For the first week, I will be working in the Selva Maya, which is the largest undisturbed tract of forest outside of the Amazon. The area is filled with ancient Mayan temples, and is one of the world’s most important habitats for jaguar, tapir and other large mammals. I will be assisting with a biodiversity survey being run by international teams of university academics to collect data to monitor the efficiency of the sustainable use projects in the area. I will be based in a rainforest research camp, where I will be helping with forest structure surveys, bird point counts and mist netting, reptile surveys as well as camera trapping for the large cat species and tapirs. In addition, I will be learning about neotropical forest ecology and Mayan culture in my spare time, and will have the opportunity to visit a Mayan pyramid.

For the second week I will be based at Akumal where I have the chance to learn to dive to PADI Open Water level, or dive or just want snorkel, where I can then complete a Caribbean reef ecology course. I will get the chance to help with snorkel based counts of turtles on the sea grass beds at this site.