Trip to Tulum

We will probably stop by Tulum one day. It is a small mayan site -- right on the ocean. Here is a link that can tell you a lot about it.  

This is a fun video -- the narrator thinks outloud about what he thinks a symbol might mean. We can do that ourselves when we are there -- just try to think about what the symbols might mean. 

home away from home

Reservations are all made. Here are the places we are going to stay:
Cesiak, Rio Bec, EcoTucan, Xcalak, Cuyo

Leatherbacks

I don't know very much about turtles. I've started to look up leatherbacks. They are endangered, although they are doing a bit better in the Atlantic...but dramatically reducing in the Pacific.

On average they weigh 300 lbs...The largest leatherback ever found was an 8.5-ft-long (2.6-m-long) male weighing 2,020 lbs (916 kg) that washed up on the west coast of Wales in 1988. That's taller than a man! A Big man!

Check out this video of a leatherback chasing down a lobster. It looks like it likes to east lobsters as much as Joe does...

And this video really brings home how vulnerable baby turtles are...I mean they are tiny little things with no one to protect them.  Maybe when we are down there we can help protect the babies....I can't believe that crab which isn't much bigger than the baby can just drag it down into the sand with it.

I don't understand why the temperature of the nest changes how many male and female turtles are born. I wonder why that is?

And guess what, we don't even know there life span. I bet there is still a lot that we don't know.

And yeah, it looks to me if that turtle gets too close to you it can bite your nose off.

Cognitive Dissonance: Manatees and MeninSkies

Do you all know that term " cognitive dissonance"? I have it easily twice a week. And I'm having it right now.

The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the feeling of discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs.

I just heard from my friend Hugo that he has seen a gaggle of manatees -- eight of them twice in two days in the lagoon at Sian Ka 'an. These creatures are soooo old. 

And then one of my friends  sent me this youtube..of men (people) with their feet on the ceiling, flying through skies,  These movements of human kind are sooooo recent. 

Cognitive dissonance...how can we value each of these things equally? 


Do you ever have cognitive dissonance?

Another Big Word - Commensalism

Q and I were talking about pilot fish. We looked it up in WikiP -- and found that they are carnivorous and commensal.

I never this word before. It means

a class of relationship between two organisms where one organism benefits but the other is neutral (there is no harm or benefit). There are two other types of association: mutualism (where both organisms benefit) and parasitism (one organism benefits and the other one is harmed).

So WikiP is a little confusing cuz it says the pilot fish is commensal but later says its relationship with sharks is mutualist. The pilot is protected from predators and the shark is protected from parasites.

They hang out with rays, and sharks. And even ships. According to WikiP: their fondness for ships led the ancients to believe that they would navigate a ship to its desired course. That is why they are called pilot fish instead of hitchhiker fish. That is what i would call them. I am glad they are not to suck my blood.


Very, very interesting. The pilot fish is often used as a simile or metaphor for a scout even though they aren't really leading the sharks or fish. We'll talk about simile and metaphor in Mexico.

Akumal - Place of the Turtle in Mayan

Green turtles and loggerheads come to lay their eggs along the beach. We may go to Akumal to swim with the turtles. 

Q. and I are trying to find out what other turtles live in the Yucatan--

Here is the list of all the turtles that live in the Yucatan.  Estoy un poco confundido sobre "scorpion mud turtle"? Does it sting like a scorpoion? Roll in the mud? I assume mud turtles hang out in the mud? We are now really confused...they are quite beautiful, not muddy and appear not to sting. In fact their shells are beautiful. Their plastron (that is the word for the bottom shell can be dark, or yellow, or have beautiful patterns).

1. Green Turtle - Chelonia mydas (Threatened)
2. Loggerhead Turtle - Caretta caretta (Threatened)
3. Hawksbill Turtle - Eretmochelys imbricata (Endangered)
4. Leatherback Turtle - Dermochelys coriacea (Endangered)
5. Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle - Lepidochelys kempi (Endangered)
6. Tabasco Mud Turtle - Kinosternon acutum
7. Creaser's Mud Turtle - Kinosternon creaseri
8. White-lipped Mud Turtle - Kinosternon leucostomum
9. Scorpion Mud Turtle - Kinosternon scorpiodes  ...photo 
10. Narrow-bridged Musk Turtle - Claudius angustatus
11. Mexican Giant Musk Turtle - Staurotypus triporcatus
12. Furrowed Wood Turtle - Rhinoclemmys areolata
13. Yucatan Box Turtle - Terrapene carolina yucatana
14. Slider - Trachemys scripta
15. Central American River Turtle - Dermatemys mawii (in far-southern Quintana Roo & western Campeche)
16. Common Snapping Turtle - Chelydra serpentina rossignonii

Vampire Fish

Okay you guys...I'm still FREAKED OUT by swimming with whale sharks. I'm going to do it...but i'm sooooooo afraid!  What is courage -- doing something when you are afraid!  I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it...but someone is going to be holding my hand!

But now I'm a bit worried about those fish that seem to be stuck to the whale sharks with their mouths.  Are they vampire fish? What if they come over and stick themselves to my face? Suck all my blood out? (I'm cracking myself up!)

Can someone find out what they are and tell me if I need to be afraid of them too? 

Here is the classification for the whale shark (I had to look it up because I didn't even know if it was a mammal or a fish?) I can tell it is a mammal...can you tell how I could tell?

Hey go check out the whale sharks cousin -- click on it's order Orectolobiformes (try saying that three times fast...or even once for that matter).  I like the word " wobbegong".

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Order:	Orectolobiformes
Family:	Rhincodontidae J. P. Müller and Henle, 1839
Genus:	Rhincodon A. Smith, 1829
Species:	R. typus

Manateeees

I know they are really hard to find...i sure hope we find them...

I think the type of manatee around the Yucatán is the West Indian Manatee (who can find out the species name? how many species of manatees are there?) The manatee is very endangered.  You often see the word "extant" when you read about them. What do you think that word means? It is so sad cuz it seems like a lot of their close relatives have become extinct. Does anyone know why they became extinct?

I read up a bit about their order Sirenia -- it's a funny word for them as it seems to suggest the word Sirens from Greek mythology -- related to the idea of mermaids calling to the lonely sailors on long journeys.   (Whoa...search for sirens greek mythology and click on images...it is really clear that the idea of sirens have captured a lot of people's imaginations...but why don't any of them look like this pudgy manatee? I think someone was trying to be funny when they called these guys Sirenia)

But want to get really confused. Check out their cousins by clicking on their clade (it's like a branch of a tree of life...but I'm not sure exactly what it is because it is NOT included in the scientific classification list. Why can't they make any of this easy?).

Hey I bet Jen can help us with this scientific classification stuff? I'll ask her. 

What do you think the most interesting thing about manatees are?

I wanna meet an Iguana

While I was down at Sian Ka' an last time one of my friends told me that she thinks iguanas protect humans.  Now I don't know why they would want to protect us...but she told me a story about how she was sitting on the beach and there was an iguana sitting on a stone next to her. She left some chewed gum on the beach and the next morning there was sticky white stuff all over her bags. She thinks the iguana wanted to bring her the gum cuz she left it on the beach.  I interpret that story differently (indeed if the iguana actually did bring her the gum...i think most likely she dropped it in her bag instead of on the beach) -- the iguana was protecting the beach, not her! Or he thinks she left it as a gift but thought it was a terrible gift so just threw up all over her stuff.

Personally I think they can be a pretty confused reptile.  When I was there last time this one big guy kept head-bobbing at me and then later on at a huge bird (one of the herons maybe). Head bobbing is what they do to tell the female iguana that they want some action...that's true...i think it is also to say I'm the big guy on campus, king of the castle, the one with the best genes for reproduction. Maybe it just felt insecure and wanted some attention. Of course I head-bobbed back at him which probably really confused him!

Anyway...we will be meeting lots of iguanas on our trip.  I don't really know how to tell them all apart or which ones live in the Yucatan. I'm pretty sure though that we might see the Black Spiny-Tailed. 
Or the Campeche Spiny-Tailed (get a look at the genus name -- it's a pretty funny name...alfredschmidti...like that's a Latin word?) . The Campeche Spinytail is extant to Mexico. Do you remember what that means?

It looks like there are two competing theories about how we should classify iguanas. Looks like some guy named Frost thinks that instead of sub-families, all the different type of iguana should have their own genus.  I wonder why that is so important? And if they can change how we classify iguanas...can't we find a better home for our kinkajou friend who is wandering around with the carnivora clan?

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Lacertilia
Infraorder:	Iguania
Family:	Iguanidae
Genera
Amblyrhynchus Brachylophus Conolophus Ctenosaura Cyclura Dipsosaurus Iguana Sauromalus

We Are Going to the Yucatán...But What is It

So CJ helped me understand that the Yucatán is more than a part of Mexico. In fact the word refers to two different things - a Penninsula and and a state in Mexico.

A Penninsula: According to our friend Wikipedia -

The Yucatán peninsula as seen from space

The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel. The peninsula lies east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a northwestern geographic partition separating the region of Central America from the rest of North America.

The peninsula comprises the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo; the northern part of the nation of Belize; and Guatemala's northern El Petén Department.

Couple of big words in there: better find a dictionary to make sure you know the words partition and comprises. Those are both good words to know.

And what is a peninsula anyway (I keep mis-spelling that word - i have to memorize it....as i seem to like to add "n" here and there. 

 (I know you guys are saying geez not is she only the safety aunt but she is the learning aunt. and then i get to say...LIFE is LEARNING. LEARNING IS US. To say we don't want to learn is like saying we don't want to breathe --)

A State in Mexico: Just like the US, Mexico has states. We will be visiting three states in Mexico -- Quintana Roo (or Q. Roo), Campeche and Yucatán.

Here is the flag of the Yucatan. I wonder if it has a state bird and state flower like US states have? Do you think it has a Governor like the US has? Hmmmmm...Must LEARN MORE!

Birds and Bird Calls

This website is really cool!

It tells you a lot about birds and you can hear their calls.

Here is the osprey.  

And they have a lot of information about all the different types of herons that live in Sian Ka'an.

Tree of Life

I love the Khan Academy so much that I would marry it if it was a person.  It makes me happy when I have a question about something and I go there and there is a video to explain it to me.

So guess what I found one on TAXONOMY and the Tree of Life. (Okay Taxonomy is a big word we are going to have to remember and understand).

Here is the link to the video. It will help us understand all those scientific classifications.

 Every time I hear the words tree of life I think of the phrase rhythm of life. Do you think there is also a rhythm of life as well as a tree of life?  Here is one of my favorite songs (cuz Norn used to listen to a Welsh choir that included this song...my heart gets big when I hear this song). And although this has nothing to do with Yucatan...let me introduce you to Sammy Davis Jr.

Did you know over one million people speak mayan in mexico?

languages in mexico with more than 100,000 speakers

Wikipedia has a lot about Mayan people and mayan language.  About six million people speak mayan in guatemala, belize, honduras and mexico. I had no idea!

And there are different dialects -- there are 8 different types of mayan dialects in mexico. (What I didn't know either is there are 68 indigenous languages -- indian-- in mexico. 6% of the population speak one).

There are two different branches of Mayan in the Yucatan. One is called Yucatec maya (but researchers call it that, not the people themselves) and the other is Lancandón (from the Lancandón jungle in the Chiapas.

Jorge one of my friends is from the Chiapas. We'll have to ask him about that. We aren't going to the Chiapas...we'll have to do it on another trip.

The people in guatamala speak another kind of mayan. I wonder how different they are from each other.

This man does a pretty good job at making it simple to learn mayan. i think it is cool how he puts the words up. Below is another video where he is talking with some mayans.

Cousin Connection of the Kinkajou

Hey Q and J: Do you know who the cousins of the Kinkajou are? Let's find out.

I went to wikipedia to find out. I don't remember too much about scientific classification so we are going to have to figure this out for ourselves.  I wonder can we find someone who can explain that to us --? The picutre on the right show all the different levels of scientific classification. Since LIFE is on the top I guess that means the petoskey stone would not have this type of classification, correcto?

So at wikipedia they have the list of classifications of the Kinkajou( see below). It's official species name is potos flavus. Hhmmmm I wonder what language that is? what does it mean? who named it the kinkajou?do all the countries that it lives in use the same name?

(Okay I looked it up. I was toooooo curious. Every species has two names (homo sapiens!). The first is the genus and the second is the species name. It's always in Latin.  Whoa! Why Latin...there must be some story there.)

Okay onwards. So then our friend the kinkajou has a family classification called the procyonidae (Deb made me take latin one year but i sure have no idea how to pronounce that). Click on that link and go see who the cousin of the kinkajou is!!!!!! You too Deb.

What's odd is that this little guy is in the order carnivora. Carnivora comes from two latin words "flesh" and "to devour". There are 280 species in that order. But this little "honey bear" almost always eats fruit.  I wonder why they put him in carnivora? Who gets to make those decisions anyway! How many other species in carnivora are vegetarians?

Why do you think it is important that we classify each and every living creature everywhere in the world?

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Procyonidae
Genus:	Potos Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire & Cuvier, 1795
Species:	P. flavus
Binomial name
Potos flavus (Schreber, 1774)
Kinkajou range

Cenotes

The Yucatan is famous for its cenotes.  The word "cenote" comes from a mayan word meaning well dzonot or ts'onot . The spanish changed it to cenote. 

The geology of the yucatan is really interesting... it is made up of limestone.  In fact, we will drive on a limestone road on the road to ceisiak...it can get pretty bumpy.

 The cenotes are sink holes and made it really easy for mayans to access ground water.

The Mayans saw the cenotes as sacred places. Well from what I can tell the Mayans thought everything is sacred.

There are different types of cenotes. Cenotes-cántaro (Jug, or Pit cenotes) are those with a surface connection narrower than the diameter of the water body; Cenotes-cilíndricos (Cylinder cenotes) are those with strictly vertical walls; Cenotes-aguadas (Basin cenotes) are those with shallow water basins; and grutas (Cave cenotes) are those having a horizontal entrance with dry sections.

I'm sure we will go swimming in at least one cenote. If we were divers we could actually go scuba diving in them...that's how big some of them are....

Kinkajou

Here is a baby one - J: Here

I love the kinkajou!  Here is a cute baby one on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqjhA9YoZhs

New Word: Endemic

this is a yucatan woodpecker.it's endemic

I was looking at this website and read a bit about how there are plants and animals that are endemic to the Yucatan. Now I didn't know what it meant. But the author describes it really well.

When a biologist says that an organism is endemic to a certain area, he or she means that in the whole world that thing is found only in that limited area. A surprising number of organisms are endemic to the Yucatan.

The reason that the Yucatan has so many endemic plants and animals is that it is ecologically isolated (kind of like the galapagos) even though it is a penninsula. Here is a list of endemic birds -- we will see several of them.

This is a cool video of a yucatan jay (endemic) feeding a juvenile. I wont' forget this sound for a long time.

Whoa!!! I didn't know ....

that there are toucans at sian ka'an.

Check this out. It was taken at Muyil (a mayan temple across the lagoon from where we will be staying).

The rainbow-billed is the same as the keel-billed toucan. I found out two interesting things about toucans.

1)Their bills are 1/3 of the size of their body (can you imagine if our noses were that big). According to wikipedia, "While the bill seems large and cumbersome, it is in fact a spongy, hollow bone covered in keratin, a very light and hard protein."

2) Keel-billed toucans have zygodactyl feet (or feet with toes facing in different directions) - two toes face forward and two face back. Because toucans spend a large portion of time in the trees, this helps the birds to stay on the branches of the trees and hop from one branch to another.

Try saying zygodactyl three times fast!

I found this picture of one - I think I love toucans ---

Exploring Mayan Cities

I love visiting ancient cities and temples (i try to avoid saying ruins -- as it suggests something old and not meaningful).  I've visited Chi'chen Itza twice, Uxmal (three times- my favorite, Coba (twice), Tulum and some smaller sites. We'll make a quick stop at Tulum.

This will be my first time to Calakmul. 

Here is an interesting video -- listen to that howler monkey. Can you all make that sound?

I've been reading a lot to understand how the Mayan  in these times made sense of sacrifice and death. It is a stretch for us foreigners...but i have glimmers of starting to understand the world view beneath it. 

Dwarf Porkupine

This guy looks a little bit like a hedgehog. They look cute, I want to see one really bad on our trip.  On one of the other pictures it looks like a guinea pig and porkupine. 

I want to see Margays!

I think the margay is an interesting animal, I hope we see one.  Margay

After reading about them it sounds like they are a squirrel-cat.  They can hang by one leg from a tree.  They look cute, but I really wouldn't want to close to them.  They kind of look like kittens.