Ronto, Sean 2011 Journal Bethel, Montañas Secanin, NE of Coban, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala May 22 We arrived back in Bethel around 17:00 yesterday after leaving Guatemala City in the morning following Carlos' graduation. It hadn't rained and Ricardo had spent the time spotting birds. Carlos and I searched along the road for 45 min at night but it was very dry and we gave up. We found 2 more Smilaxa cyanosticta + a Gracixola xucareni in one of the water tanks in Bethel. This morning, Carlos, Ricardo and I left at 10:00 to try to reach the high point in the Montañas Secanin (1850m). We walked ~500 m back down the road, entered a cornfield and then filed off-trail into the forest using the GPS to navigate. Lots of small arboreal bromeliads where we started and nice forest w/ large trees + a fairly open understory; I got a C. lucawati here. We arrived in a new kind of habitat alone ~1650m, with lots of bamboo; it was more humid here and seemed more cloud forest-like. Started opening small arboreal bromeliads and got 6 B. lehmanica (collected only) in 20-30 bromeliads. Also opened many of the larger ones w/ spiny leaf edges but got nothing all day in these. Also got a C. lucawati + saw 2 more in this habitat. Lots of signaros + small caves made walking cross-country even more difficult. Spent a lot of time opening many great lianas that found nothing. Fought our way uphill until we finally got to some paths' clearings w/ cut wood, made by loggers from communities above Chiquirixi. We partially followed these until a logger-made clearing (15.59251N, 90.26777W [+11110m], 1768m elev), where we stopped. There was a big logged area on one side and decent forest on the other. Since the habitat hadn't changed since entering the bamboo zone and we were only 50m below the high point, we decided to turn back around 15:30.