No new birdies this week. No real news either, except that Jack has begun hisher molt. Last year heshe molted in August... perhaps because that was hisher first year? Who knows. Nobody knows. We are pioneers in neotropical bird rehabilitation. Fantastic.
My sister left this morning to return to South Korea with a short stop in the States. Yesterday was a rough day (oh, hello mini-meltdown) for me and I'm pretty sure her subsequent departure undoubtedly added to it. Some of you know what I have to go through down here so you understand where the stress and feeling of helplessness comes from. The others of you who don't know... well, you'll just have to wonder because I won't broadcast these sorts of things on the internet. All jobs have their frustrations, I suppose. Must stay positive and not give up!
Fortunately, we were able to do a lot of things while my sister was here. Not as many as I had hoped, but that's how it goes when you're the only one working a rehabilitation center. We went into town a few times, to Cahal Pech, to Spanish Lookout (Western Dairies' soursop ice cream is a let down, by the way), swimming in the Mopan (and fail fishing), to see Orange-breasted Falcons at the sink holes, browse collecting in the middle of nowhere and at Branch Mouth, and to the ATM Cave. Hopefully it wasn't too exhausting of a vacation for her! On a side note, my tolerance for rum has increased exponentially due to somebody wanting piña coladas, watermelon daiquiris, mango daiquiris, etc etc etc etc. I had nothing to do with this.
One of the highlights of the trip was on Friday when we headed off to the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave located in the Maya Mountains at 8:00 AM. I think I've mentioned the Maya Mountains in some of my previous posts. They were once coral reefs when Belize was under water so now they are mostly limestone. Limestone = caves. Caves hold a huge significance in the Mayan culture - they are the dwellings of the gods. Because of this, many sacrifices (objects and people) were made in the caves; people were killed and pottery was broken (into multiple fragments or with a small piece removed) in order to release the spirit. And now that you know a brief history... we were driven to Teakettle Village and went through part of the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve (sadly, no tapirs were seen). The road was quite bumpy and we ended up driving through a stream in order to get to the cave. After parking, we hiked for about 45 minutes. We crossed / waded through three streams on the way in and it was a relatively easy hike, albeit slightly rushed with no time for birding. We did minimal research before going on the tour but we did read that the
difficulty was described as "challenging". The hike in left something to be desired in the "challenging" category and we figured the entire tour would be similar... oh boy, were we wrong. We arrived at the entrance of the cave (left - matching outfits not intentional) and our tour guide gave us a fairly lengthy history lesson while we waited to have enough distance between us and the previous groups. The entrance consisted some slippery rocks and a nice plunge into freezing (understatement) cold water for a swim to the bank inside the cave. My caving / spelunking experience is minimal and I've only been in smaller caves... it's a bit difficult to put into words how amazing this experience was. If you're ever in Belize and are able to climb up slippery, wet rocks, squeeze through tight spaces, and swim in a cave with only headlamps to light the way, I would definitely recommend doing the ATM Cave tour with Pacz tours. After wading / swimming for a bit, we came to some small statues and a lot of pottery. All throughout the hike, there were innumerable multi-colored stalactites, stalagmites, and diamond-like quartz. We eventually climbed our way up some precarious rocks to a main cavern with an altar, a ton of sacrificial pottery, and a few bones. We proceeded to climb up a very wobbly ladder to a small chamber that housed a small boy, thought to have been placed kneeling and facing the wall. There was also the only full skeletal remains of a woman aged 18-22. The water levels, which are visible by the water lines inside the cave, fluctuate depending on rain. Quartz is on the entire skeleton, except for a very small portion on the top of the skull, which has earned her the name "Crystal Maiden". I took a ton of pictures, a few of which I uploaded to Facebook. Pictures don't quite do it justice. But really, pictures don't do any of this country justice. You'll just have to come see for your self! I'll be here until January. Tempted?
This week will be spent recovering from late nights and getting together some information for the Agricultural Show. It's going to be held in Belmopan next weekend so if you happen to be in Belize, stop by and say hello! Thousands of people should be there so it'll be a great opportunity to spread awareness and to educate.
Now I just have to wait two more months until Alison comes to be the Assistant ACM! I can do this.
No comments:
Post a Comment