Friday: Research Station

It’s really been an excellent week with lots of activities outside the office.  Today I went to visit the Las Cuevas research station, which houses scientists working on protecting the biodiversity of the Chiquibul Forest.  It’s run by an organisation with whom we’re also working on the project we launched this week.

It was a long 3 hour journey to get to the station, a large part of it on muddy tracks.  Once we arrived, we were taken for a hike to a bird watching tower so we could see the forest from above.

I’ve added a couple of extras:

- hanging nests built by Montezuma Oropendola birds
- a ‘give and take’ tree.  So called because the spikes can be very nasty but the tree also produces the sap to counter the effects.  You had to be careful not to touch the trees as there is also a lot of black poisonwood in the forest
- the Chiquibul Forest on the border with Guatemala.