Month: March 2025

Hola from Naida, Claire, Anna and Jade!

At 5:45am this morning, we awoke to the silence of the seasonally dry forest of Chamela – well, despite the sounds of Josh trying to scam beer off of Bailey in exchange for pesos. We packed up our belongings for the last time, boarded our trusty, rusty bus, and sedated ourselves with gravol for the long travel day ahead. Saying goodbye to Chamela, we watched a stunning sunrise over misty mountains as our bus drove through the countryside. On the first leg of our journey, we watched as the topography changed from a seasonally *very* dry forest to a lush, green mountain range. A few hours later, we stopped at a Kiosko (Costco?) to stock up on breakfast chips and cookies. For the 8.5 hours we drove, we got to see some amazing sights, like a large palm and banana plantation, many rushing rivers, and lots of farm fields. We also drove through the industrial city of Manzanillo which is an important port for trade – and also took us right back to Hamilton, Ontario.

As we slowly roasted on the bus with the rising temperatures of the afternoon, we were sustained in our journey by the sight of the Volcan de Colima. David informed us that it was only 9oC on the top of the volcano, which is a stark comparison to the 31oC heat where we were driving. It was a quiet bus ride as the group caught up on class work, dozed off, or read books – except for Josh and Clarisa, who were chatting up a storm. By 3pm, we pulled into the Guadalajara airport, and it was time to say goodbye to Javier, Alexia, David, and our amazing bus driver Beto. THANK YOU BETO! No one else could work the ten-gear, air braking, decades old Mercedes school bus as well as he did. We were sad to say goodbye to the Mexican members of the team, as well as Andy and Meg who are staying to travel for a few weeks.

We checked our bags, made our way through security, and ate some much-needed Shake Shack to boost morale. We boarded our flight, made it to Mexico City, and are now layover-ing, celebrating Alex’s 21st birthday and writing this blog post. To tie up the end of this trip with a nice bow, we’ve included a nice headshot of all the students on the trip, and their favourite experience over these amazing two weeks. We are so sad for this trip to be over and so happy with the memories made along the way!

Peace, love, and duty-free tequila,

Group 5 <3

Favorite parts of the trip

Grupo 4/Group 4: Clarissa, Alex, Bethany and David

We woke up to a (relatively) cool morning for our last full day at Chamela. We had our regular breakfast at 7:30am: classic eggs and beans with a side of corn tortillas. We heard a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium brasilianum) calling in the distance and Steve (unfortunately unsuccessfully) used his speaker to try to lure it closer. We hypothesize that this particular owl was angry because Group 3 had spent the last day encroaching on its territory (or at least within earshot) with their own Ferruginous Pygmy Owl playbacks.

We then met in the courtyard to briefly go over the plans for our last day at Chamela. Steve and Javier told us to enjoy the sun and warmth while it lasts, because pretty soon we would be back to the snow, slush, and cold of Kingston. They also suggested that we get going on our final stages of data collection, because we would be leaving early the next day and this was our last chance. Group 3 and 4 went out to collect more data, while the other groups stayed behind to do some preliminary data visualization and analysis and to wrap up their field notebooks.

Although it was a ‘fresh’ morning for the locals here at Chamela, it still was a hot and sweaty one for some of us Canadians, despite our 2 week residency. Once everyone had coalesced into the library, we started to ID the butterflies (order Lepidopterans) we had taken pictures of over the last few days using the two field guides provided by Steve and Javier. It turns out that Mexico, being a megadiverse country (we hear this a lot!), has a lot of butterfly species and many of them look almost identical. We did our best to identify each individual to the species, but made sure to record genus and family as well.

We had a quick break for lunch, and then came together again to discuss butterfly taxonomy, with some of our favourites being the Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia), Gilbert’s Flasher (Astraptes alector), and the Surprisng White (Pereute charops), which, surprisingly, isn’t white at all. By the end we all very much appreciated butterfly diversity. Mikaela gave our last species presentation on the Barred Whiptail, a local lizard species (Holcosus undulatus).

Our last class activity was Steve’s instructions on the scientific paper we will soon begin to write. The professors and TAs then collected all out field notebooks and began the arduous task of (at least attempting to) read and grade them. We students took the time to enjoy our last sunset all together in Mexico. After dinner of cheese (and no sauce) pizza, we had a debrief in the courtyard where we discussed how incredible of an opportunity this course was for all of us. Then it was off to pack, as we had a very early morning the next day, with alarms being set for around 5:45.

With packing to music and sharing our favourite parts of the course, we shared some final laughs (and a few tears) in Chamela. A lengthy bus ride and two planes and to go!

Grupo 3/Group 3. Mikaela, Sienna, Josh

Booby Day!

Theres nothing like waking up in the morning and knowing your going to get to see boobies. The brown booby is a seabird found along the coasts of Mexico and like its cousin the Blue-footed booby on the Galápagos Islands as well. A short bus ride to Punta Pérula forces the socks and sandels to come off, and the fishy air welcomed us to the beach once again.CONANP is an organization charged with managing the protection of local island ecosystems, including bird island. While waiting for lifejackets, we watched the tropical fish including a spotted box fish near the dock before climbing into the boats which would take us to bird island. With the opportunity of seeing whales in sight all eyes were on the water. “Look” a pod of dolphins was spied leaping from the water near our boats. On the rocks Frigatebirds, Pelicans, Brown and Brown Boobies and Snowy Egrets Caught our eyes as well! The beach was tucked within a calm cove fringed with cliffs dotted with cacti and had the clearest of turquoise waters. For an hour and a half we floated our built up aches away, soothing our numerous bug bites providing some much needed relaxation after some hard days in the field. We all shared Alexia’s mask and snorkel to have a peak at the fish under the water, most notably angel fish and an octopus.

What felt like too soon we packed up to return to the mainland, leaving not trace and throwing all of our beautiful shells and coral back onto the beach were they came. The captain of the Monkey 1 took his boat to the mouth of Diablo Cave, Naida remarked “I feel so alive” which resonated with her whole boat. For all of us, spotting Blue-footed Boobies was a once in a lifetime event!

After bidding good bye and thank-you we returned to the beach for lunch and a round of piña coladas. Steve slipped a couple bills to a wandering Mariachi band and Alexia demonstrated the norteño and soon got everyone up dancing! “TOOT TOOT” the old man’s popsicle cart was a popular treat while we waited for our food! Quesadillas, enchiladas and coconut shrimp filled our bellies before we returned to the sea to catch a few waves as the tide came back in. We swallowed so much sea water while body surfing, sand got everywhere. Father Steve called us children back to the bus to return to the research station for dinner and showers and a creature presentation about the Brown Booby by Josh.

Boats leaving Punta Perula. Photo David Lougheed