Today was one of those days I was worried about.
It has been real overcast and rainy, not ideal for lizard catchin'
It all turned out pretty darn good in the end.
Today a fellow REU, Laura, also had to put her project on hold due to the weather (she needs really calm streams to flip rocks and collect mayflies). So we packed up some water and left on an adventure.
Even though it's only 4pm now, I can safely say my adventuring is done for the day.
My doggies are barkin'!
We started by crossing the river.
Sounds simple enough right? I assumed you walk over a bridge and boom, other side of the river. Modern technology can show us the way...
I was surprised when we found this:
So, ummm, where's the safety harness? Or better yet, where is the 'on button'?
From the look of this junky metal wire and the height over the river I was not feeling super confident.
Remember how river crossings always went in Oregon Trail?
I was predicted a similar outcome.
"Your raft hit a rock and your family drowned. The End"
Like most things at La Selva, if you get over your initial fear, it normally turns into an awesome experience!
It's probably hard to tell from the photo, but you might just make out the wires hanging over the river. It was about 15m above the water and the equipment was older than I'd ever care to know.
For about half a second I was considering jumping in. Although that water was moving pretty darn quick. Anyone who knows me can attest to my almost unnatural ability to sink like a stone.
No joke, I am the world's worst swimmer.
The river swim was not about to go down.
We found some really awesome tributaries and had fun taking silly photos.
I really wanted to swim in this pool too.
My wish was granted when my clumsy tree climbing abilities failed me good.
We also started to see some cool animals and some great birds (most of which I couldn't get good pictures of unfortunately)
Dasyprocta punctata (Agouti) These large rodents are really important seed dispersers in the jungle. They hide caches of fruit in the ground to eat later. Many times they don't come back though, and a seedling will grow. They use scent markers as a major form of communication. Males urinate on prospective female mates in a courtship ritual...'well that's not how I expected my first date to go'.
Farther upstream the rapids got much stronger and the primary rainforest became the dominant vegetation type.
Further upstream we almost completely lost the trail. It was basically a giant mud pit. There's something about getting disgustingly dirty that's too much fun though.
Eventually we lost the trail completely and just followed the stream North. Normally I wouldn't be very comfortable in the situation but our map made it look like a major trail was right around the corner.
The 'trail' ended up being much more cryptic than I had anticipated. I definitely had to give it a triple look before realizing we were on the right path.
We did end up running into a new species of snake. Like a total amateur I forgot my guidebook and therefore had no idea what it was. Even though it was blatantly a colubrid (and not venomous) I wasn't taking any chances and just snapped a few close-ups.
Urotheca guentheri (Orange-bellied Littersnake) Also turns out that they're rear-fanged. It wouldn't have been the end of the world if I grabbed it, better safe than sorry though. Pretty little thang.
Even though I caught zero lizards today it felt good to just hike through the jungle.
Laura and I were really confused why we didn't see more wildlife though.
Keep in mind that most of my jungle ventures are solo.
After I pointed out how much I talked all day we both agreed any living thing would have heard us coming a mile away.
"Yeah, you didn't really stop talking once today did you?"
At least I didn't have to take a million 'selfies' today.
My camera probably would be at the bottom of the river otherwise.
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