Arriving in Belize (Part I)

I was lucky enough to have a two-week field course in Belize as part of the extreme plant-nerd program that I'm spending the year doing. We flew down on the 6th of January, leaving cold, snowy Edinburgh behind and walking into warm tropical rain. Delightful.

These are some shots I took on our way from the airport near Belize City to Hillbank Field Station. They are terrible shots taken from a bus, but they capture my first impressions of Belize well. I love the first few hours in a new country when everything is fresh, new and exciting.

Sugarcane harvest

A market in Orange Walk.

Choosing snacks for the week at the grocery store in Orange Walk.

Happy Cows

The bus journey from Orange Walk to Hillbank took us down a very remote-feeling road past Mennonite Farmers' fields and into the tropical rain forest. The bus got stuck and stayed stuck. We happily jumped off and started walking, thinking the field station wasn't too far off. It was pitch black within half an hour, we had some vague (wrong) directions and no map or compass. After about three hours of walking, a detour to a farmer's house and a piece of chocolate each, a pick-up truck shuttled us to Hillbank, still another 25 minute drive away. It was a great adventure to start the course off.

Hillbank

The field station sits at the southern end of the New River Lagoon. It was the perfect temperature for swimming and I made sure I went in at least once a day. We went crocodile searching with one of the rangers on our last night there and saw an 8-foot croc. Apparently they only hunt at night, but I'm still glad I saw it at the end of my stay rather than at the beginning.

Leaf cutter ants. These hardworking insects collect leaves to 'farm' fungus on them. The fungus converts the indigestible lignin to something called gongylidia which they can easily eat.

The ants in action.

An ocellated turkey. These guys are listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List, but it didn't seem that way at Hillbank as a rather tame flock of them would cruise around the buildings.

Iguana in the old steam engine.

The food was fantastic, but I was dubious about the pink cake.

Sunrise on the lagoon.

More Snow for James

I just got back from a fabulous field course in Belize. I'll post some photos soon, but for now, here's what James was up to while I was swimming with crocodiles and learning about tropical plants.

More Skiing

We headed to the Mill for Hogmanay and there was indeed a lot of snow. Here's the "driveway" which we stayed away from after barely getting the Polo up the hill from Loch Ness.

Icicles

Turns out touring from the front door of the Mill is where it's at.

A funky hut made of peat, wood and heather.

Tea in the hut.

Crooked noodles.

Skiing up someone's driveway.

James and Andy teaching Harry to ski while the sun sets over Loch Ness. It was her first time on skis ever.

Scottish Skiing = Heather + Grass + Snow

It has been snowing over here. Much more than usual I am told. Edinburgh has had snow on the ground for over two weeks now, which is very unusual. The Scots have been getting very excited about this and I kept hearing about the amazing skiing that was happening. So we hopped in our ailing car and headed north.

Turns out that "amazing skiing", "tonnes of snow" and "high avalanche danger" in these parts means that there is still plenty of heather and grass to be skied over and around.

Any amount of snow = happy James

Some good turns were had after all. I may just get used to heather skiing.

Ben Eighe

Spent a day hiking around Ben Eighe while up in the Highlands.

Iced in grass.
Spray from a nearby waterfall coated the rocks and vegetation in a layer of ice.

Clubmoss

We ran out of time and didn't make the summit of Ben Eighe proper, but we still got some fantastic views up high.

Beaches

Day 1 at the Cottage was Beach-exploration day.
It was a few days before winter solstice and at our latitude this meant it was sunrise or sunset all day. Amazing light for photography.

Farmhouse

Long shadows at 12:30pm

Tide art

Funky seaweed

Flotsam or Jetsam? Turns out they're not the same thing.

Beach #2

Happy Sue

Even the road looked good in this light.

The local Post Office.

Beach #3

These cows have some stellar real estate.

Lichens growing right next to the sea. Who knew there were salt tolerant lichens?