Tag Archives: boat ride

2022

Pumas, Ocelots, and Jaguars, Oh My!

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Today was the first of two travel days between Glover’s Reef Research Station and Las Cuevas Research Station. We started out the day by travelling via boat back to the mainland. I had taken dramamine, so I slept for almost the entire ride, although I woke up for a brief period of time, and saw a flying fish and some dolphins. I also counted all my bug bites before I fell asleep. I have roughly 374. We had lunch at the marina, stopped at the super market to stock up on anything we had run out of, and then we were on our way.

We travelled to the Tropical Education Center, located just outside Belize City. We got a tour of the lodge, and then enjoyed a talk by Dr. Boris Aravelo about his research concerning the conservation of the scarlet macaw. Afterwards, we had dinner and headed to the zoo. The Belize Zoo is a conservation zoo, as in it only takes animals that were confiscated, or can no longer live in the wild for some other reason. All the animals there are native to Belize/Central America.

We got a night tour of the animals, which was super cool. We saw quash, an anteater, two jaguars, a crocodile, a puma, ocelot, and margay, several types of owls, a kinkajou, white lipped peccary, and a tapir. The animals were super cool! We learned that jaguars are super smart and can learn to do tricks, that ocelots growl when they greet each other, and that tapirs are related to horses and rhinoceros. The peccaries were very smelly, as they have a scent gland on their posterior that helps them identify members of their own herd.

I also saw a little cricket-it was tiny, maybe a centimeter long, with antennae that were maybe three or four times its body length. I wasn’t able to identify it, but I plan on looking it up tomorrow. We also saw lots of leaf cutter ants! They were working very hard, carrying their leaves.

tiny cricket
Indy the tapir (pic courtesy of Ava)
Lindo the jaguar

By dinner time tomorrow we should be at Las Cuevas! We have a big day before that, and I’m hoping to be able to write about it here although I’m not sure about the internet situation. If you don’t see any updated blog posts, don’t worry!

-Elena

2022

Getting to Glovers!!! (Day 1)

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Hi all, it’s Faith here with Day 1 updates from our Belize trip!!!

Today, we spent such long time just trying to get here, so I’m a little worried about the intensity for the next few days, but I didn’t  sign up for this thinking it would be easy! Here is what happened:

The whole group made it on time and to the airport by 8:00, but not even 10 minutes in, we ran into our first problem– the professors hadn’t filled out the paperwork to bring their kids!

So, while we were reorganizing the class gear to be under 50lbs, the professors were rushing to get their kids on board. Don’t worry though, we all made it on the plane, and had time to grab panda express for breakfast.

After some seat and boarding pass complications, we made it to the Belize city airport, and went through an hours worth of customs! Then we temporarily lost Professor Solomon (which was kind of my fault because I didn’t follow him outside, but no one has to know).

After a brief stop at the supermarket to grab snacks,  we headed to the boat for a 4 hour boat ride. On the way there, Dr. Correa’s son was telling Maegan and I that he wanted to see rollercoaster-like waves once we passed the barrier reef. We got kinda confused, but he was right, and we saw huge waves!

Not much happened after the boat trip. We just got our rooms, ate some yummy dinner, went over the station’s basics, and admired lots and lots and lots of hermit crabs. Fun fact: on the way back from the shower a giant ghost crab ran into me.

Sadly there were no echinoderms today because we were on land, but I’ll let you know what we find tomorrow.

I saw one reptile, a common house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus on the shower wall. He was cute and although patternless.

Quote of the day: “Don’t just write ‘Oh, I saw that dang tree again!’ I can confirm *laughs*  there are gonna be trees in the rainforest, thank goodness” -Dr. Solomon

The Common house Gecko on the shower wall (Hemidactylus frenatus)
One of many, many, many giant hermit crabs
2022

Day 1: An Ocean Rollercoaster

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First official day of the trip completed! After a slightly hectic beginning at the airport, including me losing my credit card (… sorry Dad…), we were all able to make it onto our three hour flight into Belize. Riding in two vans to get to the dock for our boat to Glover’s Reef Research Station, we stopped by a small supermarket to grab some snacks to bring onto the island. My haul included Doritos, plantain chips (even after a whole semester’s worth, I will never be sick of them), and some yummy Melacotón juice.

Afterwards, we made it to the dock where we had lunch and loaded up the boat. The boat ride was about 4 hours and a literal roller coaster. Once we broke the reef barrier and made it into the open ocean after an hour or so, the “small” swells (according to one of the crew) were big enough to make us catch some air – and it was SO. FUN.  Apparently the swells can get up to 20 feet and I am okay with not experiencing them. During this long boat ride, I was able to take a nap, see some beautiful ocean (sadly no sightings of Red Algae or tunicates but I am determined I will find them), learn about Belizean culture, and even learn some Kriol/English Creole (I’m totally going to be fluent at the end of the week just wait)!

When we made it to the Caye, we brought our stuff up into our bunks and had some free time before dinner. All of the commodities here are sustainable: composting toilets, rainwater showers, and open windows for natural air-conditioning. There are also SO many crabs. Hermit crabs and what I believe to be the Common Land Crab are literally everywhere. Someone mentioned that they are like the squirrels at Rice and I couldn’t describe it better. So many crab jumpscares. For dinner we ate delicious coconut rice and chicken, with the best mango I have ever had for dessert.

I am about to have the best sleep of my life – goodnight!!

-Sophia

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Escaping the Sandflies

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May 28, 2019

Today was full of travel. We woke up bright and early at 4:45 am to begin our three hour boat ride back to the mainland. The ride was smoother this time because we were traveling with the current (see Keegan and Brendan enjoying the boat ride below). And we saw two dolphins as we were approaching the shore!

Once we made it to the airport, we had some free time to buy gifts and souvenirs, so I of course bought some Marie Sharp’s hot sauce for the hot sauce lovers in my family.

The flight went by pretty quickly, and it was so good to see my pets (three cats and one dog) when I finally got home even if it meant I had to walk the dog and clean the litterboxes before passing out in bed.