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Caracol and LCRS Night 1!

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May 17 – First Full Day, CPE —> LCRS Travel Day, Caracol Visit, and Inaugural Hike
Hello! Today was yet another great day here in Belize. When we woke up, we were met with a lovely breakfast from the Crystal Paradise Ecolodge before we hopped in the van for a ride to the Caracol Maya Ruins. Caracol was one of their larger cities, with a 5 mile radius of the site, 35,000 structures, and an estimated population of 200,000! Visiting the site and seeing the ruins, along with the beautiful Cotton Trees (pictured below with large above-surface root systems called Buttress Roots) was so awesome!
In addition to the ruins of Caracol, we arrived at Las Cuevas Research Station (our home for the next week) and had our inaugural hike! This was a short hike along the Mayan Trail, where there was no shortage of diverse ants! I saw some stray ants on leaves and the ground, but the real excitement came early on: we saw army ants! They were marching along the path, and marching back the other direction with objects they to bring back to their bivouac, a temporary colony home (as opposed to a traditional ant colony) that is in place for only one reproductive cycle. After the cycle, the entire colony will move to a new place with new forage-ables. When we moved on, after a lull in ant-spotting, we came upon a Bull’s Horn Acacia tree. I know what you’re thinking: what does a tree matter to the ant man? Well, this tree has a secret (unless you disturb it, then it is not a secret.) The tree is protected by ants through a symbiotic relationship! The tree provides shelter in its hollow thorns to the colony, while also providing both carbohydrates and protein, making a full meal. The ants never have to leave! Their rent? Protection. If someone even messes with the tree, the ants will attack that individual (person, animal, rock maybe?) So, for just a 30 minute jaunt in the woods, there was a pretty great amount of ant-stuff to see!
Images:
Cotton Tree
Caracol Ruins
Bull’s Horn Acaciaarmy ants,
Maya Trail Sign
Army ants marching
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Day 1: First impressions of Belize

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This was the first day in Belize! We landed around 11:30 and, after about an hour going through customs and getting our bags, were on our way.  Even after our flight, most of our day today was travel, but that didn’t stop us from seeing some of Belize’s awesome biodiversity. It was especially good for me because my rainforest taxon was trees, which were plentiful and immediately visible outside the car window once we landed. It was immediately so green, even right outside of the airport. After we stopped for lunch, I was able to get my taxon ID sheet and better identify the species I was seeing outside the window of the van. We ended our day at the Crystal Paradise Ecolodge, where I was able to spend some time attempting to identify the species we saw.

A river with lush forests lining both banks.
The view from the van, lush and full of trees

Two particular families of trees stood out to me and were extremely common. One of them was palm trees—there were many more than I was expecting to see. I talked with Dr. Solomon about why that might be, and he noted that it might be due to the fact that palms are able to colonize disturbed areas, so they might live in regions closer to towns and cities. When I was doing my research, I focused more on the types of families you would expect to see in the rainforest, so  while we’re near towns it makes sense that we would see different types of trees. Unfortunately, they were not highlighted in my taxon briefing presentation. There will be opportunities to see the species I highlighted in the coming days, though.

Α palm tree stands among several other trees.
A palm tree at the Crystal Paradise Ecolodge

Some final interesting things I noted on our ride were several different types of tree management regimes. These included measures to protect trees from pests, like painting the bases white, as well as some tree farms or commercial tree-growing operations. Overall, I was able to make some solid initial observations of trees. I expect these will be slightly different from the trees I’ll see outside Las Cuevas Research Station in the coming week, and I’m excited to see what’s in store!

 

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Leaping lizards!

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As I am writing this, my lower back hurts and my neck is sore, but I feel great! My day began at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM, but I guess I better get used to it.  I had never flown internationally before, so it was really cool to get my first stamp in my passport.

My rainforest taxon is Lepidoptera, so I have been keeping my eyes peeled for butterflies and moths. I saw one of each today! Both of them were too speedy for me to get a good look at them, but I will be more prepared next time. The butterfly was HUGE and dark colored. We saw it during the day when we stopped for lunch. The moth was much smaller, and we saw it at night during the presentations. I present my taxon tomorrow, and I am a little nervous that someone will ask me a question I am not prepared for, but I am also excited because I really like my taxon. My goal for the trip is to see– and hopefully catch a blue morpho, which is a very recognizable species, known to locals as a symbol of healing or luck.

Besides my taxon, today, we stopped for lunch at the most lovely restaurant. It was so peaceful eating outside in the rainforest, and the weather wasn’t too bad. Here, we saw giant iguanas in the trees. I wouldn’t have noticed them at first, because all I could see at first was big blurs falling from the trees into the small lake below. In the photo below, you can see one iguana hiding in the trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a lovely drive, we arrived at our destination: Crystal Paradise Resort. This place is BEAUTIFUL and the family that runs it is so nice. We all went for a walk down to the river to explore a bit before it got dark, as you can see in the picture below. Two dogs kept following us everywhere– it was adorable! They said that this small hike was just a warm-up for what’s coming, so I’m a bit nervous, but also excited to explore more.

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Day one – Ants, Arkansas, and Awesomeness!

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What a great first day we had! Waking up at 4:30 was rough, but if it meant getting to the beautiful Crystal Paradise Ecolodge and embarking upon these amazing two weeks, it was worth it. We had a great day of travel, beginning dark and early (earlier than bright and early) at ABL, heading to IAH, then Belize City, then the 2-hour ride to the Ecolodge, with stops at Cheers Restaurant for lunch and a supermarket for last-minute supplies before heading off into the tropical rainforest tomorrow (among a swimming stop and ruins of the Mayan city Caracol, one of their largest cities!) The travel day, while exhausting, was great. I was excited to meet/ get to know everyone better, and I can’t wait for these next two EEPS with his group! We also met another class group from a University in Arkansas staying at the Ecolodge, so that was fun to meet and chat with a couple of them.

Ok, Ant-man suit on, I was skeptical of my ability to see ants today. I was wrong entirely! I saw some unidentifieable ones crawling along a pipe at the Cheers Resataurant (where we had lunch on the way to the Ecolodge from the airport.) When I couldn’t pick them out, I was discouraged, but luckily Dr. Solomon brought some tools to make identification easier when we get to Las Cuevas Research Station tomorrow for the week. At the Ecolodge, I was lucky enough to find ants on two occasions, despite being outside for not too long: first, I saw leaf cutter ants transporting their leaf cuttings to their fungal gardens (did not see their garden though 😔) and second, I saw ants making a little highway along the trail from the Ecolodge to the Macal River. I wonder if they trampled down that whole path. Both of these instances are pictured (in not so high quality) and attached below. Here’s to another day of fun, friends, and ants!

Sam Forman

2025

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Day 15: Pilot Dad Part II

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We had breakfast half an hour early this morning so we could leave Glover’s to head home. The cooks were super nice and besides making amazing food earlier than normal, they made us this delicious cinnamon cake to take on the way.

We got on the boat and left with all our stuff by 7. Our first stop was Carrie Bow Cay, a small island that has a field station run by the Smithsonian. We found a few Caribbean hermit crabs while there. There was a team of scientists there from Nova University. They were studying how staghorn and elkhorn coral hybrids are more resistant to heat. The professor who was there, Nicky Fogarty, talked to us about how she got permission to do research on the island and what changes she’d seen in the coral over the past few years (surprisingly not many) and then showed us the corals her team was testing. It was really cool to see another research station as well as some “actual scientist” studying reefs.

Our next stop was the mangroves of Twin Caye. We got out of our boat and snorkeled around for about thirty minutes. At first, it seemed like the mangroves didn’t have much going on besides algae, fire sponges, and small silver fish, but as we swam along the edge of the mangrove forest, I began to notice more and more colorful fish like we’d been seeing in the reef. The mangroves act as a nursery for some young fish. They’re a great place to hide out, grow, and avoid predators. The benthos around the mangroves was super mucky and full of dead leaves and algae, which makes both good material to hide among and good food.

After the mangroves, we rode the rest of the way back to Belize city. I took a long nap on the boat ride back which was nice, finally catching up on a little sleep. We ate lunch at a place called Calypso at the dock and then headed to the airport.

As we were walking out to the airplane that was taking us home, I was saying “I don’t think my dad is flying us home, but I’ve got this feeling in my gut…” I looked up at the cockpit and saw one of the pilots smiling and waving at me. I didn’t recognize him though, but as we walked past the first door, heading to the back door where everyone was loading into the plane, I saw my dad excitedly waving from just outside the cockpit. I smiled big at him as I got on the plane. One of the flight attendants came to say hi to me and tell me they’d been hearing all about me since they left Houston. My dad made an announcement about bringing us home on the speakers before the flight left. The weirdest part about the flight was not being near everyone else and hearing the constant banter, time to merge back into my normal culture I suppose.

When we got out of customs we all hugged and took pictures and said goodbye before heading our separate ways to get home. My dad and I flew back to Dallas and I finally got to sleep in my own bed again. I had a great Belizean adventure, made great friends, and learned a ton about field research. It was a great time and an experience I’m going to remember forever.