Well here we go. Four weeks till I'm due to fly back to the UK. Where it will be cold, wet and Christmas Time. And I have to say I'm quite looking forward to it. I'll miss Jalova but it's time to move on. Plus for financial reasons I have no choice in the matter.
Anyway here's some stuff that has happened since the phase began.
One of the volunteers got bitten by a snake. It was not a poisonous snake but it was still a bit of a shock as it happened right outside the volunteer dorms. We got her to a clinic within a couple of hours just to be on the safe side and all was well. I had in fact been following the beautiful green parrotsnake around for about 20 minutes beforehand as well. Clearly, it liked our base and was quite happy to continue hunting lizards after the incident and last we saw it was sat up in a tree digesting a meal overnight.
I had a very interesting survey during which the same volunteer that was bitten by the snake happened to be sat in the front of the canoe. She called out 'whats that swimming across in front of us'. I looked up prepared to comment on the bird that I presumed it to be. But instead my exact reaction was "Oh my god! It's a Jag!" And sure enough swimming across some distance down the canal was a real-live Jaguar! I even managed to get a half-decent record photo of it!
PANAMA
A few days after my near-jag encounter it is time for my trip to Panama in order to perform what is known in the trade as a ‘visa-run’. This involves crossing the border to another country and getting and re-entering Costa Rica after at least 3 days. This means when you re-enter your tourist visa is renewed and viable for another 90 days. Seems a bit of a daft system really doesn’t it – but it does mean that we get an obligatory holiday every 3 months!
The journey to the border crossing on the Pacific side, Paso Canoas is a long long, long 8 hour bus ride, with a stop for some breakfast mid-morning. It goes up through the mountains and then down through the lowlands and at one point I am excited to see my first pair of wild Scarlet Macaws flying along. The journey itself was not too bad except for the moment at the end when I realize that my bag has been stolen. It had my computer, binocs, camera and other gear and I’m devastated. There’s no way of knowing when it was stolen or by whom and the police are pretty much powerless to act, yet still I have to report it and spend a couple of hours with a policeman who speaks some English to file a report for insurance purposes. What an amazing start to the trip!
Crossing the border is typically chaotic. First of all for the independent traveler there is no way of knowing where you are supposed to go. There are people everywhere and the actual ‘no-mans land’ of the border area is full of stalls and shops and vendors. It smells of smoke and fumes and the noise is disorientating. The actual Costa Rica border office is located some way backwards from where the bus drops you off – with very little signage to indicate where it is. They stamp my passport out and then I brave the human sea to get to a building that marks the Panama border office which is seemingly unmanned at the moment. Eventually, some older disgruntled fellow comes to the window and explains that I need a return bus ticket to cross the border. Why? I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense when there are buses to and from the actual border on both sides. So I end having to go back to Costa Rica (not through immigration thankfully although there is nothing stopping me just walking into the country. Lack of visa when I came to leave again might be a problem though.) and to the bus office and get a ticket from David in Panama (which is further than I need to go) to San Jose. Apparently I can get the bus here at the border but I can’t get any other type of ticket. This ticket is roughly twice the price of the ticket from San Jose to the border here! Ridiculous!
So armed with this ticket eventually I am granted entry to Panama where I hop on a collectivo bus to La Concepcion. The collectivos are mini-vans that acts as a public bus around Panama. They are surprisingly comfortable and managed by a young chap who acts as a conductor of sorts – collecting money and organizing everyone’s seating arrangements. But most importantly they are regular and dirt cheap. It costs me a dollar for a 30 minute ride. I then have to switch buses and head up the road into the mountains to Guadelupe. Because of the delay at the border it is now dark so the scenery remains a mystery but I can tell that we are heading upwards because my ears pop a little.
I am staying at a lodge called Los Quetzales. It is renowned for the myriad of bird species in the area (including, of course, the holy grail of Central American birding, the Resplendent Quetzal) and its close proximity to La Amistad National Park, which is pretty much untouched montane forest that extends back over the Costa Rican border. It is a posh place but also offers slightly cheaper accommodation in the form of dormitories for independent travelers. When I arrive the family that run the place are sitting down to eat and I feel a bit sorry for disturbing them but they are very friendly and the manager shows me to my room which is set apart from the main lodge. I am the only person there and the dorm is a far cry from most hostels being a decorated lodge room with a bathroom and six nice bunkbeds. It’s effectively as though I have spent $50 on my own room!
I wake in the morning to quite the treat. Hummingbirds galore! There are feeders positioned all over the lodge grounds and several hanging from the porch outside my room. I have managed to rent a set of rather old and frankly, rubbish binoculars from the lodge and I set myself down on a comfy chair outside and watch all the hummers flocking around. There are many species, most of which I have never seen before. The Green Violet-ear (all green with a purple patch behind the eye) is the most numerous and is quite bolshy, chasing each other and other species around. The huge deep purple Violet Saber-wing is the dominant species and chases off any other species that dares try and feed whilst it is around (maybe it should be the Violent Saber-wing?). My favourite is the tiny Scintillant Hummingbird, which has a beautiful orange throat patch and lurks unobtrusively in the background until there is a vacant feeder before darting in and taking a drink, all the while constantly looking out for the bigger bully species! The loss of my camera really hits home right now – and not for the last time this trip.
During the afternoon I go for a walk along the road to Cerro Punta a nearby village. The scenery here is quite unique. Guadelupe and Cerro Punta are agricultural towns and though the system of valleys they occupy are very steep-sided the fields extend surprisingly high. I don’t know what they are growing there but working the fields must be a real endurance test. It looks as though some of them are on at least 45 degree angles! Then as soon as the fields end abruptly, thick forest carpets the tops of the valley ridges. The walk is very pleasant and I get all the way to Cerro Punta, spotting some interesting birds along the way. I pass a road that is signposted to lead up to the legendary Sendero de Quetzales – the Quetzal Trail. It runs through the mountain forest to another highland town called Boquete. I decide to have a wander and see if I can find it. I don’t. The road is steep and quite scenic but I end up getting distracted to often and eventually the rain clouds roll in and it begins to rain fairly hard. My waterproofs were in my stolen bag. You have to laugh….
I am saved by a friendly driver who takes me back down to the Guadelupe road, and saves me a good soaking. I spend the afternoon sat on my porch watching the hummingbirds who seem unpeturbed by the rain and reading a book. The clouds really set in here and the steep mountain ridges are all completely obscured.
I decide to eat in the Los Quetzales restaurant tonight. It’s fairly pricey but looks nice and their bar/restaurant/lounge area is really nice and homely with free internet (well donations are requested, but I do skimp a little on this – hey all my most valuable possessions have just been stolen, I think that I can be forgiven for not ‘donating’ a few dollars to use a service that I would have had for free with my Wi-fi anyway!). The meal is nice, but perhaps not $10 nice. If you know what I mean. There is still no one else at the lodge and it is really strangely quiet for such a big place.
The next day I have been persuaded to have the guided tour and breakfast option. It is the only way to get up into the forest without actually staying in the forest cabins which is way too expensive for just me. You need at least 4 or 5 people to make it cost effective really. Maybe some dorms up in the cabins would be a nice idea? Sadly, the breakfast kind of fails to materialize and have to settle for some plain cereal and slightly burnt buttered toast. Disappointing Los Quetzales! Still the forest tour makes up for it. After getting a lift up with on a tractor, my friendly local guide, whose name eludes me right now, takes me up to the cabins and fills up some hummingbird feeders and spreads out some seeds. The hummingbirds appear pretty much instantly and there a couple of new species found only up here in the forest such as the amazing Fiery-throated Hummingbird. We then have a walk through the forest – we get by with me speaking a little Spanish and him speaking a little English. We have my bird guide so we can point at the pictures if needed. It’s the first time I’ve been up in the mountain forest and it is quite atmospheric – damp and dense yet beautiful and ancient. The birds are all completely new to me up here and there are many species to be seen and heard – Spangle-cheeked Tanager, Ruddy Treerunner, Buffy Tuftedcheek, Green-fronted Lancebill and all sorts of other crazy names. The Quetzal lives up here and is present, but you really need to come between November and February in breeding season to be certain of seeing one, and sure enough we are unsuccessful. It’s still a great experience though and the highlight for me has to be following my excited guide as he rushes about trying successfully to find a beautiful Collared Trogon by following its call. I have a great time and would love to do this again or even better stay up the cabins. It would be sooo amazing! On our way back down we stop off to see a couple of stunners – Golden-browed Chlorophonia and Emerald Toucanet. Again, my camera is sorely missed!
It rains again in the afternoon but I manage to do some birding around the grounds of the lodge. I talk to my guide again in the evening and he recommends a place called Las Lagunas near a town called Volcan which I passed through on my way here from La Concepcion. I decide to take his recommendation and go exploring!
Morning comes and I’m up quite early to get a collectivo to Volcan. From there I have a rough map of the town which signposts my way to the Lagunas (lakes). A couple of friendly locals help me with my directions, that take me along a road out of town over a small airstrip and past some coffee farms. The Lagunas are a Nature Reserve but they are not particularly well advertised and the road wends along the sides of a couple of reed-fringed lakes surrounded by thick woods. The birding is difficult at first, with many species eluding me through the thick foliage, but gradually I adjust to the area and the binoculars I am using and new species start coming thick and fast. This really is a great trail and the ironic thing is that you can’t actually see the lakes very much at all. There are no viewpoints as such so the waterbird count is pretty low but the forest teems with wrens, antbirds, tanagers (White-winged and Speckled tanagers – wow!!!), warblers and many more. A highlight for me would have to the handsome Black-chested Jays – rare in Costa Rica but common here, and incredibly vocal! The walk back through the farmland is also very productive this time and several more new species are added to my list including my final bird of the day – a stunning White-tailed Kite perched on a distant tree – it’s large size and stark black-and-white plumage standing out against the background. Following the normal pattern around here it rains during the afternoon but thankfully only just as I am arriving back into Volcan. Volcan is a lot bigger than Cerro Punta or Guadelupe but there still isn’t a great deal to see here so I shelter under the eaves of a shop with a cold Coca-cola. I’m not a big fan of Coca-cola but I remember reading a quote somewhere that it is ‘the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter if you are a king or a beggar (or even if you are in Panama, Costa Rica or the UK!) you always get the same Coca-cola’. Some might call that one of the evils of globalization, like Mcdonalds, but right now I call it reassuring.
After the rain eases I go and find a collectivo and make my way back up to Los Quetzales for my last night. It’s been a great few days despite my initial terrible setback and I dearly hope to return here with more time to spend (and with a camera) and hunt down those elusive Quetzals.
JAMES AND BECKY
Pangea’s is as good as ever. The one guy that seems to run the show there is recognizing me now so that’s good. Becky and James are due to arrive in tonight and everything goes to plan and the hostel transport picks them up and brings them in. The only problem tonight is that there is a party going on next door which is really loud so sleep is a bit of an issue. Ah well. It’s good to see them and good to have a beer up in the bar.
Andres and Ruth are due to pick us up the next morning early. They are running a little late but eventually arrive in Andres’ dad’s car – a big four-wheel drive truck with an open-back that we have to sling the backpacks in (we have a tarp to cover them with). We are heading to the Pacific Coast today via their apartment to pick up something they have forgotten. Their place is really nice – with a view out onto the forested mountainside. I am overjoyed when Andres gives me my camera that his contact here in San Jose managed to repair. This is some consolation over the loss of my other camera (he also brought my spare binocs from Jalova so I am back in business!).
Carara National Park is our first destination and just outside of the park we stop by one of the famous crocodile bridges here on the Pacific Coast, this one at Tarcoles. It’s a bridge over the River Tarcoles and though the water is high at the moment you can still walk out and look down on some huge crocs basking in the shallows. Andres explains that even though this river is the most polluted in Costa Rica (its runs through San Jose), the crocs grow remarkably big. A study was done and stomach contents analysed. The predominant thing they found which would provide an explanation – was chicken! Believe it or not, locals come here and throw live chickens in to provide some ghoulish ‘entertainment’ for the tourists. Thankfully, nobody tries that whilst we are here.
Carara National Park lies on the border between the dry country of the North Pacific and the humid and wet South Pacific, hence you find a good cross-section of animal species here. The first trail we walk along is the Sendero de Lagunas which runs through some forest alongside some small lakes. Due to the time of year, it is flooded and so the path is very often under thigh deep water. What fun! Welcome to Costa Rica, James and Becky! They really enjoy it though and it certainly feels like an adventure – especially when Andres comes bursting out of the bushes at one point holding a small croc by the tail in an attempt to catch it! Sadly, it escapes and we then have to wade through a section of flooded path probing the way ahead carefully so as not to step on it. Andres is disappointed by failing to catch it – he thought it was dead apparently until he touched it and it bolted. James is quite amused (and a little worried too) about the whole wading through deep water with crocs in it part and can’t wait to post it on Facebook. It’s a tough walk because of the water but we see many birds, an Agouti, some lizards and a nest of a Boat-billed Heron with mother and chicks on it, and as we are walking back to the ranger station where we parked up, a pair of stunning Scarlet Macaws (the local specialty) land in a nearby tree.
There’s a heavily concealed sloth and some large black and grey iguanas (called Ctenosaurs) as well as a lone foraging Coati hanging out at the ranger’s station while we have a quick rest and dry our feet off and wash out our shoes. Then we tackle the nice path, which is all laid out properly with interpretation boards. It’s a cool trail though and it leads to a bridge out over a large river where we see more Macaws flying over. We also see a couple of cool frogs, including my first green-and-black Poison Dart frogs, an interesting lizard and some birds, including the hard-to-see Black-faced Antthrush.
After our adventures today, we decide to head further down the coast to Manuel Antonio to stay. It’s a small touristy town that shares its name with one of the most popular (and smallest) National Parks in Costa Rica, famous for its population of the quite frankly, adorable, Squirrel Monkey. I really want to see these guys!
We turn up and manage to get a room in a nice place, Babaloo Lodge. Lonely Planet apparently recommends it and we do too. Cheap and clean with nice bathrooms and air conditioning. We had a cool balcony view out into some woods too. Sadly, the restaurants here are charging tourist prices and paying $20 for a good but not great meal is not cool.
Breakfast in the morning is similarly overpriced but is at least nice (though I could happily eat another plate) and we do find somewhere with a great view out over the sea and a woodpecker that neither myself or Andres had seen before.
Then it’s time to go look for monkeys! Sadly, we soon learn that the park is actually closed on a Monday. Bugger! Andres is all for sneaking in, but the possibility of arrest though remote is enough to put all of us sensible people off. So instead we go for a drive even further south. Andres knows of a cool stretch of river where we could go swimming. It’s up a very steep gravel track that tests the four-wheel drive of the car and when we get there we find that the river has swollen to become a raging torrent that plunges over several cascades. Though undeniably a beautiful spot, there’s little for us to do other than take photos as we certainly can’t swim in that. Ah well, next plan. Andres also knows of a nature reserve that we passed on the way called Baru so we head back there and stop off for a walk. It turns out to be a good idea as we get to see some more Coatis, and they have a cool observation tower that is a great place to view birds, such as a beautiful male Violet-crowned Woodnymph. We also see their small turtle hatchery project, an entertaining bunch of Capuchin monkeys, the beach (sadly, its starting to rain now and it’s a bit rough so swimming is not really an option) and best of all, a very cool Collared Forest-falcon. It’s a big predator that is fully capable of catching an adult toucan and it’s quite hard to see, indeed Andres himself has only ever caught a glimpse of one before. We head back to the restaurant by the car-park and grab some food just as it starts to pour with rain. The drive back is interesting as we are heading all the way back to San Jose and with only a tarp covering our stuff, it seems inevitable that something will get very wet, though we arrive back at San Jose without too much water on the bags and bid a fond farewell to Ruth and Andres.
The next day its off to Jalova and the journey on the local buses is thankfully incident free and I have been able to introduce James and Becky to the joys of rice and beans for breakfast!
Jalova is the same as ever and we quickly set James and Becky up in one of the empty dorms. We have met an Italian photographer friend of Marta’s on the way who is also staying a few days. Our first activity is a forest nigh walk in which I manage to find one of my favourite harmless snakes to show everyone, along with plenty of cool bugs.
The next day we have a cool forest walk with lots of entertainment from the resident monkeys and then in the evening its time for the real treat – the turtle walk. I run through the whole presentation with everyone who is visiting and we all get dressed up in black and ready to go for the 8:00 shift. The turtles do not disappoint and though I do not remember exactly how many we see – we get to fully work a turtle and Becky does a great job of counting the eggs (the look on her face is priceless afterwards) and James is excellent at measuring the turtle and triangulating the nest. He comments that it is odd but good to see me in such an authoritative role! We actually get several turtles in the spot that we are working – there is another one nesting about 10 metres away and another two or three come up the beach behind us as we work. It’s every bit the experience I was hoping to be able to provide.
The next day is quiet except for a rain storm and we end up playing cards for the most part.
We go out on Nest Check this morning. I didn’t originally plan to do this as it can be tough and a bit of a chore compared to going out and looking at turtles! But all credit to the, James and Becky want the full experience of what we do. So off we trot along the beach. It turns out to be quite a hot day though we do make good time. The guys do another good job of collecting data and best of all to everyone’s surprise we come across a hatching nest. This really kind of completes the turtles experience now and we spend half an hour or so watching the little guys scrambling across the sand – making sure that the slower ones at the end all still make it to the water. And of course because it is during the day we can take pictures galore!
On the way back we detour through the coconut plantation and I manage to catch a species of snake never seen before by us here at Jalova, the beautiful Orange-bellied Littersnake.
This afternoon some students arrive from the University of San Jose to stay for a couple of days. They are camping and immediately the whole peace and tranquility of the base is shattered as they proceed to make themselves quite at home.
We go out for another night walk tonight this time combining a beach walk to see some more turtles and a forest walk to try and see some more frogs and snakes. The forest walk is preceded by a walk in the back field which though productive – a new species of frog that is actually quite abundant in the boggy grass, but we just haven’t been looking there and also a cool Red-eyed Treefrog which makes Becky very happy indeed! The forest is also pretty cool with one of the big treefrog species for our efforts. We then cut up onto the beach where we happen upon a group of about 20 students (and their teacher!) directly contravening the laws of the park by being out in such a huge unsupervised group shining their lights around all over the place. Needless to say I am enraged and gather them all up and lead them back to base where I find Marta about to lead the scheduled group of students out on their night walk. I angrily tell her to get rid of these other people and then go and cool off by watching some turtles with my friends. When we get back the students are noisily drinking in the kitchen, shouting and howling. Joao will later go and tell them to shut the hell up during the night. I am not impressed by their conduct in the slightest.
The next day we have to leave this chaos. Our plan is go and visit the animal sanctuary run by some friends of Joao. It is located down the coast in a small town called Moin. It’s a nice boat ride down there and the sanctuary has its own dock where we alight. It’s a pretty cool set up – looks like an old lodge now used to home orphaned or hurt wild animals. They have some parrots, a toucan, a pair of Scarlet Macawas, some very young Howler Monkeys, a couple of Spider Monkeys, a baby deer, several Racoons and, of course, several sloths of both species.
We spend the afternoon looking at all the different animals. I like being able to see all the different parrot species up close and the young Racoon is quite the character. I am fascinated by how human-like their paws (hands) are. They reach through the bars and fiddle with the lock on the cage as well as anything you are holding in reach.
We then meet the nice lady who runs the place with her husband. She takes us over and introduces us to the sloths, who all have names. The ‘smiley-faced’ three-toed slothes are my favourites and the ones that don’t bite and they seem so happy to cling to you for a cuddle that it impossible not to love them. We also meet a dog who has adopted to two tiny kittens. Then during the evening we get to bottle feed the baby Howler Monkeys. They are very cute and very expressive, but they really really smell!! My Howler is a little reluctant to leave the cage but with a little gentle persuasion she finally comes and sits in my arms with a bottle. I am sat on the floor at this point and one of the kittens also decides to come and sit on my lap. It’s really cool to have seen most of these animals in the wild and to now be able to get a more ‘hands-on’ experience with them.
The place is pretty busy the next day with a lot of volunteers arriving to help. We don’t find ourselves with too much to do which is a shame, but we still have a nice day playing cards and helping with the sloths. James and I also do a little bit of kayaking on the river in the afternoon. There are a couple of cool new arrivals in the shape of an owl who has sadly lost a wing and is set to be a permanent resident of the sanctuary and also a small porcupine, which I am fascinated with as I have never seen one before!
We have one more morning left here and we go on a canopy zip-line tour with a nearby lodge. It only takes about an hour if that but it’s a bit of a rush and the views are quite stunning.
Then it’s the parting of the ways with my friends heading off to get the bus back to San Jose and I’m getting the boat back to Jalova. I’ve had a great time this past week and I´m so glad that James and Becky did too. Becky even says that she would seriously consider coming out and doing a full expedition – but time off work and money obviously being key constraints. Now they are off to civilization once more in the shape of the Big Apple itself, New York. It will be a different experience that’s for sure!!! See you at Christmas guys!
VOLUNTEERS ARRIVE
Its three weeks into the last expedition of the year. The volunteers are away in Puerto Viejo as part of their long weekend break and we are enjoying the peace and solitude – though we do have five 2 week volunteers still with us.
The group as a whole is a good bunch. We have had no problems yet and everyone seems happy to be here. Most of them are staying for 10 weeks this time although numbers are lower than the previous two phases – most likely due to the time of year (many young people are going to university at this time). We have a good mix of the usual Brits and Americans with one each of Canadian, Australian, New Zealander and our first Belgian. There is also a pretty good mix of girls and boys ) we haven´t had any obvious relationships form yet but there is still time and it always happens!! They are probably the hardest drinking group this year. Numerous bottles of wine and rum are being consumed each week and though I am not entirely sure that this is particularly appropriate behaviour for this sort of expedition, it has not interfered with the running of things and there has been no stupid behaviour or incidents as a result. Yet.
For the first two weeks we had the pleasure of Katy from Maryland being a part of the group. She was filming a short promo film for GVI and was able to get some pretty cool footage of the turtle walks, the start and end of the jag walk, various forest animals and of course the training and day to day life of the volunteers on the expedition. I can´t wait to see the end results.
Training week was fun and everybody had a good time. Of particular note were the emergency role-play scenarios that we have started enacting (the staff also did them the week before) which really work in terms of getting everyone thinking about what could happen if there was an emergency situation. I also take the whole group out on a forest walk where we are lucky enough to see a pair of two-toed sloths in the same tree. I guess aloud that they may be a couple with the larger male below the browner, smaller female. A moment later I prove myself wrong by discovering a small face peering out from under the arm of the large sloth. It´s a little baby sloth looking pretty much identical to the baby Ewok in Return of the Jedi. What luck!
The first hag-walk of the phase turns out to be the highlight of the second week. Led by “iron-woman” Molly, the intrepid team tackle the 15 mile walk and are out for 11 hours finding 27 dead turtles along the way. This is a result of three or four weeks of kills that we haven´t recorded yet due to there not being a jag-walk for the last few weeks. If that wasn´t work enough, you have to stop and photograph and take GPS and other data for each kill, they also come across the dismaying sight of a live turtle flipped over onto its back, laying helpless for the poachers to come back and kill it at their leisure. Luckily, despite the team being close to complete exhaustion by this point, they could not stand by and let this happen and flipped it back onto its front and escorted it to the sea. They even filmed it with their little hand-held camera. Sadly, this would not be the end of it and as they continued they would find 19 more turtles in a similar state, all alive. Although they called the rangers and also the Sea Turtle Conservancy, who are based in Tortuguero, it fell to them to rescue all of the helpless reptiles. I can only imagine how tough that must have been. Whenever I have reached that point in the walk, its all I can do just to keep walking, let alone manhandle 400 pounds of turtle over and over. I once helped a turtle back to the sea and it took four of us using hammocks as stretchers to lift the creature! Despite, all of this, they would not be defeated and successfully rescued all the turtles! What a feat and what an experience! One that none of them will forget, I´ll bet! Well done Molly, Adam, Melissa, Simon and Harriet!
Bird surveys have started up and I have been placed in charge of them so I have been doing all of the inaugural surveys for each of our three canals. I don´t find many more things more pleasureable than gently canoing along in the early hours of the morning, listening to the jungle wake up around you and spotting animals. I could do it every day!
I managed to write about a couple of days in early October before then falling behind again:
4th October 2010
My birthday. It kind of crept up on me. James bought me over an envelope of cards from my family which was really nice. Thank you! I spend the morning kind of keeping to myself a little – it feels kind of weird, even though I’m not the sort to get too worked up about these things. After all it’s been a great year and at least I don’t have to get up and go to work! Sonja does bring me a bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and a home-made card that the staff have all signed. Sweet. The volunteers and other staff are busy getting involved with acting out the emergency scenarios that we practiced the other day, so I wander around with my camera and binoculars. I am treated to the sight of a beautiful blue and yellow Magnolia Warbler hopping around in the hedge outside the kitchen and then I head out onto the beach. It’s an odd day – it actually reminds me of being on the coast in Wales. There’s quite strong onshore winds and a very overcast sky and even though it is not raining, you can feel it in the air. It’s still much warmer of course though. There is an Osprey and a couple of Peregrine Falcons circling overhead with the usual Vultures and not quite as many migrants in the beach edge today – maybe the wind is forcing them into the shelter of the garden and forest?
Cooking with Sonja today which is fun, even if our food is not quite up to the standards set so far by other staff. I make the cool discovery that Adam, our Kiwi volunteer, is also a big Pearl Jam fan like myself. Nice one!
5th October 2010
It’s official Migrant Warbler Day today. On Nest Check I manage to see 9 species alone, including a poor Common Yellowthroat (a new species for our records) that has landed on the beach and does not have the energy to continue. I pick it up to move it into the shade and it dies in my hand. Marta has a similar experience with another warbler, a male Blackburnian Warbler all in orange, black and white, back at base. It happens sadly, a lot of migrants just don’t have the energy for such a long journey. The Blackburnian looked like a young male too, possibly from this year’s brood and he just didn’t have what it takes. Sad, but that’s life. A stunning and also new, black and yellow Hooded Warbler takes the total for the day up to 11. This migration season is proving to be highly exciting.
Hi peeps. As many of you are probably aware, a very nice person stole my bag from the bus on my way to Panama for my visa run between expeditions which contained all my most valued possessions including my laptop. Hence, my journal has fallen behind significantly and I lost a lot of what I had prepard - hence I’m going to just have to recount key events that have befallen me during this very busy time.
END OF PHASE
It was the end of Phase 103, the third expedition of the year and my first as paid staff, and what a contrast it was with the second one. This expedition was full of interesting, enthusiastic and fun people who most importantly all stayed until the end and were sad to go. Likewise, we were also sad to see them go. Especially our interns, Marcus the Texan gent, Deanna from Canadia (heh heh) and our feisty Scottish lass Karen B, not to mention long-term vols like Karen L, with her much-missed cutting sense of humour (she is off to GVI Mexico and then GVI Ecuador before going home. Nice!) and our favourite Aussie quote machine, Lauren (“I did this once before with a wombat. But luckily I had a Frisbee handy”). The interns are all going to be heading off to various work placements around Costa Rica and Lauren is off travelling for a few months. Hopefully they will keep in touch as I very much valued my time with them and had a great deal of respect for them. We will have Sonja and Arno back with us for their placements (interestingly just about all the interns would have liked to come back here, but sadly we could only take two), which I am glad about. It certainly feels sad waving them off from the beach on the last day.
I suffered the indignation of losing the Spotting Contest to Andres but a small margin (6 species). That was pretty good all things considered and I managed to get away with only having a bit of my leg waxed! Glad thats over though. Sadly, Andres and Ruth have now left GVI and have a n
The next few days after that were kind of weird. Very quiet, but we still had one volunteer, Yuli from Holland, to keep busy doing turtle stuff. I use them time to do a bit of work and to relax a bit. My one piece of excitement comes when myself and Rich take Yuli out for a night walk. Because Rich is there, yet I am leading the patrol, it kind of feels like I’m being tested! Its not a very bright night and several times we stumble upon turtles quite close by us. The most memorable moment is when we stop stock still with a turtle a few metres in front of us and stand waiting for a few minutes. It doesn’t move and I begin to suspect something is amiss, particularly as I have just noticed the scuffed up area of dark sand next to it. I look across to Rich and then flick my torch on. It reveals the corpse of a turtle on the tide line, blood oozing from a fresh and mortal wound in its neck. I lean a little closer to examine the wound, and recoil as the turtle takes a shallow, almost imperceptible breath. The Jaguar must have been right here!!!! Maybe only a matter of minutes before we arrived! Even though Rich and I have done the night walk many, many times, and even though we know there are no modern records of Jaguars attacking anybody, we are certainly a little bit rattled by this. This is probably the closest I have knowingly come to seeing the largest predator of the Neotropics! We decide to carry on regardless. There is nothing we can do for the poor creature except hope that the Jaguar comes back and finishes it off quickly. Which, of course, it will not do if we are standing here. So off we go and find ourselves a nesting turtle some way down the beach. That all goes to plan and we head back, looking over our shoulders constantly (at least that’s what I keep doing!) expecting to see a dark feline shape padding along behind us. Every noise that we would normally take for granted, a turtle rustling branches as it covers its nest chamber, or a small animal rustling in the jungle edge, becomes a cause for immediate attention and caution. On our way we find the turtle still where we left it and unbelievably, after a couple of hours, it is still alive. Has the Jaguar no mercy?! Feeling terrible, but after all there is nothing we can do, we have to leave it and move on. The Nest Check team, as expected, find it dead several hours later.
22nd August 2010
Routine day today with a nest check in the morning and a turtle walk in the evening.
23rd August 2010
Sleeping in and duty staff day means I am on base most of the day except to oversee a Forest Nightwalk that one of our interns is leading. Sadly, there is not a huge amount about tonight apart from a notably large tarantula.
24th August 2010
A bit more interesting today as I am leading the Mammal Transect Survey. I always like being up in the forest here and though today we do not see a large amount of stuff, there are plenty of tracks (Tapir, Peccary, Jaguar, Deer) and at one point whilst I am showing the team a trail from a peccary herd come across a good-sized Fer-de-lance coiled up on the other side of a log, which I happen to be standing next to. True to form it doesn't move and remains coiled whilst we take some pictures. Such a beautiful snake.
I'm overseeing a nightwalk tonight that my Canadian friend Sonja is leading. She does a really good job and is rewarded with a very productive nightwalk full of frogs and snakes. We see two species of parrotsnake draped in the trees above us. They are one of my favourite types of snake and I haven't seen one in ages.
25th August 2010
The five week volunteers head off on their long weekend this week to go rafting.
We have a visit today from people from the MINAE Head Office. These are the guys that run the National Parks. It is an interesting meeting which I am not completely involved with but it turns out that they have not been receiving our reports and don't have much idea of what we are actually doing here! Luckily, I am able to produce pictures of some rare birds (Agami Heron and Black Skimmer) and a species list. This seems to impress them and with Andres explaining how we do things in his native Spanish, the meeting is pretty successful. They actually want me to write a report for the Incidentals Sightings Project. It feels great to actually have my work recognised outside of GVI and I am going to produce something awesome for MINAE! I actually relish the thought of putting everything together in a report. Bring it on!
My main activity today is to go with Sonja along the back edge of the field behind us where I went with Andres the other night. I need to see some species for my challenge as at last count I was some 6 behind. Since then I have had some degree of luck but I don't want to get complacent. Sure enough before long we have seen a Taylor's Leopard Frog and a couple of the biggest Smokey Jungle Frogs I have ever seen. Then something really cool happens. The weird call of the Great Potoo echoes across the field behind us. I frantically start looking around and the headtorch catches some eyeshine up on top of one of the trees. Wasting no time Sonja and myself hustle over to the tree and sure enough up on a dead branch near the top of the tree sits the bird. Its cryptically coloured like a dead branch and has a huge wide mouth and massive eyes. I'm amazed to finally see one of these things as I have heard them before and seen pictures, but nothing prepares you for the sheer size of the bird. It's the size of a good-sized owl! And those eyes. When they reflect the torchlight they look like spotlights. They are massive and glow a deep purple-red. I've never seen eyeshine like it! It is looking in different directions for prey to fly past and when it fixes its glare on us with both of those big glowing eyes it looks like some kind of supernatural creature! This feelings is further enhanced by the call it makes - a kind of low, drawn out moan. It also makes a completely different sound, like a kind of whoop, that sounds like the sort of noise Andres would make when messing about. I can't stop babbling about how cool this is and the whole affair is made perfect by the sight of the full moon emerging from the clouds behind where the Potoo is sat. Amazing! The rest of the night can't really match that although I do unwittingly see a new type of lizard, a Neotropical Chameleon. It is sleeping in a tree and I take some pictures thinking it must be some kind of pale basilisk lizard or something. Andres helps me identify it later and it turns out that he has only seen this species in captivity. This area is a gold-mine for species at the moment.
26th August 2010
Andres captures a really cool Oriole Snake today on our way down to the boat. It must be around the 2 metres mark and its a beauty. Sadly, because the boat is waiting we don't really have too much time to spend with it. Good pics though.
Spend the day in Tort today and have a nice meal of Caribbean style Rice and Beans in Coconut Milk with my buddy Marcus. Then its internet time. My nephew Callum finds me online again and contacts me. I wasn't planning to call home today but its good to speak to him and we even play a couple of games over Skype. I also answer a big list of questions that me friends have asked about when they come to stay. Also start booking some accommodation for my Panama trip. Exciting!
27th August 2010
It's a quiet but busy day for me today. Lots of computer work trying to sort out the rota for the rest of phase and catching up on some data that I lost whilst 'tidying' up one of the memory sticks, in preparation for my MINAE report. Good start!
Guys come back from rafting today and have had a great time. Alex and the rafting crew never fail to deliver!
28th August 2010
Andres and I have an update of our Spotting Contest Scores. It turns out that I am in the lead by one! Shocking! I manage to further increase that lead by another one with a very cool Giant Parrotsnake during my incidentals walk. It lies draped across a trailside branch posing nicely for some pictures and displaying its full metre plus length.
In the afternoon myself and Marta are setting up some of our new cams on the boundary trails which are less travelled by people and normally covered in fresh animal tracks. We are also marking the tracks on the GPS with the potential of linking the two into a circuit so that we can run another (closer) mammal transect survey. This would be a lot of fun as these trails are a completely different atmosphere and sub-habitat of the forest to both the North Coastal Trail and the current Mammal Transect. Our mission is a success and we now have some cool GPS tracks which are some distance apart but with a bit of work and some permission from MINAE we have another route soon. The cams are also set-up so hopefully we may have some mammal pics. I'm hoping for a Tapir!!!!!
29th August 2010
Busy day today trying to collect and mark people's BTEC work and also preparing stuff for next phase. I also have to go out in the afternoon to repair some fallen mile markers on the beach that the nesting turtles have knocked down. Damn vandal turtles....
30th August 2010
My bird survey today and for the first time ever I get to survey Cano Sirena. Sirena has a mixed reputation. People tend to like the atmosphere along it as it is heavily forested with some really big trees, but on the down side, you don't see may birds along it. This is not strictly speaking true as there are plenty of birds along there as it is good forest habitat but there are not many of the birds (herons, kingfishers etc) that we actually are surveying for. Still Andres has seen some rare Hawks down here, so you just never know what you are going to see. I'm excited.
The current is quite strong today and I need another volunteer to help me paddle or else I just end up veering from side to side. Sirena is a very nice place without doubt though it proves frustrating as there are birds around here – I can hear them. Hummingbirds are squeaking away in the undergrowth without revealing themselves. A pair of brown woodpeckers flash overhead – they are almost certainly the Chestnut-coloured Woodpeckers, which are new for me, but I just can't see them clearly. Their call is very distinctive though. Its different to the similar Cinnamon Woodpecker which is loud and raucous. A Hawk circles overhead that I just can't identify even from photos taken. Still we do see a few things and everyone enjoys themselves.
Back on base just before brief there is a moment of excitement just outside the gate where a Parrotsnake has caught one of the big Smilisca treefrogs. Again. It's a bit of deja vu for me as they are exactly the same species that I saw last time. This time the snake is considerably smaller and has the head of the frog in its mouth. Apparently, according to Suzie who discovered them, they both fell out of a tree and are now struggling on the ground. The frog is inflating its body again and pushing against the snake with its front feet (hands). As the snake struggles for position you can actually see its rear fangs digging into the poor unfortunate amphibian. Now whether its because a crowd is gathering and the snake feels vulnerable out in the open or whether its because the frog suddenly unleashes a mighty jump with its back legs that sends them both flying backwards, but the snake lets go and retreats into a nearby hedge. The frog lays there bleeding and battered. Taking pity on it, I scoop it up and place it gently on a leaf in the shade of the hedge, where it eventually recovers and hops away. Snake vs Frog 2 – Frog survives!
I spend the afternoon helping people to identify birds species for their BTEC Course.
31st August 2010
We check our forest-cams today. No tapir sadly. But we do get Opossum and Agouti on one of them. That's a good start.
1st September 2010
Duty staff day means looking after camp and doing some more computer work. I'm also busying trying to make sure everyone's BTEC work is done.
2nd September 2010
Day off today, which I spend doing computer work. Most people have gone to Tortuguero.
Then its on to my turtle walk tonight. Thankfully, this time I have the early shift. It is me and my two friends from Canadia, Deanna and Sonja. They are both in high spirits tonight and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun. Within 15 minutes of us leaving, I spot some very interesting tracks and sure enough following them up the beach we come upon a Hawksbill. It has not begun to nest yet and is still on its way up to the vegetation line. This is exciting as we have only managed to work two Hawksbills fully (marking the nests and counting the eggs, rather than just tagging and measuring). We decide that we simply have to wait and get this turtle. So we find a comfortable log and sit there whilst I make periodic checks to see what stage she is at. First of all the first nest site she selects proves unsuitable for some reason so she decides to move further in under the tree line. She then starts digging her nest chamber. Excellent! We are busying playing the 'name countries beginning with a certain letter' game. Did you know that there are not many beginning with 'D'? Denmark, Djibouti.... Anyway back to the turtle. I have been watching her dig a nest chamber for some time now. She is a beautiful creature and I can clearly see her distinctive beaked mouth and the ridged edge to her shell. She reaches the stage where she stops digging and manoeuvres herself into laying position. Sonja is ready with the gloves and egg counter and belly crawls under the trees into position and the turtle begins to lay her eggs. Awesome! She lays five eggs(!) and then inexplicably starts to leave. We can't believe it! I've never heard of a turtle begin to lay her eggs and then leave – they normally go into a trance-like state when laying and nothing can budge them – and we've been pretty quiet. We back away as she emerges from her body pit and she circles around us and back towards the vegetation line again. Could she be going somewhere else for another go? We stand stock still and let her go past us and then head back to our log. Then a few minutes later she crawls back past us and heads back to the sea. We are highly disappointed to say the least. I have been denied my Hawksbill nest. The whole process took nearly 2 hours as well.
Not to be deterred we still manage to go and find a couple of common Green Turtles to tag and work, so the shift is not completely wasted by any means. We did get a really good look at the Hawksbill as well, which is not always possible.
More pics up for July and August. I have some very good ones to go up (I'm so modest) but I need to get up to date with my blog first. Enjoy. Hope everyone following this is well! This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
10th August 2010
I get to do the Mammals Transect for the first time this expedition with interns Arno (my first survey with him actually), Sonja and Karen B. I have a good chat with Arno on the way up to the transect about his couple of years in the police force between school and doing this (he's still a young chap). Its the sort of job which nets you a lifetime of experiences in a very short space of time, and its also an unusual choice of career change to go from that to conservation, particularly as he notes that he is not an academic and never studied this sort of thing at all. But he always had an interest and he and I share a common love of the works of Gerald Durrell and David Attenborough. These two guys must have inspired so many people like us – and if you haven't read Durrell's 'My Family and Other Animals' or Attenborough's 'Life on Air', then do so right away (and while you're at it go grab some Attenborough DVDs to watch too)!
I always enjoy this survey as we are going away from the coastal path and into an area where the forest becomes a lot more mature. The trees are larger and the atmosphere is completely different. The wildlife is also a little different with some species definitely preferring this environment. The path here is good for mammal tracks which is what we are surveying for and we soon find some deer and raccoon tracks. I manage to catch back a few bird species that I haven't seen on my spotting challenge yet; Blue-black Grosbeak and White-crowned Parrot. Arno proves adept at spotting frogs today and manages two different species including a very nice Fitzinger's Rainfrog. I manage to capture it and with Arno's help get some great pictures of it's features needed to confirm ID (Frogs are very variable in appearance so you need to know the details) – the bottom of the feet, the belly, throat and vent (polite term for bum), and also the back of the thighs and groin. These pictures help me to confirm the ID back at base using the in-depth scientific key in our Reptile and Amphibian Bible. We also manage to get some Jaguar, Ocelot, Tapir and Peccary tracks - a successful survey. We have some fun on the way back listening to Arno's police stories and seeing a group of noisy Crested Guan – a turkey-like bird complete with red wattle hanging from its chin, that sounds like a gull and despite it's size and ungainly appearance is quite at home up in the treetops.
In the afternoon I take the same guys down our new boundary trail trying to find some cool stuff for them to ID as part of their BTEC course that they do as interns. There are very fresh Tapir tracks all over the place and the Peccaries have also been through recently. It's amazing to think these guys are so close to base! I also get some great pictures of a Vaillant's Frog with some striking colouration. Some of the track is pretty boggy and we end up sinking up to our knees in places. Luckily, these guys see it as a great laugh and Arno even ends up winning some cookies from Sonja by betting that he has the most water in his wellies!
11th August 2010
Bird survey this morning and everyone seems a little subdued. Thats the nature of being out here, I think. Most people, myself including will go through these up and down phases. Still its always nice to be out on the canals. I am on our big open canal, Cano California, today. There is quite a current which means I am paddling a bit more than normal, but it is manageable. It's a good work-put I guess. There are the usual kingfishers and herons for us to see but nothing outstanding. There is a Caiman basking on a log that everyone but Lauren can see and I have to manoeuvre right up next to it before she can it!
I have a turtle walk in the evening and it's a weird one. The turtles are behaving very oddly. Many of them seem very jumpy and when we come across them on the beach, seem to detect us and turn back and head back to the ocean. Normally, this does not happen that often unless you stumble right onto them. Ones we do find that are nesting are in all sorts of awkward positions. Several seem to be in pairs, so that we can't work one of them without potentially disturbing the other. Another is digging its nest chamber right in the vegetation facing out down the beach, meaning we can't get to it to count the eggs. One turtle that we do find in the right position abandons the egg chamber as we are getting ready. Maybe they are getting wise to us? We never get to mark a nest but we do manage to tag a couple on the way back.
12th August 2010
Ok the generator has been playing up and electricity is sporadic so I have been struggling to update my computer journal and am several days behind as I write this – so I may be brief if nothing unusual happens.
It's day off today and my turn to visit Tortuguero and spend too much money getting food and drink. I have the very pleasant surprise that two of my friends from back in the UK – my best buddy James and long time friend Becky. I'm stoked as they can come and stay at base and get to see what I do. They are even going to be able to come and do a turtle walk with me. Then we'll do a bit of sight-seeing, hopefully hook up with Andres and let him give us a bit of a tour around! I can't wait!!!!
13th August 2010
A slightly wet but very good forest walk this morning with lots of toucans and monkeys plus some more Crested Guan and a female Great Currasow. It's my first time out with some of the new volunteers and they seem to have a great time. Job done!
Turtle walk tonight is not very successful unfortunately and we have to make do with simply tagging one turtle.
14th August 2010
Its my turn again for the Jag Walk this week and I spend the day resting and preparing everyone. I have three of the 10 week people, Karen B from Scotland, Lauren and Deanna. This is a good thing as they will have adjusted to the climate and heat and got a bit of walking practice in.
15th August 2010
It's time for the Jag Walk. Once again I will walk nearly 16 miles along open beach, looking at dead turtles and roasting alive. My last one was an epic and this one isn't short either. It's also the hottest one I have done. There is little cloud and the only good thing is the cooling breeze that is fairly constant. We record seven dead turtles and sadly our interesting sightings are limited to a single sloth sunbathing in a beach-side tree. I have to say I don't find it particularly enjoyable this time and although I don't suffer as much as last time I still am flagging considerably towards the end. Luckily, Karen and Lauren seem to get a perfectly timed second wind and start singing and dancing somehow as we reach the outskirts of Tortuguero. This has the effect of cheering everyone up and makes those last few miles bearable.
16th August 2010
Day of recovery and I'm on duty staff with Intern Sonja, who I have quite a bit of fun banter with throughout the day. My feet are pretty sore though. I actually have a small but painful blister for the first time ever.
17th August 2010
Another excellent forest walk which everyone enjoys a lot. There are many species of lizard including a new anole species record. We also see a forest turtle (tortoise to us Europeans), a Red Brocket Deer, an Agouti and many monkeys (there is also a cool bird of prey called a Double-toothed Kite following one particularly large group of Capuchins around. It preys on lizards and large bugs that the monkeys flush whilst foraging.).
In the afternoon, the interns do some presentations on different topics relating to the area. They are all very good and we all learn some interesting new facts. For example, did you know that a Manatee can replenish 90% of the oxygen in its lungs with one breath. Us humans can only manage 10%!
During the afternoon I spend some time birding with Andres down at the river mouth. We haven't had the chance to do anything like this for a while as we both have busy schedules here. The river mouth is attracting a lot of migratory birds at the moment including some Least Terns fishing. These guys are a rare sight on the Caribbean Coast according to the guides.
Later on, we go out and explore the new trail out behind base. We discover that the grassy edge of the coconut plantation is awesome for herps (reptiles and amphibians) and we catch and identify several species of frog and a cool snake that is new for me and that Andres has only seen a few times, a Speckled Blunthead. The cool thing is that is not venomous or aggressive and we can handle it quite freely. It has the most incredible huge 'bug-eyes'!
The trail proves to be really exciting as well and we manage to see a couple of Opossum, including one new species for our records, the Woolly Opossum, and many many more frog species, though nothing new for us. It's a lot of fun clambering through the boggy forest at night and even the muddy water filling my wellies by the end is not enough to dampen my enjoyment of the night.
18th August 2010
Bird survey this morning is very pleasant indeed. It is warmly sunny without being too hot and there is plenty of activity. We manage to see many of our study species with the highlight undoubtedly being the colourful and elusive Grey-necked Wood-rail. We also see some very cool birds that I have never seen before including the beautiful Blue Dacnis and a large Grey-headed Kite. We also see a large Caiman sitting in the water with just his head above the weeds. On the way back as the day warms there are many birds of prey circling on the thermals. Many of them are the resident vultures, but some closer observation reveals significant numbers of a smaller bird of prey that turns out to be the migratory Plumbeous Kite, identifiable by the rufous patches on its wings. What a great week this is turning out to be for new species for me, and it really shows that spending lots of time in an area can be a very rewarding experience as there is always more to discover.
19th August 2010
Nest check this morning is fairly unspectacular. The nests are all still there and there is no sign of any hatchlings or poaching. I spend some time talking to Debbie, one of our 2 week volunteers, who is slightly older than me and works as an Aviation Lawyer in London. She is one of the sweetest, nicest people you could meet, and yet also turns out to be a fan of hard rock and metal and attended Donnington this year. I put it to her that I always think of lawyers as being hard-nosed and pushy as part of their job, otherwise they'd never get anywhere and she agrees with me, but likes to take the nice approach, which apparently if nothing else makes people drop their guard, so she can use that to her advantage. I also discuss some philosophy with one of our young volunteers, Danya. He puts to me some kind of 'do we really have free will' type question. I respond with my usual take on this sort of thinking: It feels like we have free will right? It certainly feels like it was my decision to come to Costa Rica and within the constraints of society (money, time etc) I can do pretty much what I want. In the worst case scenario (and another stupid line of thinking) that we are living an illusion and we don't really exist or we are tied up to some machine like in the Matrix for example, then we will never know this anyway and to me life (or the illusion of life) is pretty damn good so even if all of this doesn't really exist or I really don't have free will, it certainly all feels very real, so why waste time pondering stupid 'philosophical' questions that you could never answer and just enjoy your life. Enough said.
20th August 2010
Out for a walk this morning – not to far though as I'm off to San Jose today. We go down to the estuary and look at the ever-growing flocks of wading birds that are gathering on migration at the sand-bars at the river mouth.
The trip to San Jose is routine enough and goes smoothly. I decide to spend the night in Pangea's Hostel which I kind of prefer over Gaudy's. It's a bit more of a professional and secure set-up. My plan tonight is to use the internet but given all the travelling, I'm just too tired.
21st August 2010
I get up early to use the internet before breakfast, but again I'm just tired. I get some nice breakfast of gallo pinto and bacon and eggs. Mmmmmm. Then my nephew see that I'm online with Skype and gives me a call. It's a pleasant surprise as he is staying with my parents and we have a good chat.
After that I've got a shopping trip to go on. Sadly, the shop I'm looking for is not at the address I have, but I am able to do some food shopping instead. I also find the shop that has my broken camera but its closed today. So a bit of a wasted trip. Ah well. At least Molly and Marta will have their Nutella.
Then its off back to Tortuguero again. I meet some interesting folks whilst waiting in Siqurres. Onje guy gets chatting to me who speaks good English and wants to practice. Whilst he's speaking to me we get approached by some crazy old guy. Crazy people always make me nervous as I don't know if they are going to get angry or violent if you ignore them. I shake his hand a few times and smile and eventually he goes away. The other guy accompanies me to the bus station and I'm waiting for the inevitable request for money, but to his credit in never comes. We did exchange names but sadly, I can't remember his. He does like Michael Bolton though...
28th July 2010
Bird survey time! My first one for a while since the boat has been out of action and other people have been leading them. I am doing canal Sierpe Viejo which cuts into the forest and is full of submerged logs and overhanging fronds. Great fun basically!
Things start promisingly enough. I have the great team of Melissa (UK) up front doing the spotter role (for birds and logs!), Johannah, Sarah and Sam (US) and Kim (New Zealand) and our first obstacle is a great matted wall of weeds which takes a great deal of effort to plow through but has the bonus of flushing a Least Bittern, a secretive and small member of the heron family and a tricky one to see as it dwells deep in the reed-beds. It's the first one I have seen. Then we have a nice wide ope stretch of canal which is quite quiet but relaxing before entering Sierpe Viejo proper. Again a large patch of weeds/reeds has overgrown the entrance to the canal and it takes more effort to get through but thankfully everyone enters the spirit of things and we triumph. The canal is an atmospheric place. The waters are dark from the oil secreted by the decaying palm fronds that hang down into the water and there are submerged logs and branches at every turn waiting to snag us. Thankfully, with some frantic directioning from Melissa we don't have any serious snags and a bit of deft maneuvering from me sees us through! Birds and animals are thin on the ground here, though the surrounding forest echoes with bird-calls. Pygmy and Green Kingfishers make an appearance as does everyone's favourite canal bird, the Boat-billed Heron staring out at us from a thick tangle of palm fronds with its deep, round black eyes. It's a cuddly toy in the making I tell you (GVI Costa Rica soft toys – Jaguar, Turtle (with detachable head to simulate a jag attack), Capuchin Monkey, Sloth, Red-eyed Treefrog, Eyelash Viper (well I think they are kind of cute when they are little), Boat-billed Heron. They would sell by the bucket load!). But best of all Sierpe Viejo comes up trumps once more as just before we finish our survey I spot not one but two (and my third and fourth respectively) Agami Herons perched just above eye level in another palm. We immediately stop the canoe and sit taking pictures excitedly. I have only seen juveniles of these magnificent birds before and these two are still young but definitely seem to be developing some of their adult plumage. An adult Agami is the aristocrat of the bird world with a rich chestnut vest and deep pea green waistcoat. He has a artfully styled silver plume of feathers dangling from his scalp and a ruff of silver feather along his throat and belly. His bill is the longest proportionally than any other heron although for what reason is unknown. There is a lot still unknown about these birds due to their preferred habitat of rivers and streams in dense forest such as this one. My excitement is contagious and the girls are all very happy indeed to have seen these guys – and so they should be, they and myself are very lucky and privileged indeed.
We are all smiles on the way back from that survey and Kim even says this is the happiest she has been for ages and she's been very happy all the time thus far on this trip! Result!
I have the late night walk shift tonight which always messes with me a bit, I must confess. I try and sleep in the afternoon but its too hot so I end up sleeping after tea for a few hours before waking around 11:00 and as always take about 10 minutes to work out what is going on. I'm with Kyle from Chicago, Rachel from Nevada and Paula our newest recruit. She was with the team that saw 84 turtles last night so I guess we have a tough act to follow. Andres comes back in having seen a whopping 126 turtles in the first shift and even managed to tag a Hawksbill.
It's a full moon out on the beach which is very atmospheric and the visibility is astounding. Our mission tonight is to cover some distance and mark a nest further up the beach to spread out our data. There are turtles everywhere and I entrust Kyle with keeping a count as I will inevitably get distracted and forget as I go along. We find ourselves a suitable victim before long and Kyle and I settle down to watch her finish digging her nest chamber. The act of digging this chamber is one I find absolutely captivating and extraordinary. Normally, as you would expect a turtle looks very awkward out of the water. It pulls itself along the sand with what seems like a great deal of effort and when it covers its nest, front flippers flailing, it just seems to end up getting twice as much sand everywhere else as on top of the nest. But when it digs, well that is a whole new story. It's a slow and deliberate act. The hole is located directly underneath its tail, for obvious reasons, and it uses its back flippers exclusively. The back flippers are kind of square and paddle-shaped compared the long and narrower front flippers. It can't see what it is doing so it's all by touch and feel. First of all with a quick flick of one back flipper she kicks away any loose sand so as not to bring more down into the hole and then delicately curls up the end of one flipper into a scoop and slips it into the hole being careful not to touch the sides. She pauses for a while, we speculate to possibly gauge the temperature of the sand or maybe its to measure how deep her flipper is in the hole to gauge its overall depth – there seems to be some kind of thought process involved anyway. She then gathers up a scoop of sand and gently lifts it out of the hole and deposits it to the side. Then the opposite back flipper does the little flick and repeats the process carefully and slowly. In this fashion she carefully constructs and bottle shaped nest in the sand to fill with eggs. How she knows when to stop, I don't know. How she knows that she has got it just right, I don't know. There is still a lot we don't know about these creatures. It's a wonderful sight nonetheless and one I have yet to grow tired off. My team does a great job of counting the eggs and marking the nest and I tag her with no problem. It's quite easy to tag straight away after she has finished laying as she is tired and is not flailing her flippers about trying to cover the nest or get away from you. We then retire away to let her finish covering the nest up and take a break in the middle of the beach. The moon looks incredible tonight. There is a vast halo around it, something I have never seen before. It almost looks like a rainbow (you can just about see the colour gradient) encircling the moon. Amazing! We stop and look at this for a while before heading back to base for some well earned sleep.
29th July 2010
Lie in this morning after last night. I can't be kept in all day though and take Edouard and Kim on a walk along the boundary trail. This proves to be an exceptional idea as we have not gone far along before we stumble across my favourite snake, a coralsnake. It slithers quickly under a pile of fronds but luckily out the other side where it coils under a dead branch. Coralsnakes do not have the striking distance of a viper nor do they have much inclination to bite and a very small gape anyway. They are lethally venomous though. Bearing this in mind I am pretty confident in lifting away the branch to reveal it sat there in all it's glory. What a beautiful creature!
As always the boggy end of the trail is good for frogs and we spend a while hunting around for them and find three species including a sleeping Scarlet-webbed Treefrog.
Back at base I am looking at my pictures of the coralsnake and notice it looks a little different to the usual species that we occasionally see, the Costa Rican Coralsnake (Micrurus mosquitensis). It has the same combination of black, yellow and red banding characteristic of the coralsnake group but it's yellow bands are narrower and paler almost to the point of white and it also has a black marking extending from its black cap down the back of it's head. A quick consultation of our reference books reveals it to be an Allen's Coralsnake (Micrurus alleni) and rarer species and one that Andres has never seen before (that means its rare!). There is not an awful lot of information about it but it seems that it is more closely associated with water than its cousin. This makes sense with the boggy nature of the boundary trail. I am excited by this – it's a new species for our records and for me personally.
I have the early shift turtle walk tonight. The moon is out again, though not as bright as last night and the halo is not present. Instead it casts a silvery light over the ocean giving it a mercurial look and magical ambience. We don't walk very far before finding our turtle to work. It begins to rain not long after we start and very soon we are all covered in wet sand and laughing at the state we are getting into. Unfortunately, our high spirits are dampened a little by the sight of somebody emerging from the forest with a bright white light. Guessing that it must be someone up to nefarious ends I call in to base to ask them to call the rangers to come and sort them out. In the meantime, we head the opposite way and look for some more turtles. We find three that have already been tagged in previous seasons, which is interesting. Hopefully, we can find out more about them and compare previous data to the measurements we take tonight at some point. We do finish a little bit early, because its raining and we need to clean off the kit a bit for the next team.
30th July 2010
Its kind of a day off for me today. The GVI Community Project with the school in San Fran has been shut down and Rich wants my help in picking up a few bits left from the project. This also gives us an excuse to conduct a bit of business in Tortuguero. This allows me to have a good chat with my family and have some nice local food, and just generally unwind a bit.
The 'few bits' turn out to be about 10 boxes of stuff ranging from school books to rice cookers, very little of it any use to us.
I drive the boat back.
31st July 2010
My turn on nest check today. Sam from Chicago and me amuse ourselves by coming up with a series of signs to communicate across the beach to each other. My favourite is the scratch of the nose, which means “itchy nose”!
In the afternoon, I get another chance to head down the boundary trail to check a camera that has been set up there in on effort to get some pictures of the mammals which seem to be using this trail a lot (we have fresh tapir, peccary, jaguar and ocelot tracks here). Sadly, the camera whilst working has only captured pictures of people before the battery ran out on the sensor. I do have another quite extensive look around for snakes and frogs but not too much luck today. No coralsnakes anyway.
1st August 2010
Early morning incidentals walk up north today with Marcus, Lauren, Deanna and Johannah. It gets off to a cracking start with a Rufescent Tiger-heron juvenile stalking along the edge of the beach and a Speckled Racer snake darting across our path. That's before we even get to the forest and we are greeted there by a Coralsnake (the commoner species this time) crossing the path in front of us. Very cool!
We take our time, walking a mile in three and a half hours and manage to see some six Eyelash Vipers, several cool birds (two new for the spotting challenge list) and some Capuchin Monkeys. Lauren also manages to spot a superbly camouflaged Red-eyed Treefrog, which is great as Johannah is leaving us in a few days and had not seen one properly yet. She also wants to see a sloth which unfortunately does not materialise. It's a really cool walk though and everyone enjoys themselves. Marcus proves to be an adept bird-spotter picking out a Slaty-tailed Trogon high, high up in the canopy.
I have the early shift turtle walk tonight with Sonja from Canada, Kim from New Zealand and Herman from Sweden. It's business as usual but we take out time tonight, working our way further up the beach rather than just working the first turtle we come across. I let the volunteers get a bit more participation in by following the tracks we come across and locating the turtles. I think they appreciate this and they've been doing this long enough to know what to do. We finally settle on a suitable nesting turtle and get our work done very efficiently. We then attempt to tag and measure a couple more turtles that have nested already. The first turtle we attempt this on is a feisty one and a bit of a dirty fighter. I get the tags in the flippers fairly quickly, but when Kim and Herman attempt to measure her she gives them a bit of a beating with her flippers. Poor Herman gets hit somewhere rather sensitive. I take over and finish off the measuring using the old foot block technique to deflect her flippers from me though the force of her blows still pushes me back. After this we decide to take a breather before heading back. I'm quite awake and talkative and talk to Kim about New Zealand, in particular the lack of wildlife compared to Costa Rica. I defend the birds of New Zealand as I believe they more than compensate for lack of numbers by having a vast amount of personality or uniqueness in most cases. We start walking back and Sonja is my next target of conversation. She is from Toronto so I start joking about it being no more than a suburb of New York, and the fact that it really should be called 'Canadia'. It sounds so much better, even in the National Anthem (honestly try it!). She's a good laugh and takes it all her stride and reveals that actually every time you cross the border you have to get hosed down in Maple Syrup (possibly by a mountie?). Hee hee. I then turn my attention to Sweden as I am genuinely interested about where everyone comes from. It turns out that Sweden is not a particularly nice place with quite a lot of racism and unpleasant characters (doesn't it have the highest suicide rate in Europe?), though they still do have a lot of open space and wilderness. Herman himself is actually quite keen to move to the UK. Grass is always greener on the other side I guess?
2nd August 2010
The five-week volunteers are sadly due to be leaving soon so today is the day of the 'BIG CLEAN' (to be said in a deep booming voice). This involves, as you may guess, of lbitzing everything in preparation for the new batch of volunteers. I end up attempting to single handedly eradicate the cockroach population from amongst the books and shelves in the kitchen and library area.
Unfortunately, the water pump decides to break today. We can get water from the wells, but its a pain in the backside.
Luckily, to take everyone's mind off things we are all heading out tonight to have some farewell drinks and a meal at a local riverside bar. It's a very entertaining night and I end up drinking way more beer than I really should have. But sometimes you just have to go with the flow. There's plenty of dancing and goofing around, with some very entertaining photos as a result!
3rd August 2010
I wake up feeling a little muzzy this morning! The interns and some of the 10 week volunteers are heading off for a long weekend in Panama early this morning and I get up to see them off. Then I go back to bed for a couple of hours before getting up to do the weekly Beach Profile measurements.
I'm tired today – not used to these late nights. But I have promised Eduoard, one of our most enthusiastic and nicest volunteers that we would explore the new south Boundary trail. Andres has been exploring here for the last couple of weeks and I have not had the chance yet. Marta also decides to join us and we troop across the field out the back of base to the forest edge. The is quite a gathering of birds and we spend a while looking at Trogons, Tityras, bright blue Honeycreepers and Squirrel Cuckoos, before entering the trail.
The new south boundary trail is dense and the path hard to follow. It's very muddy underfoot and the understorey is dominated by plants with spiky-leaved fronds. It's eerie quiet and not easy to see things. The odd bird call drifts through the air and we find a sleeping Red-eyed Treefrog, but that seems to be all apart from the incessant 'song' of the cicadas. Eventually, the path becomes little more than animal trails leading off in different directions. We explore a few of these that end up getting too overgrown to continue. The largest of these has the footprints of the previous group that explored along here so we decide to follow these for a while. Edouard flushes up a Great Tinamou, a brown partridge-like bird who's ghostly call is more often heard than the bird itself is seen. We also get buzzed by a pair of squabbling hummingbirds. Then we get lost. We decide to head back and find that we cannot easily retrace our steps. It quickly becomes apparent that it is very easy to lose your sense of direction in such dense forest. Luckily, we can hear the sea and try to orientate ourselves towards it. Thankfully, I have bought a machete! A compass might have been handy as well!!!!
Undaunted (well, I'm a little concerned actually as we will lose the light in another hour and a half or so) we forge new path, and then suddenly we hear odd noises ahead of us. Kind of a slopping, chomping sound punctuated by the odd squeal or snort. We hunker down in the buttress roots of a nearby tree and wait excitedly. There is a very boggy but slightly more open patch ahead of us and on the other side of this we can see dark shapes moving through the dense undergrowth. A musky scent fills the air that I am quite familiar with. I've smelt I many times whilst walking in the forest. Then suddenly one of the animals moves partly into view. It's a White-lipped Peccary, the wild pig of the Neotropics. It is rooting around in the muddy ground for seeds and fungi or whatever else it can find to eat. It's impossible to tell how many there are but maybe 30 or more are moving through the undergrowth in front of us. All of a sudden they reach the edge of the clearing in front of us and we get a good clear view of them. They aren't as big as I had expected, maybe being the size of a medium dog, maybe 3ft at the shoulder at most, but there are some smaller younger members of the herd amongst them. They are covered in wirey black hair and display the characteristic white hair around the bottom lip and chin that gives them their name. They have a potentially exaggerated reputation for charging if startled (anyone remember the classic absurb scene in the awful movie Anaconda where Jon Voight shoots a peccary that has just attacked Owen Wilson “Wild Boar” says Voight “Very dangerous. Go for the eyes” How exactly they accomplish this deadly attack I am still unsure, but I suspect it is just simply appalling script writing). Still, being trampled and gored by 30 odd wild pigs is not high on my list of things to do so I am a little nervous at how close they are beginning to get, although at the same time it's a genuinely thrilling experience. It is a thrilling experience to be on foot with a potentially dangerous and unpredictable wild animal and one that I have not felt since my time in Africa (though the Fer-de-lance comes close, but there was still the feeling that you were in control of the situation and once you know where the snake is and you are at a safe distance everything is fine). It's a direct mix of fear and excitement – a nervous thrill, if you like. They still haven't seen us and the air is filled with their grunts and barks, and their thick, musky scent. It does reach a point, however, when I feel that they have got close enough. If they keep coming and then suddenly detect us, that's when they become potentially dangerous and there isn't anywhere easy to climb nearby (believe it or not). So I stand up to move back. Well, they hear me straight away and most of them flee with alarmed barks. The forest is suddenly filled with running wild pigs, though thankfully running away from us! One grizzled male remains stock still and looks directly at us with his hackles up. I don't think he can see us, he seems to be looking past us, but he knows something is wrong. We all freeze again and wait with baited breath until thankfully, he turns and joins his companions. The sounds of the retreat fade surprisingly quickly. What a rush! The three of us are thrilled! It's a real wild encounter and another magical Costa Rica moment.
Whilst, all this was happening we can hear the barks of the dogs on the neighbour's coconut farm. I guess they can smell those pigs a mile off! This is a relief as I was getting worried about us being lost and starting to lose the light before long. Brandishing my machete we head towards the direction of the barks and the sea. Expecting any minute to be rushed and disembowelled (or possibly have my eyes removed?) by a charging peccary, it is quite a relief to emerge out into the field behind base – not even half a km from the original path! We all laugh both with relief and because we have had such an exciting afternoon.
4th August 2010
There is a bird survey today to our furthest canal, Cano Sirena. It's quite deep into the forest and not the best place for seeing waterbirds but there is always the chance of something else interesting. Sadly, I am not doing the survey but I am going to be on the boat team, which basically drops off the survey team and then waits around for them and takes them back again. This is actually quite a cool job because you just get to park up and enjoy the sights and sounds of a quiet area of the National Park that is visited by few people. Excitingly, we are treated to the sight of a pair of Great Curassow on the way. This huge turkey-like bird is an impressive sight with the male having strong black and white plumage with a characteristic curly crest of feathers atop his head. Their call is a deep booming that you can actually feel in your chest, it's so low! They scramble into the dense undergrowth of the riverside with agility surprising for a bird so large and ungainly-looking.
Sadly, whilst we wait at the entrance to Cano Sirena nothing else majorly exciting reveals itself, though flocks of racous parrots scream overhead at regular intervals and a couple of kingfishers flit past. Marta's maneuvering of the boat provides some amusement however. Like myself she is only just learning and it is difficult.
On our way back to base I note the appearance of increased numbers of wading bird species birds on the rivermouth. It being August of course, I guess its time for the first migrant species to start arriving, in particular maybe those inland residents who have finished breeding or individuals that did not breed successfully and have begun to move to richer feeding grounds.
Jaoa heads off when we get back to go pick up the newcomers from San Jose.
5th August 2010
Two very important things happen today. Firstly, Andres and I reveal our five-week total scores. I am on 175 whilst Andres has clocked up 178. I am actually surprised as I though he was wiping the floor with me! All to play for.
Secondly, all of the five weekers leave. We have had a good time so far and I genuinely wish they could stay for longer. It's quite emotive and there are a few tears as people say their farewells.
Then once they have left, almost everyone is heading off to Tortuguero today. I opt to stay behind and have a quiet day manning the base. Although my quiet day ends up with Molly and I getting hot and sweaty disassembling a heavy wooden bunk-bed to move it into another room. Oh for some IKEA flat-packed furniture right now....
6th August 2010
New arrivals coming today. The morning is spent furiously tidying the place and cleaning up. Luckily, we have Sonja and Karen L to help us out, having opted out of going to Panama with the others. I end up getting hot and sweaty again putting the bunk-bed back together in it's new room. I borrow the Ipod Speaker dock to help me along. The perfect music for hitting heavy bits of wood with a hammer in a sweat pit of a room? Why none other than Texas' finest 90s metal act, Pantera. The only downside is that I have to resist the urge to start dancing around in a moshpit circle with myself every time the frequently awesome riffs kick in. Sonja compliments me on my music taste and it turns out on further discussion that the girl from Canadia is quite a rock fan herself. She even loves the new Pearl Jam album! I think we are going to be good friends!
The new arrivals arrive on time in the afternoon. It's turning out to be a scorcher! They are a fairly even mix of Brits and Americans, with one Australian. One chap, Rick, has an aunt that works with my mum. Small world! They all seem very pleasant and I'm sure we will all get along fine.
Myself, Sonja and Karen L head out for the night walk tonight. The other long-term guys were due back today but sadly, Lauren's bag was stolen so they have had to stay an additional day to sort it out with the police and insurance.
It's an interesting walk and we manage to find a turtle to work. The girls graciously let me count the eggs, which is nice. Then on our way back a large group of figure materialise out of the darkness. It's Edwin the head ranger from MINAE and he's bought an army! At least 8 burly police officers are with him. Unfortunately, I can't communicate well enough to establish why they are there but I imagine as some kind of poacher patrol. I wonder how many turtles they have disturbed whilst they have trekked down the beach en mass.
7th August 2010
The new arrivals get their introduction talks and health and safety briefings this morning and then I take them out for a walk on the South Trail. It's quite productive with two Brown Vinesnakes, a lone Howler Monkey and a curious Western Slaty Antshrike all clearly visible. There is also an abundance of lizards, spiders and butterflies providing ample photo opportunities.
The police and Edwin stop by during the day and Andres exclaims that he has never seen such tough-looking policeman apart from when he was chased by the riot police in San Jose during his 'youth'. We don't quite establish exactly what the riot was about but still it's a good story!
Sonja and I spend a while doing the washing up to my Ipod this evening. Lauren has also seen my Ipod and is very impressed with it. Everyone seems surprised that I'm so into music. I guess I don't try put it on very much. I'm not pushy like that. I play Sonja some of my favourite stuff at the moment including Thrice, The Bronx and Biffy Clyro.
8th August 2010
I'm all excited today. I have an early morning incidentals walk with Sonja and Karen. We are going to start early and head up north to find some cool animals. We get off to an interesting start by finding a Green Turtle in the coconut plantation. She looks very lost and very tired. Well, we can't just leave her here so we try and push her back towards the beach. She's a big girl and it takes a little bit of carefully applied force to get her to change direction back towards the beach. Eventually, she looks as though she is heading off and all is well, when suddenly I feel a sharp stabbing pain in my head. I reach up and pull a nasty-looking black wasp out of my hair. Suddenly, they are everywhere. The turtle must have disturbed a nest somewhere! We start to run back down the trail. I can see several of them following Sonja and I pull several of them out of my hair. It's absolutely horrible! I have visions of us having to plunge into the sea to escape them. I notice poor Karen is behind us and has been reduced to tears by the stings. I run back and start pulling them off her, getting stung in the hand during the process. Thankfully, we manage to outdistance them but poor Karen has been stung on the eyelid and the ear and neck. Sonja has several stings on her body and I have two though the hand does not hurt anyway near as much as my head. Luckily, we are literally only five minutes from base and get back to apply some anti-sting cream. Sadly, it looks as though our walk is going to be off the cards and we sit in the kitchen to recover. It has been a pretty intense experience and not one I am keen to repeat and thankfully, none of us seem to be allergic to the stings. So we just sit around feeling sorry for ourselves and nursing our stings. I am a little worried about Karen, and sure enough her eyelid swells up but thankfully its just a normal reaction rather than an allergy. My head pounds like I've been hit with a hammer but otherwise I'm ok. Damn turtle!
The killer bug theme continues later that morning when base is invaded by army ants. Thankfully, nobody is bitten and they busy themselves hunting the spiders, cockroaches and scorpions that live in the crevices of our buildings. There is no way to stop them that anyone knows of. I know that in Africa, people use fire as a barrier, but I don't think that is a feasible plan here with our wooden buildings! Still, as long as people don't stand in the swarm they should be alright and it is quite an amazing sight to see. Sadly, because we are out of the forest there are no attendant antbirds to the swarm.
In the afternoon – I am still recovering from my stings which have given me a throbbing headache. Then intern Arno returns from his afternoon walk with incredible news. The turtle that we saw this morning is still lost in the coconut plantation some 6 hours later! We mobilise and head out to try and rescue her using a couple of hammocks as makeshift slings. The poor thing is exhausted and can barely move when we arrive. Molly and Lauren have been giving her salt-water to drink from the end of a fallen palm frond. Quote of the day comes from Lauren at this point: “I tried this once before with a Wombat but luckily I had a frisbee handy”. With a great deal of effort – she must way something like 400 pounds plus. We manage to haul her out onto the beach where we pop a tag in her flipper (in case she ever comes up to nest again or worse hasn't got the energy to survive). Then she manages to pull herself into the surf and disappears under the waves provoking a cheer from all of us. We name her 'Suerte' (Spanish for luck) and hopefully her luck will hold up as she has been through a tremendous ordeal.
9th August 2010
I'm on Camp Duty today with my buddy Marcus. We are a pretty good team and manage to get everything done including my presentations as part of training week. We also nail some great Gallo Pinto for tea!
23rd July 2010
I'm scheduled to escort Patrick back to San Jose today as it is the end of his two weeks with us. We leave nice and early and would be getting to Cano Blanco for the six am bus if it wasn't for the fact that the boat breaks on the way. Its the cooling system. This leaves us little choice but to grab the canoe from the Rangers Station and paddle back over to the river mouth. Its kind of fun and jokes about encountering one of the huge crocodiles that live here or being swept out to sea by the current are laughed off – despite both of them being a very real possibility.
Plan B is to get a taxi from base up to Tortuguero and go out of the National Park using the northern route through La Pavona and Cariari. It's a really hot day and there are numerous raptors soaring including a fantastic King Vulture, a magnificently ugly bird. Sadly, a fast taxi ride is not the best time to get prolonged or even good views. Its a pretty hard bird to mistake though. Sadly, a hawk seen soon afterwards is impossible to identify at this speed.
The rest of the journey is uneventful and we meet Stephen, the country director at La Pavona. He has had business in the GVI Community Project, which is sadly closing down. At his prompting I try some local chicharrones – fried bits of fatty looking pork with a bit of boiled yucca as an accompaniment. It looks decidedly unappetizing but actually proves to be really really good with a very rich flavour.
Upon arrival in San Jose we conduct some errands and then head to Gaudys. I meet up with Paula, our newest two week turtle volunteer. She is 18, German and quite quiet. Patrick and I take her out to eat and find a cool local soda sandwiched amongst the Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and other fast food joint of the nearby main avenue. We have a delicious casado for the knockout price of 1900 colones. That's a full meal of rice, beans, meat of your choice (Steak mmmmmm....), mashed potato, salad and some nacho chips for somewhere in the region of £3 at most. Nice.
24th July 2010
Back to Tortuguero this morning. Its a very smooth trip and we are back at base by mid afternoon. It's still really hot in Tort which is a direct contrast to the cool and rainy air of San Jose in the central valley of Costa Rica.
I have a turtle walk this evening. My mission is to mark two nests only due to a shortage of tags for the turtles. We also need to walk a bit further in order to start getting more of a spread of nest along the beach. Its a beautiful night with a near full moon which gives excellent visibility. It doesn't take long for us to start seeing turtles making their way up the beach. There are plenty about tonight but we have to ignore them and give them a respectful birth in order not to disturb them. Finally, we reach our designated area of beach and start searching for a turtle that is digging the nest chamber. That's our cue to stop and get ready for it to start laying its eggs when it finishes digging. Something like the fourth turtle that I investigate is at this stage and we go about out business efficiently – and discover that the sandflies are out in force. Let me describe the sandflies for you. Firstly, you can barely see them. You can't feel them land on you. All you can feel is the bite coming out of nowhere – and the thing is it doesn't so much hurt exactly, like a fly or mosquito bite for example, it creates this horrific itchy sensation that is impossible to ignore, and when several are biting you at once or in quick succession it is simply unbearable. The closest I've come before is the sandflies of New Zealand or the midges of the Scottish summer. But these guys are worse. Much worse. The egg counters get it the worst as they have to remain immobile for maybe 30 minutes and the flies seem drawn to the warmth and sticky fluids of the egg-laying process. Poor Karen B's face in the morning is covered in swollen bites from these little buggers. I myself am sat next to the egg counter and have to hold a tape measure in the same position whilst the others triangulate the nest. I get bitten on the lip (that one actually hurt!), in the ears and on the eyes!!! Even worse, it has rained a bit so we are covered in wet sand that is impossible to clean off and so every time you involuntarily scratch at one of the bites you are rubbing coarse sand all over your face. Needless to say, by the end of the second nest which is even worse than the first one for flies, I am a seething mass of itching, sand covered bites. I feel absolutely rotten and just want to throw myself into the sea and roll about. Except then I would just get covered in sand as soon as I got out of the water. Thankfully, once you get on the move again the flies don't seem to follow and the itch goes away. The sand doesn't though. I am writing this a couple of days later and I still have sand in my ears (I have showered a few times as well). Still we accomplished our mission of two turtles and we did it very well given the circumstances. Well done Karen B, Karen L and Sam. On an interesting note, on our way back through my tiredness and hideous itching, I suddenly notice that there are very very fresh Jaguar tracks at my feet leading back the way we have come from. I wonder where exactly the Jag decided to cut up to the forest and away from us? Would I have noticed it if I was more on the ball after our ordeal? The visibility was certainly the best it could be tonight. Damn flies and sneaky jags! Still cool to work the turtles though.
25th July 2010
It rains a lot today. It was blazing hot yesterday. Lots of weather extremes at the moment.
Not a lot on today apart from a walk down the beach with Edouard, from France to recover some lost equipment (not from out shift I hasten to add!).
The boat is still out of action which means Jag-walk can't happen and nor can bird surveys , which is rubbish quite frankly. So there are lots of forest walks at the moment, and sadly Andres uses this to establish a probably unassailable lead of around 20 species in our spotting contest.
I restart our grand tradition of forest night walks tonight because they are fun, and also because I need to up my species count quick! Its actually a pretty good walk turning up 3 snake species, a frog and numerous lizards. Coolest spot is a Common Blunthead treesnake eating an Anole lizard. Frustratingly, I can hear many more frogs than we actually see but I can't see any of them.
26th July 2010
Nest check this morning reveals a total of 25 poached nests. This is pretty awful, the worst I've seen and despite increased presence by the MINAE rangers patrolling and recent captures and arrests, the poachers are still plenty active. It's pretty s8y to be quite frank. There is a slightly brighter side to our morning however. We come across a hatchling in the sand, and its not just any hatchling, its a critically endangered Hawksbill hatchling. He even has a little black beak and an simply exquisite ridged shell that will grow into the famous carapace that is worth a large amount of money on the black market. It's way too hot and the sand too dry and ridged at the edge of the beach for him to make it on his own. Well, of course we can't just leave him there so we busy ourselves smoothing out the sand and giving him strategic little nudges in the right direction, as well as providing a bodyguard service in case of any marauding crabs or vultures. We also provide him with some water at regular intervals to keep him (her?) cool. We can't just simply carry him down to the sea. The turtle must make the journey in order to have the imprint on it's remarkable little brain that somehow allows him to make this journey back when he is old enough to breed, assuming he survives his perilous first years of existence. We just give him a little helping hand. Although, when he reaches the smooth sand at the tide line, he suddenly turns on the speed and needs no more help from us. The waves crash over him knocking him back a couple of times before finally he disappears from us forever. Talk about getting the 'warm and fuzzies'. It's a sight that never fails to put a big grin on my face! Plus, now I've seen adults and hatchlings of all the turtles that regularly use this beach. There is still the Loggerhead which is not really a breeding species here anyway and you can go to other places, in Mexico for example, and see hundreds of them.
It's another really hot day and an afternoon forest walk is fairly sparse on the old wildlife front apart from the ever-present Spider Monkeys which seem exceptionally bolshy today, and also both species of sloth. The Three-toed sloth is actually moving about which is always cool to see.
27th July 2010
The boat needs fixing badly. Luckily, Marta our Spanish colleague met a local mechanic whilst out at the football match the other week. He has been looking at the boat and determined what we need to fix the engine and should be able to do it today. I have been volunteered to accompany Marta this afternoon to watch the mechanic do his thing. A helpful local helps us to get our boat down the canal to Parismina where Mili the Mechanic (sounds like a cartoon character right?), who turns out to be a friendly and efficient chap fixes the boat. His place is right on the river so I spend 40 minutes or so wandering about with binoculars spotting some birds that you don't see up by Jalova so much if at all. Then its off to nearby Cano Blanco to fill up on gasoline and get some supplies from the shop. I treat myself to a Snickers and a bottle of Bavaria Dark, my favourite Tico beer and the third brand to be named in a Germanic fashion (Imperial, Pilsen and Bavaria) presumably to imply some sort of quality, which they all certainly possess. I'll have it with tea when I get back. I am also quite overjoyed to find a hummingbird nest in the Heliconia flowers that have been planted around the car park. Even better, its a Bronzy Hermit, quite an uncommon species and one that is new for my spotting contest. I also manage to get some cracking photos which pleases me even more. We should head back to base now but Marta has other plans. She wants to take Mili for a drink in Parismina and also visit a Spanish lady who is working in Parismina as a turtle biologist. This ends up taking some time as when Marta gets talking she doesn't like to stop. To be fair its actually quite pleasant as Parismina is a pretty enough little town and the biologist lady is nice and I am able to get into the conversation a little. Time is getting on when we finally leave Parismina and luckily our helpful local friend is on hand to be able to drive us back to the ranger station in the dark, towing his little boat along for him to get back on. We then end up chatting with the rangers for a bit. Eduardo, a friendly round-faced chap wants to learn more English and with Marta acting as an intermediate we agree that it would be cool to get together and exchange some language sometime. We also talk to the leader of a tour group going up to view the turtles tonight. He is expressing some concerns about the high tide at certain points on the beach. He is concerned about using the trail which would bypass this section because they saw a coralsnake a few days ago. I react excitedly about this and explain to him (he speaks some English) that coralsnakes are perfectly safe as long as you don't pick them up as they are docile and their mouth is too small to bite. He looks at me like I'm crazy. He then repeats the oft-quoted myth that there are two kinds of coralsnake and one is not poisonous and you have to look at the combination of bands to find which it is. I want to say that actually there are three species of coralsnake here and also several snakes that are not actually coralsnakes but instead mimic them, and also the bands rule is not true, but he probably thinks I'm mad anyway so I decide to nod and agree. Generally, tour guides don't like to be corrected.
We do eventually get back and have a very nice if cold dinner with my lovely Bavaria Dark.
4th July 2010
It's the Wimbledon Final today. There are possibilities that we may be able to stream it from the internet using a projector, but given that it is at 06:00am and I didn't get to bed until 04:00am it seems an unlikely prospect that I'll be up at that time. Indeed I am not so at 9:00 after a nice breakfast I check the results on the Wi-fi that the CCC/STC have set up here. Well done Rafa.
I spend some time mooching about on the net and looking at books they have in the library here. There some interesting ones that we don't have, but then they don't have copies of all the good up-to-date ones that we have. We should combine!
Then it's back to Jalova for the evening.
5th July 2010
The volunteers are busy training and learning about turtles whilst I am confined to kitchen and cleaning duties for most of the day. Sigh. I have to do my bit I guess!
6th July 2010
More cooking for me this morning. I have the capable talents of Marta to help me though and I manage to duck out of the evening meal by being scheduled to take some of the volunteers on a walk up the north forest trail.
It's the first time I've been up here for a while and it's like greeting old friends again. The Spider Monkeys are out in force and put on a great show with their death-defying leaps and hooting and gesticulating. Everybody laps it up. We also see more of the Jalova crowd-pleasers in the form of a lovely yellow Eyelash Viper and a Red-eyed Treefrog that appears on my welly from somewhere. Some nice butterflies and the haunting call of the Great Tinamou caps off a cool walk which everyone seems to enjoy thoroughly.
After dinner my regular night stroll round the garden reveals a cool snake in the hedge, a Neotropical Racer, a handsome pink-bellied chap. I've seen them obscured my vegetation and racing away from me before but this guy is sat coiled in the hedge. Luckily, some of the volunteers are present to show it to and then Marcus, an enthusiastic (and very tall) Texan, Eduard from Paris and Karen L from England accompany me on the rest of the stroll which turns up many bugs and spiders, our regular visiting opossum in the compost bin and some lizards. There are also some Red-eyed Treefrogs in the flowering trees opposite the entrance to the staff quarters, attracted to the insects attracted to the pollen.
This phase is going well – everybody is still really interested and enthusiastic. I have the feeling I'm going to be quite sad to see many of these guys go at the end of the first 5 weeks.
Of note, a curious incident happens this evening. Whilst sat in the office, Stephen bursts in and says “Jon. There's a rat running about on your bed inside your mosquito net”. Now, this may go some way about explaining my mindset, but for most people I imagine this news would be received with dismay, horror even, but my exact reaction is: “Wow! Sweet!” I then proceed to grab my camera and grab some photos of it trying to escape as I lift the mattress, which it does. Sadly, its not some cool kind of jungle rat as I had hoped but just a common imported Brown Rat. I guess it may have come in with the coconut farm supplies or something and found its way over here. Needless to see, we don't see rats at all here and I guess with the amount of snakes around its days are probably numbered.
7th July 2010
My presentations are scheduled for today. I explain my Incidental Sightings project and do my presentation about Snakes which I hope does not scare anyone too much. We also take some group photos.
8th July 2010
We have to take Marta to Cano Blanco today to get the bus to San Jose as she is going to pick up a volunteer who is staying with us for two weeks to do Turtle work. The canal to the landing is incredibly shallow and we actually end up getting stuck a few times, and at one stage get out and push the boat! On the up side, it is really early in the morning so there is a lot of wildlife about; herons, kingfishers, laughing falcons, 8 beautiful Roseate Spoonbills and best of all, my first ever wild Raccoon sat on the bank watching us pass. We are due back to pick up the volunteers for a trip out on the canal to learn about the river birds that we survey. It's a good trip if a little crowded in the boat and we get to see some kingfishers, toucans and herons.
Andres has challenged me to a spotting contest starting in a couple of days. The aim is to spot the most species of bird, mammal, reptile or amphibian by the end of phase. We will have a mid-phase total in which the current loser buys the other a meal and beer and then there is the big victory at the end of phase where the loser gets one leg waxed and the other shaved (Andres, also has long hair and is trying to convince me that the loser should have their hair cut off. NOT A CHANCE!). Normally, I'd be pretty confident but the kid's good and he's a local so he is very familiar with this countries wildlife. Should spice things up a bit though and the volunteers are very excited by the idea. The young local biologist familiar with the wildlife of Costa Rica and herpetology specialist vs the grizzled veteran of many an international campaign and a specialist in ornithology. Let the battle commence!
9th July 2010
It's our weekly trip to Tortuguero today and I've been asked to drive, even though technically I feel that I don't need to go to Tort this week really. Rich gives me some money for lunch though which sweetens the deal. This turn of events turns out to be a very fortuitous one! For a start my boat driving skills, I think, improve tremendously during this journey, particularly my manoeuvring skills. Its like that point in your driving lessons where things start clicking without you really thinking about it. But a short event completely overshadows this. Whilst driving through the narrow canal that connects the main Tortuguero Canal to the Rio Jalova (Cano Negro), a large grey back breaks the waters surface in front of us. It's a Manatee – a huge yet rare and elusive river dwelling creature that looks like a cross between a walrus and an elephant (no tusks or trunk though). They are heavily endangered and very very rarely seen. Did anyone see that program 'Last Chance to See' with Stephen Fry. They went around the world looking for endangered animals and the manatee was one of the episodes (in Brazil admittedly, not Costa Rica). They couldn't find a wild one. The BBC and Stephen Fry could not find this animal and one has just surfaced randomly in front of the boat I'm driving. This may very well be a once in a lifetime sighting. The only sour note is that is it ever so brief and it happens before my spotting contest is due to start. There is no way Andres could get this one!
Tortuguero is fine. I eat a nice local casado which is a mix of rice, beans, meat and a few other things that vary depending on where you get it. This time its a hard-boiled egg, bolied yuca and some fresh grated salad. Very tasty.
I've been put in charge of the rota this phase (I was democratically elected to this. Whilst I was away. Sneaky devils!). It's a tough job no question – managing 19 volunteers and 7 staff members and making sure they all get a good mix of stuff to do and everyone has something each day of the week. And of course if you spot a mistake or something crops up that changes things – then it has a knock on effect for everything else. Despite this I manage to spend a bit of time coming up with a pretty good system and I think I've got a good first week ahead for everyone. Turtle walks start tomorrow night and surveys start in Sunday 11th with the infamous Jag-walk.
10th July 2010
The Tico vs Brit Jalova Spotting Challenge officially starts today. Andres and I spent way too much time last night writing out a formal contract (we were playing it up a bit to be quite honest) much to the delight of everyone else. We write a mock-up legal document that we both sign outlining the conditions of the contest and terms and conditions (anyone found to be cheating will be branded a 'cad' and have their eyebrow shaved). We each have our own record book which must be rigorously maintained and updated daily. I think this is going to be fun. It officially starts at midday with an official signing event.
The afternoon consist of catching up with some hatched nest excavations which sadly prove to be a little disappointing as we can't find any eggshells from one and the other appears to have been poached. Our disappointment is shortlived thought as Andres, leading the other team a little further up the beach radios in with an exciting sighting. A Hawksbill turtle is nesting on the beach in broad daylight. The Hawksbill is the rarest of the turtles that nests here and critically endangered. Needless to say we all start running. Unfortunately, the turtle has decided not to nest in broad daylight and makes a break back across the beach as we arrive. It still gives plenty of opportunity for photos though which again is incredibly lucky. I've seen one Hawksbill at night before, when we can't take photos and to get this opportunity is brilliant. Plus a lot of the volunteers get to see it as well, which is even better! The only downside is that Andres found it so thanks to the 'first man' rule of our contest he is the only one who gets to count it. I need to find my own Hawksbill to catch that one back. An unlikely prospect. I'm beginning to need that Manatee more than ever. Still can't complain about my luck.
Our lucks runs out tonight as does our water supply. More accurately, we can't get any water up out of the pump. None of us are really able to offer a solution and we are forced to get water from the well and purify it with tablets to drink for the time being. This situation is less than ideal and I don't know what is going to happen.
11th July 2010
First nest check of the phase and its me doing it (my fault I did the rota) and I did not realise it was going to be so long. We (myself, Rachel from Nevada and Kirsty from Northamptonshire) are out from 05:00 until 13:00 in total, counting tracks and nests from the night before (120 tracks, 82 nests in 2.5 miles), marking some soon to hatch nests with little runways for the hatchlings, checking the triangulations on others and also just checking all our existing nests in general. We also try to do an hatched nest excavation but fail to find anything. We do get so see some cool stuff (a pair of mating Green Turtles wash up right onto the beach in front of us, some hummingbirds, a great sighting of some parakeets and some Capuchins in the trees), but it is a long hard slog. The girls cope magnificently and utter not a word of complaint.
Back at base the water situation is a bit crazy but thankfully Marcus the Texan, whose enthusiasm and energy are boundless, and Lauren from Australia, are both resolutely positive and resourceful and tackle it with good humour and a great deal of effort. I feel bad for them but I'm also thankful that they were there as many other people may not have been able to handle it.
I am tired but still manage to take a group of volunteers on a walk to the estuary and back, where we are rewarded by some great views of Howler and Spider Monkeys.
12th July 2010
Its the first bird survey of the phase and I get to lead it (I didn't fix the rota, thats just how it worked). It all goes to plan and we get to see a fair selection of herons and kingfishers, plus some monkeys, parrots, toucans and a Common Black Hawk. Best of all though, there are lots of swifts in the air over the canal and at least one of them is a striking Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift, which is not only a new species for me, but a good one for the spotting challenge. Everyone seems to enjoy themselves, which makes me happy.
Lunchtime brings the first update of the Tico vs Brit spotting challenge which has me in a very respectable lead of 66-33. Andres has been doing night walks though so got to give him a break there.
This afternoon I am appreciably tired after the epic nest check and today's early start, and flagging a little bit. Andres is out doing a forest walk and manages to spot 4 species of bird that I've never seen before! In one afternoon! I have no reason to doubt his abilities though.
I have my turtle walks starting tonight, which is a little daunting as I've never actually led one before, and I am now responsible for doing the tagging. Despite my tiredness and apprehension, I actually thoroughly enjoy myself. It's been raining today which has been good for our water situation, but it makes it pretty dark on the beach. Surprisingly though the turtle tracks do show up through the gloom and we've barely walked 1/8 of a mile before we come to our first turtle, which is still looking for a nest site. Our protocol states that we leave this one as it can take a long time for them to dig their body pit and nest chamber before they start to lay their eggs, and we need to maximise our turtle data collection. We are aiming to find one that is about to lay eggs and do the full egg count, nest marking and tagging – and then afterwards we will just tag as many as we can that have finished laying their eggs. The next turtle we find is digging her nest chamber so we wait around for about 30 minutes or so before she starts laying and then Melissa from the UK starts counting the eggs, whilst Kirsty and Herman from Sweden do all the marking and writing in the books. It's everyone's (but me) first time so we stumble a little but get the job done in the end – even with the minor incident of a vinesnake crawling over Herman's hand! I manage to tag the turtle after breaking a couple of tags in the process and we measure her and off she goes back to the ocean. It feels very satisfying.
After that we are on fire. I get better at the tagging as we go along and manage 3 more, with the last two done without wasting a single tag. We also see 8 more turtles but are not able to tag them as they are either just returning to sea or only just emerging. We are also astoundingly lucky at one point, to find ourselves standing amongst a horde of freshly emerged green turtle hatchlings. Wowza! Unfortunately, we cannot stand and watch them as they start orientating themselves towards our lights so we have to leave them behind. It gets everyone a little paranoid now that we may be crushing other hatchlings underfoot at any minute! Our luck continues when one turtle spotted up ahead turns out to be a rare Hawksbill scooting across the beach to the sea, too quickly for us to tag unfortunately. That evens me up with Andres a little. So a pretty successful night all in all.
13th July 2010
After a night walk you are scheduled the morning off. At the moment we are doing two shifts on consecutive days to minimise the impact on daily routines. So I get to chill out and do a bit of birding around base to get my contest list going a bit more.
We have the same team for the night walk except this time we are doing the midnight to four shift. It is pretty successful and we manage to get our nesting turtle tagged and eggs counted. We also manage to tag and measure a couple more. A successful night all in all!
14th July 2010
Our spotting contest is hotting up with Andres getting rare birds out on his surveys whilst I have been doing night walks. He has evened up the scores a great deal by seemingly pulling birds out of nowhere like White Hawk, Streak-headed Woodcreeper and Royal Flycatcher. Birds I have never seen in all of my 6 months here! I have to admit to feeling quite competitive about this and a little suspicious of some of his identifications. I immediately feel bad about it though as I have no reason to doubt him and after all this is only friendly competition with little of importance at stake except pride (something which I have never put much stock in. Just tends to get you into trouble in my experience). I do jokingly accuse him of making up woodcreepers though, to which he acts very offended.
15th July 2010
Its a day off today and starts promisingly with me getting up early to do some birding in the coconut plantation behind base. My efforts are rewarded with some cool new species that I have never seen before: Cinnamon Woodpecker, Piratic Flycatcher and beautiful Green and Shining Honeycreepers! I guess Andres is not the only one that can find new stuff.
It rains soon after I am finished and continues for most of the day limiting the activities that can be done on base. Many people have gone to Tortuguero today so it is also quite quiet. Eventually when the weather clears up I go for a forest walk with one of the volunteers, Karen L from the UK. We are rewarded by views of a pair of White-whiskered Puffbirds, and lots and lots of Monkeys! I also manage to see a couple of frogs but annoyingly one of them manages to get away before a positive ID can be made! I am annoyed about that not only because of the contest but because it was potentially a new species for me.
We get back to find out that Andres has found a cool new spot and seen a Paca (a rare spotted guinea-pig-like animal) and another type of bloody Woodcreeper.
16th July 2010
My turn for nest check this morning with Deanna from Canada and Lauren from Australia. They are both very nice and also very efficient meaning that I have more time to spot stuff. It's an overcast day which seems to promote a lot of bird activity and I manage to rack up 8 new species for the challenge including 7 species of hummingbird, 2 species of toucan, another type of puffbird and a couple of seabirds. There are also a lot of tracks on the beach including many many large Jag prints, and also deer, opossum and coati tracks. We do get caught in the rain on the way back but it doesn't dampen our spirits and the girls cope magnificently with the distance. We are very tired in the afternoon though and I also have the late turtle shift.
I'm out with Kyle and Sarah from Chicago and Karen L, my spotting buddy from yesterday. They create a very efficient team and we manage to find 7 turtles and tag all of them. One of them is also at the right stage for us to mark the nest and count the eggs, which we do very efficiently. An excellent night and I really do enjoy these turtle night walks. They are a direct contrast to the boom or bust of the sometimes torturous 6-7 hour walks for leatherback season. You know you are going to see some action at this time of year and the time just flies by!
17th July 2010
The Spotting Contest is really close at around the 100 mark for both of us. We both have some really good species and it is incredible how many news ones we have seen. I mean I am normally pretty vigilant anyway so it seems strange how they are all popping up. I have a quiet day today in which Andres takes the lead with a Double-toothed Kite pair whilst out on nest check. He also finds a Leatherback nest at Mile 15. If only it had been closer to base! I would love to see another one of those great beasts.
I do manage to get out for a bit of birding behind base and manage to find one of Andres' mystery woodcreepers. I hate it when he is right! I then go and sit on the beach to type my journal. I haven't chilled on the beach much so far this phase so it feels really good. The tide is high and the waves are crashing in over the wreck of the boat that is now half submerged in the sand and volunteers are crashed out in hammocks along the beach edge. Turtles can be seen bobbing about just beyond the waves and a solitary pelican wings its way north.
There is a colossal storm overhead this evening. The lightning flashes and thunder rumbles insanely loudly overhead. The first turtle team has already gone out and the rest of us gather on the porch watching the rain sheeting down and hoping they are alright. There is protocol for what to do if there is a storm overhead so they should be fine, if a little wet. There is a rather surreal event of a figure approaching through the rain carrying a bright torch. We initially think he is a ranger, but it turns out to be one of the coconut-farm workers with a gift of some traditional Tico food for Andres. What an unusual time for him to come over!? There's nothing else we can do except go back to bed and hope the guys out on the beach are ok. As it turns out the midnight team meet them coming back and apparently for four people that had just been out in torrential rain and thunder and lightning, and were plastered in wet sand, they were in remarkable spirits, grinning and singing bawdy songs. They even got their turtle nest marked and a few more tags. That tells you something about the people we have here at the moment. Good job guys!
18th July 2010
Good day today. I have an early morning incidentals with Marcus (the big Texan who is rapidly becoming everybody's favourite guy to have around), Kirsty and Lauren. I take them first down to the estuary and Kingfisher Creek, which lives up to its name by providing us with a big Ringed Kingfisher and also at the opposite end of the size scale, an American Pygmy Kingfisher. There are also a pair of Green Ibis flapping around above us uttering their crazy gobbling turkey-like calls.
Then we head up north along the forest trail for a while. This rewards us with some beautifully posed Eyelash Vipers, two Fer-de-lance on the trail, many monkeys and best of all a new bird species for me, the strangely named Semi-plumbeous Hawk. I guess the name comes from the fact that it is a solid grey on the back and pure white on the front. Plumbeous must refer to the lead colour and semi because it is not all grey. But the bird's most striking feature is surely its bright red beak and legs? Then why not call it the Red-legged Hawk or Red-beaked Hawk. Makes more sense to me. It's a cool bird anyway and I'm very pleased to see it.
Just about everyone heads off to a football match with some of the locals in the afternoon. I stay behind as I am leading the Jag-walk tomorrow with my team of Marcus (again!), Rachel from Nevada and Sarah from Chicago. They are a good bunch and I feel they will be good choices to tackle this epic trek with their positive attitudes. We go through all of our prep this afternoon and make up some food to take with us. I'm looking forward to the challenge of Jag-walk once more and Rich is coming with me to assess my leadership capabilities as it is my first time actually leading the walk.
Evrybody comes back buzzing about the football. Sounds like it was fun.
19th July 2010
JAG WALK
We have a slightly late start for the walk today. I maybe should have been a bit more proactive about people prepping themselves beforehand, but then I am also guilty as I forgot to write out the notebook pages for our data last night. This makes us about 20 minutes late to start. I also realise that I forgot to read the protocol last night as whilst I know what we are doing there are a few finer points that I should have remembered but don't. My fault, I've been feeling a little tired recently. Just one of those low points that everybody goes through at some point.
Anyway back to the Jag walk. I have not done this walk before when there have actually been lots of turtles present so all of a sudden counting the turtles tracks becomes a very important task (there is a grand total of 3309 tracks on the walk – that's 1650 turtles in one night along a 15 mile stretch!)and we start finding lots of dead turtles from about the 3rd mile onwards. We end up finding 14 dead turtles in various states of decay from fresh kills made the night before with bloodied flesh to really putrefied ones that reek to high heaven, and then there are many that are just down to the peeling carapace and bones. This ultimately is what costs us time as we have to stop and take notes and photos of each corpse, and some of them a buried deep in the beach side vegetation and require us to machete our way in to get them. The walk becomes an epic and really takes its toll on all of us. We don't get into Tortuguero until just after 16:00 and we started at 05:25. That's over 10 hours spent on that beach. Thankfully, it is not a truly hot day, but still the heat does build up and walking on the sand really gets to all of us except Rich, stoic to the end, and Sarah who manages to keep cheerful all the way through. I end up with some small blisters for the first time ever during my time here and my feet are on fire by the time we get into town and slump into Budda Cafe for a well deserved pizza and beer. I spend sometime talking to Marcus on the boat ride home. He's a really interesting guy and a real Southern gent. He's a few years older than me (which makes a change round here!) and has vowed to make a big change to his lifestyle, first of all by challenging himself to come out here and learn new things and apply that knowledge to his life and make it work. Not-so dissimilar to myself. He is a constant source of positive energy and he has a ton of gadgets and helpful tools and a lot of practical knowledge which is proving useful.
20th July 2010
My feet have recovered somewhat and though they were extremely painful yesterday, it seems as though it was just due to my feet swelling inside my boots. I have a couple of small blisters but they are not too painful.
We get to relive the experience by putting all the data on the computer during the morning and otherwise have a fairly leisurely day.
During the afternoon I take a few volunteers that haven't been worn out by a long mammal transect survey in the morning or the jag-walk yesterday, out for a walk along a muddy boundary trail. It's a pretty good walk that turns up a couple of species of frog and a bird for me. We also get to see several columns of army ants making their way along the jungle floor – always an impressive sight. Sadly, though they are not hunting so we don't get any cool birds following them.
21st July 2010
Most of the volunteers are heading off on their long-weekend today. Most of them are going rafting – I still remember the great time I had doing that (Incidentally, I have actually managed to get the photos from that trip and will have to post them online ASAP. I look pretty chubby in them I have to say!). Four of the girls have instead opted for the delights of sunny Puerto Viejo. This means that base is very quiet this afternoon and evening.
I escort the 11 volunteers going rafting to their boat at dawn on the river mouth and then take a very leisurely stroll back along the path with my binoculars. I miss being able to do this, just amble along at my own pace tracking down birds that can be difficult to see but can be located by call. There us a cool Bat Falcon hunting out over the estuary although he is on the far side so I cannot see what he is catching (bats presumably at this time), but he returns to the same perch to eat several times. There are also two Laughing Falcons sat in the riverside trees duetting with their distinctive 'laughing' calls that carry for some distance. The dawn chorus starts up soon afterwards and it is interesting to note that the birds don't seem to sing over one another, rather they start at different intervals and then stop and another species takes over. This could be worthy of a study?
Some of the rangers appear later in the morning with the news that they have caught some poachers and need to take them off to court, but they have bags of freshly laid eggs. Marta and volunteers Kim and Rachel who have stayed behind this weekend, immediately set to work reburying them in the hope that they may still survive.
I busy myself with some chores around base during the afternoon and generally enjoy the peace and quiet.
22nd July 2010
I'm up early on nest check today with Patrick from the UK. Pat is only with us for a few more days and has been doing the turtle surveys with us for two weeks. He's pretty competent and has a good eye for working out where the often-confusing turtle tracks go that criss-cross the beach this morning. It is a beautiful red sunrise that quickly becomes a scorching morning. We are lucky enough to see two Green Turtles on their way back to sea (one actually being mobbed by vultures who follow her all the way down to the tide line before hopping around in disarray as the waves claim their hoped-for meal). Luckily, because there are so few people on base and most are going to Tortuguero today we only have to go up to mile 15 and back. This is great because it is seriously hot by 07:30am and I'm not sure I could have handled another 4 miles on top of what we had already done.
The afternoon becomes even hotter and after doing some more chores and having an intense shower and grooming session, I settle down with a book and my computer for the afternoon. It's too hot to even go looking for animals and a few minutes spent photographing butterflies in the garden even proves too uncomfortable.
June 29th 2010
Well I'm back in Costa Rica after a short break back home in the UK to see my family. I am now a paid staff member of the GVI Costa Rica expedition! I arrived back in San Jose yesterday and stayed a pleasant night in Gaudy's Backpackers, unfortunately just missing fellow interns from my phase Andrew and Charlotte and also Helen who is still in Costa Rica but just passed through San Jose on her way to Mexico! She left me a nice letter with the Gaudy's staff, which was very funny and quite unexpected.
I am due to meet Stephen, our Country Co-ordinator, at the bus terminal this morning where we are going to journey up together on the bus. I meet him as planned only to find out that the road north is blocked (this is the road through the national park and happens fairly frequently, usually due to landslides). This unfortunately means a rather longer, though admittedly nice and scenic, detour via Turrialba (where we went white-water rafting) and Guapiles. It's not to bad really, though it means we have to get the latest boat when we finally arrive at La Pavona landing and arrive into Tortuguero town at gone 17:00, which is less than ideal as it will take us another hour or so to get back to Jalova by which time it will be dark. Not so great for boating. Rich, our expedition leader, and Joao (pronounced Joh-ow, or something similar), are there to greet us. Joao is from Portugal and has been working with turtles down on the south Caribbean coast near Manzanillo, and he is the newest staff member. He reminds me of the actor, Elias Koteas (look that one up!) and seems like a friendly guy. It's been a long journey and thankfully although its late its been a clear day so the darkness doesn't set in as quickly as usual and we manage to get back with a little light to see us along the jungle path to base. We see a Smoky Jungle Frog and a Red Brocket Deer on the way back and at base Molly and Marta are both waiting for us and greet me with hugs. It's good to be back.
After a lovely chicken and vegetable dinner, I head out around base with my new head-torch to check out the night-time fauna and manage to find a Red-eyed Treefrog and the Opossum is still raiding our compost bin.
June 30th 2010
I was going to try and wake up early today, but of course that was never going to happen. Well I did wake up to the usual dawn chorus at 05:30 which is always cool, but I couldn't get up until gone 08:00.
I was almost hoping for a nice quiet couple of days before the volunteers arrive, but of course, that is not the case and we have much to discuss. Stephen has prepared a lot of information for us to go over including all of the up-to-date information about the courses we offer and what the volunteers will have been able to read and see. It's all been fully updated and hopefully will prevent any of the misunderstandings that were present last phase. We also go through Health and Safety with a fine-toothed comb discussing risks and hazards and even what to do if we have a helicopter evacuation scenario. It's a pretty intense day but Stephen has done a great job of preparing all of this and I am really impressed and pleased with the amount of effort gone into preparing us.
What little spare time I have today I explore our base and get reacquainted with things. It looks a lot more lush and green since I was last here and a lot of the shrubs and bushes seem to have grown in stature. It doesn't take me long to get familiar with all the birds again and being a hot day there are lizards everywhere, in particular, there are lots of juvenile Iguanas around base. In contrast to the grey and leathery adult lizards, these little guys are a vivid emerald green colour. You never quite know where you are going to find them, sitting on a fence post watching you walk past, or hanging from a bush eating a flower. They have a ton of character and raise a smile from everybody whenever we see them.
July 1st 2010
July already! Incredible! This is the strangest year ever for me in terms of feeling the time pass – its been one long summer so far (with lots of snow right at the beginning)!!
It's time for some hard work today. Stephen is back to San Jose to meet the new arrivals. Rich and Marta are in Tortuguero getting supplies. Molly is blitzing the kitchen. That leaves Joao and I to do some grounds maintenance. We start by cutting some bamboo and then constructing a large washing line frame which ends up having two levels each with 5 lines to hopefully provide more room for everyone to hang out their washing and also keep it all in one place and nice and tidy. We also get to do a bit of 'male bonding' as we are working and get to talk about some of our previous experiences and our musical tastes (his are similar to mine, particularly with liking of early 90s alternative music, but with enough differences to make it interesting). It takes quite a few hours to construct but the end result certainly looks the part, and I hope it withstand some heavy usage. We are very happy with it but only time will tell!
After a quick lunch break I then strim the lawn, which is a lot harder than it looks and there are a good few areas where there are some deep gouges in the ground, and it's not the most even of jobs but it should do. We can't really have long grass here for obvious reasons (it hides bitey and sharp and pointy things!).
I also unveil my new Incidentals Plates™ and stick them on the wall in the kitchen. These are basically pictures of all the common animal species in the area with little tick boxes to show where they were seen. I managed to improve some of the pictures and print them off on some nice glossy photo paper whilst I was at home, so they look really good if I do say so myself.
I take my first trip down to the beach this evening. It's a lovely part of the day and the sea is quite choppy at the moment with waves crashing in and sending up a great wall of sea spray which hangs in the air all along the beach creating a very cool atmosphere. What is even cooler though is the sight of a Green Turtle pair bobbing around just behind the point where the waves begin to start. They appear to be mating though it is hard to tell. In fact a quick scan around reveals at least 9 more pairs bobbing about just in the immediate vicinity. Wow! I wasn't expecting this. Its impossible to get good pictures but I try my best. You can't really see a lot apart from the odd flailing flipper or view of the head or back of the shell. This is a pretty good way to welcome me back to the beach. I also see a couple of seabirds flying past including the amusingly named Brown Booby, which is a first for me.
July 2nd 2010
Volunteers are due today. We spend the morning doing the last bit of cleaning and prepping and making fresh coffee and juice and chopped pineapple. We are expecting them at 14:00 but due to a flat tire on the bus it becomes closer to 15:00. There is a nervous apprehension as the time approaches and Molly and myself head down to the river to wait for them to arrive. We meet them halfway up the path and I take a few bags off them in a wheelbarrow. I remember my first time walking up that trail with all my bags and it was a killer! I get chatting to Sarah from Chicago almost straight away and Ruth, one of the interns from the previous group is back too. Everyone seems friendly and smiley. All good so far.
Beverages and food is consumed and introductions are made once we reach base. They are a mostly young group hailing from around the globe (US mostly, followed closely by the UK including Scotland, but also representatives from Australia, New Zealand and Canada). We have a few missing as one person had their flight delayed and two others lost their luggage and are having to wait in San Jose with Andres. We spend some time after introductions chatting and helping people settle into their rooms – some of the mosquito nets require a little ingenuity to put up!
The obligatory risk assessment talks and base rule talks have to take place but after a fantastic evening meal cooked by Molly and Joao there is plenty of time to socialise and on the whole, I feel really positive about this group. They all seem happy to be here and with the base location. They are all interested and asking questions about everything and it really gives me the feeling that we may be in for a good time this expedition.
We have had a bit of rain today and I am hoping to find me a few critters around the garden to show people but alas my predictions are wrong and even the opossum decided not to show. Ah well – plenty of time.
July 3rd 2010
It's a nice cool morning and everyone is up early for breakfast. Moods are still good – looks like everyone had a good night's sleep. There are more talks and in between the volunteers are exploring the base and the beach and asking plenty of questions and taking a lot of interest in everything. I end up wandering around the grounds with them looking at spiders and picking some starfruits, which I don't like much but everyone else seems to like a lot! I explain the general principle of the Incidentals Species Recording project to at least 5 people and I haven't even done my presentation yet! I have to say first impressions are still good.
The day warms up quite rapidly and the lizards come out in force to greet our newcomers and also a cool Brown Vinesnake. Andres arrives with three more volunteers. It's good to have my irrepressible Tico buddy back and he brings with him astounding news of Germany's 4-0 trouncing of Argentina. Live that one down Diego!
The volunteers spend the increasingly hot afternoon learning about turtles whilst I update some computer stuff. I have got a new battery pack for my netbook which is proving to be a godsend giving me 5-6 extra hours of battery life!
Molly, Joao and myself are due to go to Tortuguero tonight to do some practical turtle-tagging training with our colleagues at the CCC (Caribbean Conservation Corporation) – now called the STC (Sea Turtle Conservancy), which is a much better name if you ask me! I get to drive the boat all the way there which is good fun – its a beautiful calm day on the canals and there are very few other boats present. Its a bit tricky parking but otherwise its a successful trip and my first full length journey. We get a good meal at the STC Headquarters and get to chat to some of their volunteer staff, most of whom I have met briefly before at the previous training day that I attended. Then it's heads down for a couple of hours as we are doing the 12-4am shift!
We leave at 11:30pm which comes around all too soon and its back out on the beach in the dark. Its been a few weeks now since I've done this but despite being at the opposite end of the 18 mile stretch of sand its a familiar feeling. Our turtle hunting is fairly successful – its Green Turtle season now, not much chance of any Leatherbacks now, but the Greens are much more numerous and should mean that there won't be any of those horrible nights when you walk for hours and don't see anything!!! We manage to find three turtles all of which are taggable (i.e. they don't already have tags and aren't missing any front flippers). I get to do the first one which decides its going to head back into the sea, meaning I have to do it on the run. Joao tries to slow it down by holding his hands over its eyes and I manage the first tag successfully, but unfortunately the other one doesn't go in and we run out of time. According to Claire, the STC co-ordinator, it was a good tag though. Not the easiest task in the world!
The second turtle is camouflaging its nest and is down in a shallow depression flailing its flippers about and getting sand everywhere. Most people probably don't realise that working with turtles can be so physical, but the four of us get covered in sand and smacked about by the flippers (Joao actually gets a small wound on his arm from a flipper blow) as we tag and measure her.
The third turtle is missing a back flipper and as a result is taking forever to dig her nest-chamber. A lightning storm is brewing overhead so we decide to make a hasty return instead of waiting it out. You don't want to be out on the beach with lightning overhead for obvious reasons!
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