Today I felt helpless as I stared into the eyes of the cashier at Subway, as she told me they weren’t making or selling sandwiches. I had skipped breakfast that morning thinking I would grab a large lunch at the airport but when we arrived at Hobby, we learned that the water had shut off. Consequently, all the restaurants could no longer serve food, as not washing hands was a health code violation. Alas, I settled on two bags of potato chips and entertained myself at Subway for half an hour watching hangry passengers walk up to the Subway cashier only to be told the horrifying news.

While I was hangry today in the airport, it largely didn’t bother me too much. I think over the years I have come to accept the not-so-great things that happen to me because there is no sense in working myself up over something I have no ability to change. Plus, I was about to board a plane to Belize! As I expected, it was quite humid and warm as we descended from the aircraft onto Belizean territory. Once we went through customs and left the airport, we all boarded ourselves into a van and made a two-hour trek to Crystal Paradise, a hotel outside of San Ignacio near the Guatemalan border.

Dinner tasted particularly wonderful and right afterword, Mandy, Sasha, and Sam gave their presentations. While I tried to stay interested, I must say that I was exhausted and it took a lot for me to keep my eyes open. We were released for bed at 11 pm. I ran back to my room but was stopped by Lucrecia and Ella. They had found a trail of leafcutter ants outside of our rooms!

I ran inside to grab my camera and headlamp and we all proceeded to follow the ant trail to find its nest. My friend Mandy loudly exclaimed that the ant trail looked like an actual trail, and indeed, the ants had been travelling back and forth so many times that there was a clear path cut through the understory. I was amazed at how everything was kept so orderly. A two-way direction of ants travelled back and forth from one place to another. We found the nest at the base of some small palm tree. After we found this, we wanted to find the “home tree” or the place the ants were collecting these leaves. We followed the trail backwards and found the tree. It was pretty far away as far as ants are concerned. Needless to say, the ants captured my attention tonight and were cool enough to keep a sleep-deprived person like myself from collapsing into bed.

Sadly, I saw no bees today but I am not worried since it is only our first day. Other creatures we saw today included a dog that Adrienne mistook for a deer, a few chickens, a large cicada that joined us for dinner, and a cockroach that scared the bejesus out of Adrienne. Photos of the ant parade are below!