As a Tennessean, the rolling hills of middle Tennessee is the only place I have called home, and the deciduous forests filled with hardwood and pine are the only environments I had ever studied. That is, until, my plane landed in Belize City, Belize. As an environmental science student traveling with UT on the joint honors/engineering Alternative Spring Break to San Ignacio, Belize, I was given my first opportunity to explore an ecosystem similar to nothing I have ever known – a tropical rainforest.

The first thing you notice about being in a rainforest is the waves of heat and humidity. If you can imagine the hottest, most humid day in the middle of a Tennessee summer, you have experienced something similar. Once you look around, you notice incredibly tall trees, all competing for sunlight through the dense canopy they form.

Within the rainforests, you can observe one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. Tarantulas, snakes, and scorpions are just a few of the smaller animals that I observed on the rainforest floor. Green iguanas with slithering tails roamed freely, scaling Mayan ruins. In San Ignacio, an iguana sanctuary worked to protect the iguanas and promote their populations.

The largest animals I saw, monkeys, live in the trees rather than the forest floor. Young, curious monkeys climbed down branches to get a better view of the tourists below. Male howler monkeys howled wildly at our guide and gave unassuming students from Texas Tech a scare.

In Guatemala, much of the natural rainforests are protected in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve. Innumerous Mayan ruins are hidden within the rainforest, with sites like Tikal being restored to preserve rich Mayan history.

All of these rainforests and great Mayan civilizations have been supported by highly weathered soils, red from iron oxidation. As a future soil scientist, even the dirt was fascinating to me as I traveled out of the US for the first time and experienced the diverse ecosystems and cultures that Belize and Guatemala have to offer.