Rachel taking notes at orientation
Kelsi and Vladamir hiking 'medicinal trail'
Kimo and Vladamir having a logistics pow-wow 
Daniel Velazquez creating a video diary of the course
Emil Gamez, our star guide. (You may have seen him on Discovery, History or Travel channels 'for real!")
La Milpa dorms (with hot water showers, ahhhh)
Cassidi viewing Black Howler MonkeysHere are a few messages from students about their first 2 days in Belize...
RACHEL: Well folks, we’ve made it… you betta belize it.
Yesterday we arrived in the airport of Belize where we successfully made it through the greeting checkpoint and the customs counter. We were then greeted by Kimo, Kristi, Emil and Daniel and we packed our bags, got into a lovely air conditioned bus-esque vehicle and rode our way to Orange Walk (1.5 hours). We stopped in Orange Walk to get gas and purchase a last minute chocolate bar or two. We then continued on our voyage to the La Milpa Field Station (1.5 hours). Vladimir found us and much to our relief let us go unpack our bags into our rooms and then eat! The dormitories are rooms with two bunk beds and a loft. We had a brief introduction to the camp, ate, and then went to bed.
At the ripe hour of 5:45am we all arose to go on a bird walk. We observed an Oscillated Turkey, Keel Bill Toucan, White-Collared Sead-Eater, Roadside Hawk, Red-Headed Turkey Vultures, many types of hummingbirds, all the while hearing a howling in the distance… the Black Howler Monkeys. Much to our enjoyment we got to venture in their direction. We saw 3 adult Howlers and one of them was carrying the baby. It was an amazing sight to see and we’ll try to post pictures for you all soon!!
After our bird walk we were given a delicious breakfast of eggs, cheese, tortas, a slice of salami and fresh fruit. The condiment of choice here in Belize is Marie Sharp’s Hot Habanero Pepper Sauce. It’s addicting and delicious!
Our next adventure of the day was touring the local hiking trails that introduced our group to three types of forest so that our special project groups could decide where they wanted to conduct their study. Prior to embarking into the forests Vladimir told us a bit about the program here, Programme for Belize. It is a non-profit organization, has been working in this area for 22 years, and hosts over 460,000 acres of protected land. The hikes we went on were brief introductions to the Cohune Forest, the Medicinal Trail (which is a young forest that then segways into an older forest), and the Bajo Forest (which has a 4-6 foot layer of clay beneath the surface). All three forests provided us with an excellent taste of what the area was like. We transitioned from our hikes into a lecture about our experiments, ate lunch and then began our projects!!
The groups are conducting field experiments that include mist netting birds, sampling avian blood for the presence of malaria as well as checking mosquitoes for malaria as well, and assessing insect herbivore damage. All groups found their sites and hit the ground running.
The bird groups set up mist nets and caught an astounding amount of two birds, Greenish Elania and the Stub-Tailed Spay Bill… but there is much promise for the 4am mist netting tomorrow! The plant group set up their line transects and started sampling plant damage along the outer edge of the forest.
After a LONG day of work, this group ate some delicious food for dinner and joined a guide for a night tour of one of the trials. The night trail allowed us to hear the wildlife in the forests and see some of the bioluminescent plants in the area.
All in all, we’re having an amazing time. Very limited bug bites to date. Going to be out in the field tomorrow… keep you’re fingers crossed we catch lots and lots of birds!!!
SHOUT OUTS:
Estrella “Star” Yglecias: Hi mom, dad, cristal and Rayne..I miss you guys, having a really great time. I MISS YOU, AND LOVE YOU VERY MUCH RAYNE. See you guys in 11 days.
Vicki St. Clair: Hi guys. I hope you don’t miss me too much. It is so beautiful here, I am having a blast. Tell nana I love her and I hope she is feeling better. I love you and I miss you. See you soon.
Joni Loyd: Hey Everyone! It so beautiful down here, even the weather! Believe it or not, I’m not sunburned! :] Hey mom, would you post the blog web address on my fb wall, I may have forgotten to tell my friends about it! Oops! Thank you everyone who has been praying for my safety on this trip. I feel it! My knee is doing alright and I’m diligently doing my exercises and icing my injury. I love you mom, dad and ber and all my extended and adopted families. See you guys soon, although I’m in no rush to go back!
Rachel Judge: mom and dad i miss you tons. mom, i realized we talk on the phone 20 times a day sometimes and i have been wanting to call you after everything cool. love you guys and miss you tons. hope you’re feeling better, dad and are well on your way to recovery for our own central american adventures!! Xo
RACHEL: Well folks, we’ve made it… you betta belize it.
Yesterday we arrived in the airport of Belize where we successfully made it through the greeting checkpoint and the customs counter. We were then greeted by Kimo, Kristi, Emil and Daniel and we packed our bags, got into a lovely air conditioned bus-esque vehicle and rode our way to Orange Walk (1.5 hours). We stopped in Orange Walk to get gas and purchase a last minute chocolate bar or two. We then continued on our voyage to the La Milpa Field Station (1.5 hours). Vladimir found us and much to our relief let us go unpack our bags into our rooms and then eat! The dormitories are rooms with two bunk beds and a loft. We had a brief introduction to the camp, ate, and then went to bed.
At the ripe hour of 5:45am we all arose to go on a bird walk. We observed an Oscillated Turkey, Keel Bill Toucan, White-Collared Sead-Eater, Roadside Hawk, Red-Headed Turkey Vultures, many types of hummingbirds, all the while hearing a howling in the distance… the Black Howler Monkeys. Much to our enjoyment we got to venture in their direction. We saw 3 adult Howlers and one of them was carrying the baby. It was an amazing sight to see and we’ll try to post pictures for you all soon!!
After our bird walk we were given a delicious breakfast of eggs, cheese, tortas, a slice of salami and fresh fruit. The condiment of choice here in Belize is Marie Sharp’s Hot Habanero Pepper Sauce. It’s addicting and delicious!
Our next adventure of the day was touring the local hiking trails that introduced our group to three types of forest so that our special project groups could decide where they wanted to conduct their study. Prior to embarking into the forests Vladimir told us a bit about the program here, Programme for Belize. It is a non-profit organization, has been working in this area for 22 years, and hosts over 460,000 acres of protected land. The hikes we went on were brief introductions to the Cohune Forest, the Medicinal Trail (which is a young forest that then segways into an older forest), and the Bajo Forest (which has a 4-6 foot layer of clay beneath the surface). All three forests provided us with an excellent taste of what the area was like. We transitioned from our hikes into a lecture about our experiments, ate lunch and then began our projects!!
The groups are conducting field experiments that include mist netting birds, sampling avian blood for the presence of malaria as well as checking mosquitoes for malaria as well, and assessing insect herbivore damage. All groups found their sites and hit the ground running.
The bird groups set up mist nets and caught an astounding amount of two birds, Greenish Elania and the Stub-Tailed Spay Bill… but there is much promise for the 4am mist netting tomorrow! The plant group set up their line transects and started sampling plant damage along the outer edge of the forest.
After a LONG day of work, this group ate some delicious food for dinner and joined a guide for a night tour of one of the trials. The night trail allowed us to hear the wildlife in the forests and see some of the bioluminescent plants in the area.
All in all, we’re having an amazing time. Very limited bug bites to date. Going to be out in the field tomorrow… keep you’re fingers crossed we catch lots and lots of birds!!!
SHOUT OUTS:
Estrella “Star” Yglecias: Hi mom, dad, cristal and Rayne..I miss you guys, having a really great time. I MISS YOU, AND LOVE YOU VERY MUCH RAYNE. See you guys in 11 days.
Vicki St. Clair: Hi guys. I hope you don’t miss me too much. It is so beautiful here, I am having a blast. Tell nana I love her and I hope she is feeling better. I love you and I miss you. See you soon.
Joni Loyd: Hey Everyone! It so beautiful down here, even the weather! Believe it or not, I’m not sunburned! :] Hey mom, would you post the blog web address on my fb wall, I may have forgotten to tell my friends about it! Oops! Thank you everyone who has been praying for my safety on this trip. I feel it! My knee is doing alright and I’m diligently doing my exercises and icing my injury. I love you mom, dad and ber and all my extended and adopted families. See you guys soon, although I’m in no rush to go back!
Rachel Judge: mom and dad i miss you tons. mom, i realized we talk on the phone 20 times a day sometimes and i have been wanting to call you after everything cool. love you guys and miss you tons. hope you’re feeling better, dad and are well on your way to recovery for our own central american adventures!! Xo
Hi NMSU students! It looks like you are all having a great time! We will be following your progress and looking for pictures and accounts of you activities every day. Rachel, the NY branch of the family is following you, too. :-)
ReplyDeleteTake lots of pictures and enjoy every minute. Dad is doing better and we both miss you very much. Can't wait to see tomorrow's update.
Love, Mom and Dad xoxoxoxoxoxoo