July 16, 2003 • Tropical Ecology Institute • NC Museum of Natural Sciences

During our morning bird watching we spotted many interesting things including spider lilies, sensitive mimosa and sphinx caterpillars. We did see a couple of parakeets fly overhead which made our bird watching a success.

After a breakfast of refried beans, scrambled eggs, ham, fresh fruit and fry jacks (deep fried tortilla dough), we headed to see Xunantunich (Soo-Nan-Too-Neech) – an ancient Mayan Temple. Our bus had to stop at the Mopan River and we took a hand-cranked ferry to the other side. Our hike to the top of the temple was stomach-wrenching and toe-tingling. The view was magnificent! After lunch at Chaa Creek it was off to a relaxing three-hour paddle down the Macal River. We saw iguanas, cormorants, long-nosed bats, damselflies and the national bird– a keel-billed toucan! Our mission to collect figs for tonight's activity resulted in some pretty heavy competition. To top it off we just spotted two more toucans outside of the lodge. They are beautifully tropical. All in a day's work and it is not even over yet!