Tag Archives: Las Cuevas Research Station

2022

D-9 a bumpy ride to Caracol

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Hi everyone!

Today was really great, yet also very tiring! We were traveling from the Tropical Education Center (TEC) to the Las Cuevas Research Station (LCRS). Yet, along the way we made a stop at a place that I absolutely loved! We stopped at Caracol, a Mayan Archeological Site.

There we were given a tour by Leo, who was super knowledgeable about the site! He told that he was even part of the archeological team at some point of the excavation. He led us through a couple of sites, including one that the Mayas would use as an observatory. I thought that was the coolest of the structures, especially after Leo mentioned that the Mayas could use those buildings to track the passage of the months; according to Leo the Mayas could tell the time of the year by the position at which the sun rose relative to their observatory. It was at this same observatory that I got to see one of my taxa. I saw a carpenter bee. I was able to identify it by its bulky size, it’s black coloration and it’s fluffy appearance! It was doing quite a weird behavior, it was carrying a small branch.


Although I still do not know if this is common behavior in this species, I will Google this next time I have internet!

2022

D-0 Belize here we come!

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Hello everyone!

My name is Maggy, and I am a rising senior at Rice!

Coming into this trip I am so excited to get to learn even more about Belize’s biodiversity. I learned about this class my freshman year, yet due to Covid-19 I thought I wouldn’t be able to participate during my time at Rice, yet thankfully I was wrong! Going to a whole new country and getting to learn about its great biodiversity seems like a dream come true.

One of my goals of this trip is to become much more acquainted with both of my taxon groups: piscivorous fish and bees! Both of these groups have so many amazing organisms, I hope our group gets to see at least some of them up close.

I can imagine that this trip, in addition to being fun, will also be challenging at times, yet I’m looking forward to working with my classmates to overcome these challenges, just like researchers do out in the field! One personal challenge that I am a bit nervous about is swimming. I have never been a very fast swimmer, yet I hope that a few days in the water will help me improve my speed! Another personal challenge is working out in the field and putting to use my research skills. To me this is a challenge because most of my research has been lab-based, with me spending lots of time working with my laptop or at the bench. I believe that with just a bit of practice I’ll be able to quickly adjust! I think some of the classes I’ve taken at Rice will definitely help, for example I took a Conservation biology lab in which we worked with transects to estimate the biodiversity of the Harris Gully Natural Area at Rice. Another class I think can come in handy is a Plant Diversity course I took; since this course took place a few semesters ago I am not too sure how much I remember, yet I think seeing things first hand will help jog my memory. 

Regardless of the challenges all of us will probably encounter, as a group or as individuals, I am sure that this trip will be a success and that we will all learn a lot more about the great biodiversity of Belize!

2019

15/05/19 Cara-cool Ruins

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I awoke to the sound of birds (or rather, people birding). After breakfast and mourning my last hours of reliable WiFi, I loaded the van with the class to travel an hour to Rio on Pools in the Mountain Pine Range. While there, we swam, but mostly slipped, slid, and stumbled on the algae that blanketed the rocks. We also dunked our heads in waterfalls. Once dried and changed, we embarked on another hour-long  journey to the Caracol Ruins.

At the Caracol Ruins, there were many butterflies that appeared to be of the same species (a variant of swallowtail as indicated by long ‘tails’ protruding from each hindwing).  The ruins themselves were magnificent, but also a pain to climb; the steps of the ruins were so high that every time I took a step, my knees rose to my chest. It was all worth it though because now I can say that I have conquered the tallest structure in the country of Belize! Also, I stood within a tomb, which was dank, and the buttresses of a ceiba tree. After traversing the ruins, the class drove an hour to Las Cuevas Research Station, our final destination for the day.

Some other cool, miscellaneous things observed en route:

  • Mayan temple replica currently being constructed by a man who claims to be a descendant of a Mayan god
  • 3 military checkpoints, the second of which was a Dutch army base
  • carsickness 🙁

At Las Cuevas, I found and captured a butterfly in the restroom. It was sitting with its wings closed (as is the tendency of the butterfly), so I identified it as a butterfly even though the coloration (lacking in vibrancy) was more similar to a moth’s. The butterfly was tan/brown with an eyespot on each wing (forewing and hindwing, 4 eye spots total). The hindwings had significant perforations, but they were erratic in size and depth, so I believe that they were not present as a result of species-specific characteristic.

It began raining lightly (forest’s namesake weather!) Scott heard then saw a scarlet macaw.

After dinner, the class ended the night with a discussion on research question, and lectures on trees, birds, and the paradox of tropical soils.

2016

Into the Maya Forest

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Today the remoteness of the trip has begun to feel amazingly real. We’ve seen Mayan temples in the jungle and animals abound, despite the fact that we haven’t even really gone looking for them yet. Some fantastic non-mammal sightings included a blue-crowned motmot, a great black hawk, oropendola, and a slender brown scorpion (in a bathroom, unfortunately).

Today’s main activity was a visit to the Mayan ruins at Caracol. Caracol was once assumed to be a smaller city dominated by other Mayan powers such as Tikal. However, it is now known that Caracol was actually a large metropolis supporting somewhere around 150,000 people. Caracol was designed like a wagon wheel, with a main center and road “spokes” leading to the more rural agricultural areas. Most of the pyramids were used for religious rituals, as was the case with Caana, the sky palace that we climbed. After 1100 AD Caracol had collapsed, but the Maya people still live in Mesoamerica. It is amazing to me how many different kinds of people live in this part of the world. Mayans and other natives share the land with people of European or African ancestry, and further divides are made as people are sorted into nationalities (Guatemalan, Belizean, Mexican). It is perhaps no wonder that tensions between peoples at times run high.

Today also marked the first wild mammal sightings of the trip! During breakfast (6am…), we spotted a Yucatan squirrel in a nearby tree. Some other students may also have seen an agouti, though I was not able to see or identify it reliably. Later, on the road to Caracol, a coatimundi was spotted travelling on the side of the road. Although I had to jump over some seats in the van to get a glimpse of the coati, it was well worth the effort. The coati was a brown-red with characteristic white rings on its erect tail. At Caracol, some other tourists reported a Mexican black howler monkey sighting, though we did not see any signs of the primates.

Yucatan Squirrel seen at Crystal Paradise Resort
Yucatan Squirrel seen at Crystal Paradise Resort

Some of the mishaps of the day included lunch drinks breaking in the cooler and a van break down. After Caracol, the plan was to visit some pools and waterfalls for a refreshing swim. However, it was not to be as our van was forced to quit due to lack of transmission fuel and oil. Luckily, we were not too far from Las Cuevas Research Station (where we will be staying until we leave for the coral reef) and we were able to improvise with some pick-up trucks. In true TFB (Tropical Field Biologist) fashion, a bunch of us piled into the bed of a truck and had a fun ride into the beautiful wilderness!