Mayan Ruins! - Trip Day 7

A jungle lie in today as our museum tour wasn't until 9.30 but I woke up at 5am just like every other day of the trip. I didn't mind though, it keeps me closer to UK time. Vanessa gave us a tour of the museum talking mostly about the Mayans and their temples. At 11am we set off in mini buses to the Mayan ruins of Calakmul. It was the most interesting thing I have ever seen in person. We climbed all the way to the top of structure 1 which was very steep and then to the top of structure 2 which was even steeper. By this time I was covered in sweat and smelt like a skunk but still we went up another structure which to me felt even taller than the last ones. At the top there was a swarm of dragonflies. It was beautiful but of course couldn't get them to stay still to catch a good photo. (see below)

 

 

We saw the Mayan king's house but weren't allowed in because they were excavating something. We had our lunch in the carpark. It was mole (anyone know how to put an accent onto a letter?) chilli and chocolate with chicken and rice and more hibiscus water. We left the ruins at about 4.10 pm (very specific) and took about an hour to get home and by the time we did the showers had a queue. 25
people trying to get in 2 showers. I waited until after our second lot of herpetofauna surveys so I wouldn't go to bed smelling.

We were sitting in the lecture room when the science team came in to watch a movie and since the only plugs were in this room I gathered they needed some power for the laptop. Dinner was shell shaped pasta with veggie chunks and pineapple juice. John asked me how the food was. Which was very nice, then translated it to the cook lady from the village who smiled back at me and said thank you. Some of us chatted for a bit and some played cards to pass the time before the herps.

We left around 8pm in the back of the truck to KM27. Unfortunately we didn't get any snakes but we did get some frogs. A couple really big ones and a couple really, really small. We got to the end of the transect and headed back to the truck to go jungle cruising to find random animals. We got to about KM35 and turned around to come back to camp. We had a few emergency stops because Ettiene was seeing snakes in the road. He jumped out only to find it to be a trick. It was funny. The only thing we definitely saw was a tarantula. It was a biter but Ettiene decided to pick it up anyway. We really weren't that keen but he obviously was! We got back to camp around 11pm, the latest I'd been up since we arrived at camp.  I couldn't be bothered to shower at that time of night so I wet wiped it!

Toodles for now.

Lazy Day - Trip Day 6

I woke up to a high pitched noise but the rain from last night had finally stopped. It's the 1st of August and our first activity was herpetofauna surveys on transects 1 and 2 using pitfall traps. We didn't have any herps but there were a few spiders in one of the pitfall traps. Eww.

 

 

It was probably the hottest day of the week so far since I was sweating buckets and smelling of crap after only an hour. We had some time before the next lecture so I went and got some Pringles. The lecture we had lasted just over an hour in the steamy hot lecture room/dining room and I honestly kept falling asleep. I don't even remember what this lecture was about. Oops. We had another break before lunch so I sat in the museum on the sofa for a while because even though it is still hot in there, it is slightly cooler than anywhere else.

Lunch today was lentil soup and hibiscus water. I had a completely free afternoon so I just hung out in a hammock in the science room and read my book whilst waiting for dinner. Egg fried rice with carrot bits mixed in with what Hannah called 'still lemonade'. Purely just lemon juice.

 

We were supposed to be going to do a bat project but it had been raining and bats can die from the cold so that was postponed. I went for a shower in the dark with spiders and a huge butterfly instead. Bit of a lazy day for me this one but should pick up tomorrow.

 

Toodles for now.

Trip Day 5

Up at 5 for another session of birds. This one was at a place they called KM27 so we had to take a truck ride. Mexico: the place where health and safety seemed to be out the window and I find myself sitting in the back of a pickup truck.

This session of birds was more successful than the last. We had 2 hummingbirds, a pygmy kingfisher and a yellow breasted tanager. There was a 5th bird in the mist net but managed to untangle itself just before we got to it. All I got was that it was red. I released the tanager back into the sky unharmed of course. For part of the Operation Wallacea research we needed to take measurements of the birds wings, beak and body.

 

 

On the way back from the bird surveys the truck had metal railings around the bed so we were able to stand up. Although you do have to watch out for any branches hanging low!

 

 

Lunch today was rice, beans and plantain and our second lecture. This time about reptiles and amphibians. I found out that slow worms have legs! Small ones but still legs. I never knew that.

 

4 o'clock was a trip down the road to transect 4 to measure some trees and to do a touch pole experiment. A touch pole experiment means you put a pole vertically every 2 metres in a 20 mete square plot and see how many points of a plant touches it. Trying to walk through a very dense forest with a pole and  cobwebs everywhere was a mission alone. After that we went on a 1km walk to try to find peccaries again. We were unsuccessful but did find a tarantula nest. I know the best thing to find ever! Luckily no tarantulas came out of it no matter how much Natalia tried to make them.

 

Dinner arrived later than expected tonight but when it did arrive, the swarm of people that ran towards the kitchen was crazy! It was like no one had eaten all week. Pasta and veg with iced tea.

 

 

We had an evening lecture on neotropical mammals with Kathy - the expert on spider monkeys. She was making a joke about how they hug each other just to get favours. A nice torrential downpour, which they haven't had in weeks so they were loving it and off to bed.

 

Toodles for now.



First proper day of the expedition - Trip Day 4

7 am start with cornflakes and powdered milk and mammal transect lines, looking for tracks. Our team leader for this activity was Natalia from Ecuador. She was a genius because she was finding tracks everywhere when I couldn't find a thing. She pointed to indents in the leaves where an animal had trod and the faint footprint underneath, another indent where a red rocket deer had been laying and on our way back we saw a group of about 6 or 7 peccaries. One even came towards us until Natalia shooed it off.

At 11.30 we learnt some jungle skills with John the Australian. It lasted 2 hours with a detailed discussion on how to survive if your plane crashed in the middle of a jungle and some knot tying.

Lunch today was chicken soup with rice and mango juice. Definitely much better than I was expecting. Since it's a conservation trip. we were here to learn as well as help in the projects. We had a lecture about the Calakmul area that we were in. At 3.30 I was in the bird group with Tiffany the Canadian and Enrique the Mexican who knows what any bird is just from hearing its call. Unfortunately we had no birds in the mist net this afternoon. They were probably put off by the thunder going on around us.  We'll have to come back.

I had a shower in daylight today which was much easier than the dark. The shower was in a little cubicle. And dinner was those beans and mashed potato with hibiscus water. I am starting to sense a theme with those beans and also I now know I like to drink flower juice!

Toodles for now.

Journey to Calakmul - Trip Day 3

Day 3 of the trip began at 5am to have breakfast and be packed and ready for the coach at 5.45. The hotel made us packed lunches with ham, cheese, lettuce and mayo sandwiches (which tasted pretty disgusting actually), a banana, a water bottle and a mango juice carton. Our journey on the coach was approximately 7 hours with a stop at the dive centre to pick up a guy named ross then a stop at a random shop in the middle of nowhere to grab a snack and to drop ross onto another coach which had people going the other way. They had just had their first week in Calakmul and were moving onto the second half of the trip. They were all saying how amazing it was.

 

KM20 was the name of the camp we were on our way to. We put our bags in one little room and had a tour of the facilities, got our tent allocations and our first lunch at the camp. All the food is prepared by a local village. It was beans but not the Heinz baked kind, some brown version that had a weird texture and weren't as tasty. It came with chicken and pure melon juice. Much better than I was expecting for a camp in the middle of nowhere.

We had a relaxing afternoon with my first trip to the loo. It had one section for your pee and another which basically was just a hole for number 2's. It'll take time to get used to but the paper goes in a bucket in front of you not down the hole. (It took just as long after I got home to get used to not putting the paper in the bucket because my bathroom at home has the bin in the same place as the bucket was in Mexico! Some awkward moments happened there!). The 'door' to the loos was a tarp. The team leader, whilst on our tour, demonstrated how to enter like Indiana Jones with the disinfectant to keep the stench down.

Dinner from the village was more brown beans and spicy scrambled egg with lemon juice (I'm sure you are loving the dinner chat right after a loo chat aren't you?) And that was followed by a shower in the dark. Not the most pleasant or easy thing to do.

Toodles for now.

Cancun, Mexico - Trip Day 2

If you haven't seen my last post I found my diary from back in 2013 when I did a conservation trip to Mexico and I decided to relive it and share it with you at the same time. I'm also trying to find all the photos too, currently not on my present laptop.

Day 2: Cancun, Mexico.
After a really hot night I managed to find the air con switch and after that it was lovely and cool. We were told the night before that we were to be outside by 9am and since I was still on UK time I was out way before that. I made the most of it and sat out in the sun. It was already getting hot. Although we were told to be out by 9, the guy who said that was no where to be seen until way after that himself.

Breakfast was watermelon, grapefruit, bread and jam and muffins! Still so weird to me that people eat those for breakfast. It was so good. We got ready and headed to the beach which didn't take long as it was only a 2 minute walk away. White sandy beaches with perfectly clear blue sea. Paradise. Of course I went for a swim. A short one as it was very choppy, but swimming none the less. We decided to go back to the hotel (before we were a burnt crisp) via Exxo - the Tesco of Mexico, they're everywhere! - for a refreshing bottle of freezing cold water. It was heaven in a bottle. We spent the afternoon on sun lounger at our hotel under a gazebo because being burnt whilst carrying a heavy rucksack just didn't seem at all fun. One person didn't think the same though. I thought I saw a lobster in the middle of our hotel.

Dinner was a restaurant ten minutes down the street to a local Mexican place. I had chicken enchiladas and a number 9 juice of strawberries, pineapple and orange. Seriously there was about 30 different flavours and it was huge! The food was delicious.

And after our very busy day (don't worry the sarcasm follows me everywhere! There's plenty more where that comes from) we went back to our hotel for bed. Tomorrow is down to business. The expedition begins.

Toodles for now.

Rewind to 2013 - Trip Day 1

I have a special treat for you guys for the next couple weeks. I have found my diary from when I went on a conservation trip to Mexico July/August 2013. I thought as I go down memory lane whilst reading it I shall let you read what my 17 year old self got up to whilst being 5000 miles from home. So here goes:

Day 1:
We left home at 3am after a couple of pictures of me in my clothes and rucksack on my back. The ferry at 4 arrived and I said goodbye to my family. The journey across the Solent went rather slowly but as soon as we landed in Portsmouth, we walked around and waited for the bus. 5.20 am the National Express coach arrived. Rucksacks went in the hold and I found a seat by the window. Southampton seemed huge. Felt like we were driving through it for ages but at least the seats were comfy. At Southampton University a guy got on and sat next to me. He was on the way to Heathrow Terminal 1. (I was being nosy) We got off at Heathrow terminal 3 after leaving half the group at terminal 5 since they were getting a different flight. The machine to get boarding passes wasn't working so we had to queue for check-in. A lady asked what electronics were in my hand luggage and for some reason stuck a sticker on the back of my passport. (Still to this day, 7th October 2017, I have no idea what that was for). The check-in guy gave us our boarding passes and name tags to put onto the rucksacks and sent them away on the escalator. Mine weighed 10.4kgs.

We made our way through the airport via WHSmith's for snacks. I had a prawn sandwich, a twirl, wine gums and a Ribena. We then went to our gate, ready to board the plane. I collected some free reading material and we took of on our flight around 11am. The plane ride was really good and for the 7 hour flight, the entertainment was great. I took interest in 'The Amazing Spiderman', 'Admission' and I did start 'The Impossible' but remembered I had seen it before and knew I cried. I did not want to be a sobbing mess on a plane. I put on some music and the first song that came on was 'Home' by Philip Philips which didn't help when I was travelling 5000 miles away for the next 17 days.

We landed in JFK airport with plenty of time for our next flight to Cancun. At the security gate, a 100% American was giving me a lecture on how to enter someone's office politely whilst he took my photograph and fingerprints. Didn't have to collect and check our bags again since we were on a connecting flight the bags automatically made their way to my next plane. We had to pass through some more security where I had to stand in a cylindrical machine with my arm up, feet apart.

Once on our flight, my seat happened to be in between two of our chaperones who also happened to be married to each other so I switched with one and got myself a window seat. No personal entertainment on this flight but a TV situated every 10 rows or so had some Matt Damon film playing.

It was dark by the time we landed in Cancun. Since being in London we were used to the air conditioning systems the airports had so the moment the automatic doors opened to Cancun, we were hit with 100% humidity. We arrived at our hotel for the next 2 nights around 11pm. It had been a long day but it will be worth it.

Manuel a member of Operation Wallacea met us at our hotel to get us sorted. We were give room keys and bracelets so we get breakfast!

Operation Wallacea - Named after the Wallacea region in Indonesia where a guy named Wallace discovered evolution around the same time as Darwin. Wallacea was where the first expedition began.



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That is day 1 of my Mexican expedition. I promise not every day is as long as this one but stick around for more about the trip.

Toodles for now.

Post Birthday Weekend

I had an amazing time up in London for my birthday. Shout out to my aunt for letting me crash at her house! Thank you! I was surprised with a cake and a candle when I arrived and also a candle in my dessert and happy birthday singing at the restaurant they took me too. It was fabulous.

If you didn't read my last post and have no idea why I went to London, it was for the NFL London Games. I went and saw the Saints vs the Dolphins play at Wembley Stadium and since I am a Seahawks fan usually, I chose to support the Saints. Mainly because their jersey colours are better than the dolphins clashy colours and luckily Saints won so it wasn't at all awkward next to the Dolphins fans which were pretty much the majority of the stadium.

For one weekend out of the four games there was a NFL tailgate thingy at Regent Street in London and as it happened it was on the weekend I was going up. I met Sam Madison. He played for the Dolphins for 9 seasons and also won the Superbowl with the Giants. Those rings look good up close! Twan Russell and Troy Drayton were also there doing some entertainment and explaining the rules to those who weren't sure.

 



 

The game itself wasn't a big scoring game at 20-0 but with the amount of penalties going around it kept it interesting.

This game was the first time I wasn't right in the far back of the seats. I bought myself a ticket for the middle section of seats and for one, the food options were better and more of them, I had a padded seat and a cup holder! Exciting stuff I know. I got chatting to one woman. Her husband happened to be one of the officials for the game. I asked where she was from and when she replied with Birmingham, Alabama in her American accent I said back, ROLL TIDE. She looked at me and said 'No, I support the other Alabama team.' Oops on my part but in my defence I had forgotten about Auburn. She told me she had been to the Superbowl a couples years ago where the Seahawks lost to the Patriots and I'm glad we were both in agreement that Lynch should've run the ball.

 

I had an awesome time. There is always the best atmosphere at an NFL game and I cannot wait for the next one! It's sooner than you think. ;)

 

Toodles for now.