Hey y’all!

Today was practically three adventures in one! We woke up bright and early at the Crystal Paradise Ecolodge to watch for the beautiful birds that call the area home. Some of the birds I saw were a hummingbird, a Social Flycatcher, and this fellow I still can’t identify!

We then travelled to the Chiquibul National Park and visited the amazing Maya ruins of Caracol! After walking amongst the ruins of former homes, we climbed to the very top of Caana, the Sky Palace,  which is the tallest building in Belize! The name was very fitting because I felt like I was ono top of the world!

The entire time, I was finding so many spiders, but the coolest had to be the one we saw on Caana: The Yuca Red Rump Tarantula! One of our tour guides had spotted the den (located above the tomb of a Maya Queen) and was lured it entirely out of its den for all of us to see! She was beautiful and I am so stoked we got to find her, much less that I got an idea for how to bring a tarantula out of its den for my special project!

We got to Las Cuevas this evening and made our first foray into the rainforest down Maya Path as there are multiple Maya buildings amidst the plants–not to mention a tiny Tiger Bromeliad Spider that was darting beneath leaves on the path! It was really cool to get an idea of just how much of a mark the ancient Maya left on the Peninsula and learn about their history!

Looking forward to the adventures in store for the nest few days!

Serenity