Good news/Bad news.
Good news: I went on a pretty epic hike today and saw the farthest boundaries of the property.
Bad news: I'm pretty sure my feet are about to fall off.
My first five and half weeks here were mainly spent on the Northern end of the property. Most of my animals could be found close to the lab, so there was no reason to walk to the far-ends of the earth to find any.
Outside the yellow square has been, mostly uncovered ground so far.
Today, for one reason or another, I got the great idea that Laura, Alyssa (two other REU) and myself would hike the entire perimeter!
I'll shut up though and let the pictures do the talking.
We were warned that the back of the property was a bit 'hilly'.
The understatement of the century.
The back 1/4 of the property is a series of muddy ups and downs that felt like they'd never end.
First we go up.
Some hills had nice roots for stairs. Some were thick mud that you just slid down. Most were pretty brutal.
But worth the amazing views.
The deeper we went back into the property the wilder it felt. The canopy got denser in spots, then opened up and the undergrowth was repressive. I can honestly say I don't think I've ever sweat so much in my entire life.
The landscape slowly changed from manicured trails, to thicker jungle, to wallowy mud-pits.
And with every up.
Came a slippery, muddy, catastrophe of a down.
Some of the trees back there were just monstrous. You always knew the spots where one of those titans had fallen. Suddenly it was blindingly bright, small trees were popping up everywhere and the heat really turned up a notch.
These clearings, called gaps, are really important to the forest. Especially in primary forest where very little light ever touches the forest floor.
Plants are, essentially, explosive growers in these gaps. They have to grow as fast as they can to out compete their neighbors for valuable sunlight.
It's also a great spot to find snakes sunning themselves!
Bothrops asper (Fer-De-Lance) Such a powerful and beautiful animal. I never get tired of looking at them!
Gaps are also a great place to see a huge variety of amazing butterfly species!
At the bottom of most of the hills, in each little secret valley, was normally a stream or pool of water. Always a much needed respite from the tyrannical jungle heat.
And, unfortunately for my two companions, a great chance to force them to take a million photos for my family back home!
After the first four or five streams I stopped the torture and put a halt on the photos.
Oh who am I kidding. Yeah right I did. Keep that camera snappin' sista!
There were significant chunks of the trail that were more streams and branches than trail.
As awesome as that sounds, someone as clumsy as me does not belong trying to balance on mossy logs over moving water.
Believe it or not, somehow I didn't fall. Miracles do happen.
Eventually we came to a hill that is hard to describe.
I would have taken a photo, but by the time we realized how far up we actually had to climb up, there was no way in hell I was going to climb back down for a silly photo op.
Luckily, the jungle sometimes takes pity on poor souls like me.
After a brutal up and a slippery down...
Ahhhh, reprieve.
By the end of our trip we were all pretty much obliterated.
Feet sore, water-bottle empty, food gone, clothes soaked, camera full...minds blown.
I won't be doing the trek again tomorrow, but it was definitely worth the effort.
Plus, we even caught a few cool animals along the way!
Enulius sclateri (White-headed Snake) Not the most creative name. I would have preferred the bandit snake. Not a whole lot is known about these snakes and they're apparently rarely encountered. What a silly looking head they have.
Norops oxylophus (Stream Anole) When I scared this thing along a stream we were trudging through it jumped into the water and tried to swim under a log! I've never seen a lizard act so peculiar. So of course I snatched it up thinking I had found a new species of swimming stream lizard...Nope, turns out these are pretty common and well known to dive for a few minutes to avoid predators.
I'd say the day was a win-win. Plenty of animals caught and seen. Plenty of exercise and jungle experiences. And enough selfies to fill up a photos album.
Feet, take a break, you deserve it.
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