95% or more of the bamboo you see along the highways and roads of Guatemala was brought from Asia, mostly during the last hundred years. But there are several species of native bamboo of Guatemala. So yes, the ancient Maya did have bamboo available. We have not yet identified the bamboo in this photo but we believe it is native. This research of ours helps us be able to prepare books for children to teach them about their own country and the plants they can be proud of protecting.

April 8, 2018

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After walking across the impressive swinging hammock bridge, we hiked up the hill to donate educational material to the schools along the Rio Cahabon, Alta Verapaz..

Feb. 26, 2018

We have so many species of different flowering plants in the FLAAR Mayan Ethnobotanical Research Garden that we see pollinators almost every day.

Bee or wasp? We are interested in finding and photographing wasps which are pollinators and then finding nests of “honey wasps.” Yes, some wasps in Mexico, Guatemala and nearby countries make honey.	What is the world is this insect? Whatever it is, it's on the same flowers at same time of day as both bees and wasps. Sure has big eyes.	Is this a male mosquito? Or a “mosquito fly”? Sure is nicely posing for the photo (because it is busy harvesting nectar).

Mar 9, 2018

The bird I most want to see in the wild is a king vulture: it is a majestic bird. I also am eager to find the Laughing Falcon, since this is an important bird character in the Mayan mythical saga of the Popol Vuh.

But waterbirds the are species (along with parrots and macaws) most often pictured in Classic Maya art. Waterbirds are common since Mayan cosmology is focused on the Surface of the Underwaterworld.

Here are the drawings of waterbirds to help teachers provide visual material for the students. We do the illustrations in a zoologically accurate manner but with children friendly expressions on the birds, especially the eyes of the bird and their body language.

So in mid-February we spent several days studying as many waterbirds as we could find from the Rio Polochic through Bocas del Polochic, then the Lake Izabal, then El Golfete and finally the Rio Dulce. We will need more time to do Amatique Bay another visit (and the coastal area also).

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We do children’s books on birds to help children learn not to shoot them with slingshots, not to dump garbage in the rivers and lakes, and to use less soap when washing dishes and clothes in the rivers and lake shores.

Feb. 12, 2018