Lacanja

We have spent a couple of days now at Lacanja, type of ecotouristic hotel. We are sleeping and studying in stick huts with bunk beds instead of hammocks, and my particular cabin, like the doubles, is on the river we rafted on this morning. We have class in an open-air palapa, and project onto its only stick wall. It’s surprisingly chilly here, but this is a combination of the fact that our walls are made of sticks and it has rained a lot recently.

Ecologically, we are surrounded by beautiful rainforest. This morning, I was bird watching and caught a glimpse of another Violaceous trogon, a mot-mot and a pair of squirrels within a matter of minutes. While this has been guaranteed Fer-de-lance spotting country, I have been fortunate enough to have missed out on any spotting there may be. I am positive that if I were to come across one, I would incite its aggression and be dead before I knew it. Only one more day and I will have made it home free, just as long as I don’t stumble over one when we are bird watching near San Cristobol. The reserve is also home to the Mayan city of Lancanja, which I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the only thing I know about it is that at one time is was subjugated by nearby Yaxchilan and that is fairly small as far as the sites we commonly see go.

 While I am ready to get back into civilization, I have definitely enjoyed our time in La Selva more than I anticipated. Yes, there are bugs.  Yes, it is sometimes intolerably hot, or surprisingly cold. I have been sunburned. I have been uncomfortable. I have been pressed for study time and stressed out as a result. Things haven’t always been perfect or pleasant, but the sum total of my experiences has been overwhelming positive. Is there another study abroad experience where I can watch Howler monkeys in the wild? Where I can white-water raft and snorkel as part of lab? How many times in your life can you see that there are Mayan ruins in your backyard? Talk about a unique experience- and one we will never get back.