees. One of them produces fruit that are locally called horse balls, and the fruit have a sticky glue-like sap. We also saw a gumbo limbo tree wrapped in a strangling fig. The last cool tree we saw was a Ceiba tree. They can live for over 200 years, and they dominate the emergent layer of the rainforest (highest portion of the canopy). We all looked so small compared to the twin ceiba trees! The highlight of Caracol, for me at least, was seeing a bat! I love bats, so I was the first and last person out of the Mayan cave-room! He was so small (pictured below)!

After Caracol we made the 2 hour drive to Las Cuevas research center. On the way it began to rain, and the gravelly- dirt roads became faint puddles. In those puddles, we saw three turtles! One I identified as a red cheeked mud turtle (K. scorpiodes). I determined his species by noting his habitat and appearance.  I even saw a glimpse of his bright red cheeks! Because of the speed we passed them with and their small sizes, I wasn’t able to identify the other two turtles we passed. They were also living their best life in road ponds. I also couldn’t get pictures of these turtles because of the moving car 🙁

Las Cuevas seems cool for now, but I guess I have all week to figure that out. I’ll let you know what happens next!

Till Tomorrow!

QOTD

““You guys are gonna make me touch the horse balls?”

“Micheal pees! How could he?”

This is the site we saw a morelet’s crocodile! It is in this picture I will add a close up of the crocodile once I receive is from Dr. Solomon
The Giant Ceiba Tree!
THE BAT!!!
Morelet’s crocodile sunbathing!

Day 9: Immersion (05/24/2017)

Today’s primary endeavor was exploring Actun Tunichil Muknal, a cave hidden within the Belize rainforest. With its seemingly endless rock formations, the cave was spectacular. Rocks were rounded and smoothed over from the flow of groundwater, coarse and jagged from sparsely dripping water droplets, or even organic-looking like coral or knotted roots. Spaces ranged from the expansive to the claustrophobic, and colors ranged from sparkling green-brown to beige with patches of jet-black to mahogany swirled with gray to stark white. Paradoxically, these robust colors only existed because of the illumination gleaming our headlamps.

The cave was all encompassing. Once you entered, you were in the cave, and you were not leaving until you completely turn around and head back. We had to swim through pools of groundwater, navigate through jutting rock formations, and climb up several stories-worth of rocks to reach the cave’s heart – an ancient Mayan sacrifice site.

The entire experience was a journey. I left the realm of sunlight for a darker, almost sinister, yet breathtakingly beautiful one.

Immediately upon leaving the cave, rain began to pour down. Logically, it makes sense that it would rain in the rainforest, but a sudden downpour was something I did not expect. My class and I hiked through the rainforest, entirely drenched. Concurrently, trees towered above and filled the horizon. In front of me, behind me, to the sides, above, and below, I was fully immersed in the quintessence of the rainforest.

Rainforest canopy surrounding the ATM Cave

“Immersion makes the trip worth it,” I thought to myself as I was wringing out my soaked clothes in the park bathroom after the torrential hike.

And I was right; looking back on my day, I have gotten to see cohune palms (Attalea cohune) and a trumpet tree (Cecropia obtusifolia). The cohune palms were scattered and were abundant with cohune nuts. The trumpet tree, which I noticed on the horizon, had thin light-colored trunks that led up to thin branches abundant with large, hanging leaves. I also saw multiple species of anura in the rainforest, as well as an unknown species of bat (Order Chiroptera), a massive unknown spider (Order Araneae), and an assortment of human remains (Homo sapiens) within the cave.

Immersing myself has enriched my day, and I am excited to continue to experience this immersion throughout my next week of travel.