The day started bright and early with a cornucopia of fried dough, syrup, and coffee at 6 am. I had only received about five and a half hours of sleep but I did not wake up or stir at all during the night. I found myself sleepy for nearly the entire day, but we get a break tonight to catch up on our sleep.

I saw my first bee today! There were a number of dark bees feeding from the nectar feeders at Crystal Paradise. They appeared to be bees belonging to the tribe Euglossini. The only thing that confused was the fact that they did not appear iridescent or metallic. That is one of the characteristics that define the Euglossini genus. However, it could be entirely possible that these bees belonged to the genus Eufrasia, which is another genus that belongs to the Euglossini tribe. Those bees tend to be darker and black, with any metallic coloring located on their heads. The other distinguishing feature of the Euglossini tribe is the enlarged hind tibias that male bees have to store and carry nectar. I took a few photos that showed exactly this.

After we packed up all of our things, we headed out in our van. I fell asleep instantaneously and missed most of the drive. I only woke up a few times and was lucky that I got to see a coati walking along the road. We arrived at Caracol, an ancient Mayan archaeological site, and headed out to the ruins. We climbed the tallest man-made structure in Belize, and it was built about 1500 years ago! Everyone was sweating a lot under the hot sun and the strong humidity. That was when I noticed these tiny little black insects hovering around and landing on people’s skin. When I got a closer look, I saw that they were sweat bees. Sweat bees belong to the Halictidae family and are attracted to human perspiration. The ones I saw were also very tiny, but very distinctly bee.

After we ate lunch at the ruins, we packed up the van yet again with the plan of going swimming in some pools. Of course, this was never meant to happen. Our van broke down and we had to be rescued by those residing at Las Cuevas. We packed our people and gear onto two pickup trucks and endured a bumpy 45-minute ride to the research station. Upon arrival, I was immersed in the sounds of the forest. Currently I am writing this blog outside on the porch as we wait for dinner and am listening to the myriad bird sounds emanating from the trees. I may be dirty, but I am content.

I can’t promise any photos. Cross your fingers that the Ethernet will load them!