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.

Mayan Cooking

Should we learn how to do a bit of mayan cooking (traditional and modern)?

I love chaya -- it's a tropical spinach. Nummy.

Here are some more

Turkey lime soup--- mmmm

Some shrimp for Joe

Ooooh and here are more!

This one is with lima beans -- i think i'm going to try it.

This is the traditional poc-chuc

Learning a Bit About Mayan Culture

Here is a guide at Coba talking about the ball game they played. This site has a lot of information about the game as well.

And here a bunch of games you can play to learn about mayan culture.  And here is another fun site.

This site has loads of information based on mayans in guatemala.