Bats and Ruins

Stepping into the Yucatan jungle for the first time was humbling to say the very least, with the humidity being more intense than I ever could’ve imagined. The horseflies eating all of us alive didn’t exactly help, and my excitement began to dwindle as the jet-lag and homesickness started to kick in over the course of day one. Despite this, I began to get used to the heat pretty quickly (although the horseflies NEVER seemed to get any easier to deal with) and by day two we’d all settled in pretty well as we began to do surveys in and around camp.

Photo by Erin Cubitt

Although all of the surveys have been pretty amazing, my favourite so far has definitely been the bat survey. We left camp at 7pm to set up the traps and checked them in 30 minute intervals, and we found four bats in total: a pygmy fruit-eating bat (Artibeus toltecs), two common mustached bats (P. parnellii) and a very cute common long-tongued bat (Glossophaga soricina). We stayed out for quite a while, and being able to lay back and watch fireflies pass over our heads as we waited to check for bats was such a cool experience. Our group also found a mottled owl (Strix vergata)in one of the traps, which was absolutely unreal!

Another highlight of the week would be when we explored some of the Mayan ruins in Calakmul. There was a two and a half hour bus journey from Hormiguero to the ruins site, which turned out to be a surprisingly liberating experience due to the fact that the bus had air-conditioning. I must confess I’m a bit of a Classics nerd, so wandering around the site and learning more about Mayan civilisation in the museum was probably my favourite experience of the whole week.

Photo by Carlos Carias

The ruins themselves were unbelievably cool, and the various hieroglyphs and ancient stone carvings gave us an insight into the Maya that I found really interesting. The tallest of the ruins were about 70m high, which doesn’t actually sound like a whole lot but standing at the top genuinely felt like being on top of the world. It was the first time we were able to see the jungle above the canopy, and the land itself was so flat that we could faintly see some other Mayan ruins over in Guatemala, which were over 40km away. (I will also forever appreciate the petrol station pit-stop on the way back to stock up on much-needed snacks.)

As I’m writing this we’ve got two more full days left, and I’ve definitely realised how much I’m going to miss this experience. Although the tents are ridiculously hot at night and I’m not really a fan of frantically checking the bathroom for scorpions, the scientists have been absolutely amazing and I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe a bucket shower isn’t so bad after all.

Title photo by Malachi Isome