In Tortuguero Village again at the ever-fabulous Budda Cafe. So Have got plenty of updates for you all to read whilst I sip my beer and await my delicious pizza. Hope you are all well and thanks for all your comments - I'm not sure how to respond individually to them so a big hello to you all and please keep them coming!
DAY 14
21st January 2010
Tortuguero
Well two weeks in and I get to go back to the nearest village of Tortuguero, with three aims. Firstly, to get some supplies; secondly, to use the internet; and lastly to eat some junk food and drink some beer.
The last time we went to Tort it was raining. A lot. Today, its absolutely glorious and the hour ride along the canal is wonderful. I love being out on the river. Its just so peaceful and beautiful. What strikes me today is that although there are several communities along the river and many boats go up and down it everyday bearing tourists, fishermen or locals, there is very little rubbish and the water is so clean There are plenty of birds around: lots of sinister Black Vultures soaring on the thermals, the quirky-looking Boat-billed Heron, and numerous common species.
Tortuguero is a much more pleasant place when its not underwater. It’s a colourful strip of buildings with about 700 residents sandwiched between the canal and the Atlantic Coast. Its actually only accessible by boat which means certain supplies can be limited and things can run out on occasion. We quickly find a spot on the main street where we can sit in the shade and log on to an unsecured wireless network with my little netbook (what a useful investment that was!). So I spend a good couple of hours updating my blog – as you are no doubt aware. Shopping comes next and I buy some crisps and biscuits for snacks, a pen and paper to do my BTEC work with, and a large towel (I really showed my nerdiness by buying the only towel that had zoologically correct animals on it – Costa Rican towel makers take note – cockatoos and blue macaws are NOT found in Costa Rica. I went with turtles, a safe bet).
We then all convene for lunch at the delightful Budda Café. Andrew and myself both order grande pizzas, which are suitably enormous. He manages to eat the whole thing but I have to leave two slices. Along with a couple of heavenly cool beers, that just about undoes all the exercise and healthy diet of the last two weeks!!! The café also plug sockets so we can continue to use the web and its also situated right on the edge of the river giving lovely views. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area!
The boat-trip back again is also glorious and everyone just lays out in the bottom of the boat chatting and enjoying the sun.
DAY 15
22nd January 2010
Another glorious day. Head out in the morning to get some bird records for the area around the base, and manage to get quite and impressive list together including one new species for me, a Chestnut-backed Antbird.
DAY 16
23rd January 2010
The rota is up and I’m on the Jaguar Walk tomorrow. 15 miles across the burning sand looking for Jag tracks and dead turtles. One team has already done it so I’m sure I can make it but I don’t mind admitting I’m more than a little apprehensive about it. Quiet day otherwise, doing some BTEC work.
DAY 17
24th January 2010
JAG WALK!
We’re up at 4:15am. On the beach by 5:45 to get started. I’m feeling optimistic. My new walking shoes are comfortable and my pack isn’t too heavy. There are five of us, Rich, our fearless leader; myself; Harvard from Norway; Sophie from the USA and Erica from Zambia.
Quite quickly we run into some turtle hatchling tracks. It looks like someone has raked down a section of the beach about 10ft wide from the top of the beach to the sea. Its amazing to imagine those little guys powering down the beach last night. I’ve seen it on the TV but this actually happened no more that 15 minutes walk away from us last night. Incredible! They would probably be the last of the November 2009 eggs. We actually find more tracks within the first few miles but the first lot are the best.
The weather is on our side for the first half of the trek. Its slightly overcast and we even have a brief rainstorm (maybe a minute at most?). But even so I’m drenched with sweat within the first hour. It’s undeniably tough going and the sand is very soft and powdery for the most part. We set a fair pace of roughly 2 mph, which is pretty standard. We find quite a lot of Jaguar tracks, which is quite exciting, following them along the beach hoping for an elusive sighting. Some of them are quite fresh. But alas we are not to be the lucky few that get to see our feline quarry. I suspect they are more likely to be out in the open during the day when the turtle season is up and running proper. There are a few birds around and I get to see a couple of new species as well as numerous Black Vultures and Common Black-hawks are, well, common…
We stop for lunch at around 10:30 at just over halfway along. I’m pretty tired by this point and the food, which consists of pancakes covered in peanut butter, granola bars and apples, is very welcome. I also have a flask of Tang, which is kind of a powdered squash that actually tastes quite nice. The sugary drink provides a much-needed alternative to water and hopefully a bit of energy.
The first hour or so after lunch is ok, but exhaustion is starting to set in. It’s getting much hotter now too. Harvard manages to walk more quickly than I would have thought possible, and quickly outdistances the rest of us. I guess he’s younger, fitter and weighs a good couple of stone less than me. The rest of us are suffering, though Rich who has done this quite a few times before seems fine. The best moment comes at around midday when we’ve hit around 9.5 miles. I hear a snapping branch in the forest edge at the top of the beach and spin around to see some dark furry shapes dropping down out the trees. For a split second I think they’re monkeys, but they have long white snouts – Coatis! They disappear before I can get my camera to bear, but I’m still chuffed to see them. Rich, who has been here for a while now and is a veteran jag walker has also never seen them! They’ve long been one of my favourite animals since seeing them at Cotswold Wildlife Park when I was very young. Luckily, we come upon another one foraging on the beach. His curiosity gets the better of him and he stops to check us out, allowing me to snap a quick distant shot, before he disappears into the undergrowth. This alone makes the trek worth it. But then of course we still have some 6 miles or so to go.
They are pretty torturous to be quite honest even though it goes partly overcast again. We do see a dead armadillo, which is surprisingly large and was probably killed by a jaguar. The vultures are picking at it now. But even that distraction can’t relieve the aches in my shoulders and feet.
Tortuguero eventually comes into view through the trees and a bunch of American OAPs are lounging on the beach in their swimming costumes. They give us quizzical but friendly smiles, but I can barely raise a smile of my own for them. I don’t mind admitting as we eventually turn off the beach and make our way through the town to Budda Café, where our reception committee is waiting, that I have pretty much been pushed to my physical limit. If it was another couple of miles further or if it was a bit hotter, I don’t know if I would have made it.
But I did and the sense of accomplishment is definitely worth it. I’ll get to do it again, but hopefully not for a little while. I have recovered enough to walk back to base from the boat after a relaxing ride back, but I’ll sleep like a log tonight. Getting back I examine the damage and discover that my shoes have delivered, and I don’t have a single blister or cut. I have developed quite extensive heat rash on my upper legs however. Its not painful but chafes a bit. Tiger Balm (not made from real tigers thankfully. Instead a combination of oils) does the trick (thanks for bringing it back from China for me Julie!) – its also very good on mosquito bites! A cold shower never felt so good.
DAY 17
25th January 2010
Recovery
Well I sleep exceedingly well last night. I think I only woke up once in the night, which is a definite record. I’m still aching a bit, but I do feel surprisingly good. Thankfully it’s a quiet day today.
I go for a walk in the forest with Helen and the black dog (now named Blackjack) and end up watching a group of White-headed Capuchin Monkeys foraging in the trees above us. They obviously don’t like the dog, who bounds around below them excitedly. Uttering little barking sounds they start breaking and chewing off branches to drop down on us. Fortunately, clever though this is, their aim is appalling and they never come close to hitting us or the dog. Eventually, they settle down a bit and although constantly keeping a wary eye on us, they start looking for fruit and bugs to eat. A couple of them start grooming each other, and another enterprising chap finds a hollow full of water high up in the canopy and scoops it out to drink with his hands. They really are quite interesting creatures to watch and we could probably stay for much longer, except we have to get back for lunch.
The afternoon is spent learning more about the birds we will be surveying. Being quite a bird-nerd of course, I kind of already know it. But its interesting to talk about it and test ourselves.
It’s Burns night tonight (as well as Australia Day) so for the small minority of Scots and one Aussie, we decide to celebrate by wearing kilts (well, beach-towels or skirts) and have a bit of Burns poetry before eating. Sadly, there is no haggis, neeps and tatties, but we make do with vegetable and rice substitutes. Then its off to the beach for a game of beach cricket in true Aussie tradition. Its fun for about half an hour before it gets too dark to see the ball. Unfortunately, the one tradition that links these two celebrations, copious amounts of booze, is conspicuous by its absence.
DAY 18
26th January 2010
Canal surveying
We are out on the boat today looking at some small canals where normal boat traffic is not allowed. We have permission to survey them though and once we’ve checked them out will be carrying out surveys of the birds here from a kayak. I can’t wait for that – there’s a good chance of seeing other wildlife too such as River Otters, Caiman (smaller crocodiles) and maybe even the extremely rare West Indian Manatee (er.. kind of like a slow-moving river seal is probably the closest approximation I can think of. Google it.), animals that would otherwise most likely be scared off by the motor-boat.
The day is a beautiful one and it is quite the pleasure to drift along these quiet waterways. There are many waterbirds about, but the highlight for me is definitely the sight of a beautiful Black-collared Hawk, which is a rich red-rufous colour and feeds on fish much like an Osprey.
In the afternoon, those of us doing the internship are out in the field showing that we can identify animal species using our field-guides. This is right up my street and to be honest, I’ve already identified a lot of the birds and animals in the area on my own. But we do manage to see something new in the form of a pair of stunning Black-throated Trogon, which is a very-colourful jungle bird. Well done to Erica for spotting them.
DAY 19
27th January 2010
Long weekend.
We’ve booked a white-water rafting trip for our long-weekend break. There are nine of us going (myself, Nicky and Charlotte from the UK; Jeremy, Lydia and Sophie from the US; and my two roomies, Charissa from South Africa and Emily from Australia) and we’re all excited.
The first step is a speedy water-taxi out of Tortuguero to a landing called Cano Blanca. This is effectively a bus-stop that services the water-taxis. If this were the UK, no doubt the bus station would be an ugly grey building with cheap and unfathomably uncomfortable metal rows of seats, with a couple of crappy vending machines in one corner, some filthy toilets and probably some unsavoury characters hanging about somewhere. But here there is a large wooden covered veranda filled with worn but comfy leather chairs. The outside is painted a cheery yellow and orange, and there are about 15 toilet cubicles all kept clean and tidy, plus a large shop where you can buy snacks, t-shirts, souvenirs and cold drinks (including beer at the very reasonable price of just over a £1 per bottle). I buy a cool t-shirt bearing the logo ‘Costa Rica – No army since 1948’ and some beer and crisps, and we all get comfy and wait for our bus which is due in a couple of hours.
The hours fly by and soon we are on a bus to the town of Siqurres. We travel along a bumpy track through banana plantations and farmland. To start with we have the bus to ourselves and like a bunch of naughty schoolkids we occupy the back end of the bus laughing and messing around. It’s a long journey though, and the bus fills up the further along we go, so we gradually run out of energy until we finally get to Siqurres around 1 hour and forty after we set off. We don’t leave the terminal and quickly find our next bus to the town of Turrialba, where much of Costa Rica’s rafting business is based.
The bus ride goes up through the mountains and offers spectacular views of the forest-covered Irazu and Turriabla volcanoes rising up into the clouds, as well as a few hair-raising bends in the road.
Turrialba is a busy little town and once we get our bearings make our way to the budget hotel where we are spending the night. It’s called the Interamericano and seems to be located in a bit of a seedy district. The hotel is nice enough though, although the American lady that runs the place has a bit of a strange attitiude, she’s actually a little rude and patronising to us when we first arrive. If we had an alternative, I would have actually considered going elsewhere, but we don’t. Its only $10 each for the night and its pretty clean, so can’t really complain at that. We head out for the night to get some food and find a bar, but it’s a Wednesday night and the bustling streets have emptied and the two bars that we do find are pretty ropey and mostly empty. We manage to get a burger and some nachos which are pretty typical bar food quality, but it fulfils a need we have for some junk food. They do serve a nice Pina Colada though.
DAY 20
28th January 2010
We get picked up by Alex Amador in the morning. He’s on the National Costa Rican rafting team and is hoping to be in the 2016 Olympics when they introduce rafting as an event. He runs his own rafting company with three of his team-mates. He’s a very friendly and funny guy and speaks great English. He takes us to a supermarket where we can get some booze for tonight when we stay in their forest lodge. Then we follow the bus route back up into the mountains part way, until we turn off down a track that leads us down to the Rio Pacuare (means ‘young macaw’ apparently), officially the ‘most scenic’ white-water rafting location in the world. We are taking a leisurely two day trip down the river stopping off at some spots on the way and spending the night at their forest camp. We are split into two rafts and we meet our two river guides, Manuel and Fabien. Again, they are both very friendly and experienced guys. Alex will be coming with us but will be piloting another raft on his own and carrying all the supplies (in dry bags) with him. He is also going to stop at various intervals to take photos of us going along. The first thing we do is follow Alex upstream a bit, put on our helmets and lifejackets, and swim across the river. Yep, that’s right, swim across the river. Its quite a strong current but no rapids at this point and we all make it over to where a small stream leads up to a picturesque cascade that we all have a go at sitting underneath. I am also fascinated to see a huge spider sat on the underside of on of the rocks facing down into the torrent. It has one leg outstretched as if feeling for something to go past. What it’s waiting for or how it catches it, is a mystery to me though.
The point of this exercise is no doubt to get us wet through and used to the water, plus maybe a warm-up. It certainly works and we are all having great fun, and the fact that it’s a nice sunny day helps no end.
We then get our raft safety talk and instructions from Manuel and then split off into our rafts. There are four people in ours, myself, Nicky, Emily and Sophie, and we have Fabien as our instructor. He doesn’t speak as much English as the other two guys but we easily manage to understand each other, and we teach each other words in Spanish and English as we are going along.
We spend about four hours or so going along various classes of rapids all the way up to Class 4 (rapids only go up to Class 5!), and the general consensus is that we all have an amazing time. Our guides are so experienced and professional that we never fear for our safety at all, but at the same time it’s really exciting and we are all hollering and screaming at regular intervals. We stop around halfway to walk up to a nice waterfall with a plunge pool that we can swim in. The scenery for the whole stretch is pretty incredible. The only place I think that can rival it (in a different sort of way) is maybe the Dart Valley in New Zealand (Alex does give me a funny look when I mention this later on! I was trying to encourage him to visit NZ because I think he’d love it. I wasn’t trying to put down Costa Rica in any way!)
Perhaps the most memorable discussion is when, on a quiet stretch of river, I am pointing out some birds. The other volunteers call me ‘birdman’ sometimes, for obvious reasons. I attempt to explain this to Fabien using the direct literal translation in Spanish which is ‘pajero hombre’. Fabien doubles over laughing at this, before explaining that it actually means ‘gay man’ in Spanish slang! We all have a good laugh at this, and I make a mental note to never say that again!!
The guys own a small camp up on a hillside overlooking the river and that’s where we spend the night. They have built it themselves over the last nine years, using sustainable methods to keep it eco-friendly and it seamlessly mixes with the forest around it. The centrepiece is a vast wooden balcony with a stupendous view. It also has a kitchen and bar area and they provide sandwiches and snacks for a late lunch before cooking up a feast for the evening meal. We are all knocked out by how nice this place is. After tea they get the radio out with some salsa music and teach (or attempt to teach) us how to dance like a Tico (Costa Ricans name for themselves). Unsurprisingly they are all really good at it. I’m beginning to think there probably isn’t anything they aren’t good at!! We also have a good chat with Alex in which he tells us about his travels to Europe and the US to compete in rafting. He also explains much of what they have done with their company over the last nine years. They really are living the dream. They work doing what they love, and the money they make goes into creating their dream lodge. They also work closely with the local communities, selling local arts and crafts for no profit to themselves, and giving residents of Turrialba free trips so that they can appreciate the beauty and excitement that is right on their doorstep. As well as being very generous, this had the advantage that when the government tried to put forward a plan to dam the river for electricity (that they would then sell internationally), the guys did a door to door survey of the residents of Turrialba to find those in favour of this. 97% voted no to the dam, so the plan was shelved. It would have been a crime against nature, to destroy this beautiful river system, so good on you Turrialba!
The lodgings are a tented camp set-up, which is very comfortable and atmospheric. I have my own room(tent) for the first time in a while and I have to say it is quite nice just to be able to stretch out.
DAY 21
29th January 2010
I’m up early to explore the lodge area for birds. Alex and Manual are also up early to provide coffee and biscuits. Around 7:30 they serve up a fabulous cooked breakfast, which is just beyond amazing.
Afterwards, Manual and Fabien lead us on a trek through the nearby jungle. It’s a different sort of jungle to Tortuguero. It’s more hilly terrain and the trees are much larger, with some huge buttress roots propping them up. We also see a couple of Strawberry Poison-dart Frogs, which I am very pleased about. They are tiny (about the size of the top of my thumb) but with vivid red and blue colouring that makes them stand out against the dark forest floor, and also proclaims their toxicity.
We follow the forest trail down to the riverside where we meet up with the boats, which Alex has been getting ready. Then we’re off for another morning of rafting fun. We only have a couple of hours of it this time. We all wish we had more time.
Fabien is on top form with his jokes. At one point he strikes the water with his paddle with a sound like a gun shot. Because he’s sat behind us, we don’t see him do it and the sound echoes so loudly we all whip round and start looking around wildly, whilst Fabien ducks down shouting “its war! Everybody down”. He then laughs and demonstrates the paddle slap again.
We stop for lunch on a sandy beach area where we can amuse ourselves by walking upstream, jumping into the river and floating down on the gentle current until we reach the beach and pull ourselves out again. The guys put on a slap-up feast again, this time in the form of tortillas with so many different ingredients that I am forced to put them all in and make the hugest wrap in the world!!! We are also highly amused by shoals of small fish that gather in the shallows and swarm on any small morsels of food that you throw in like piranha. They will also nibble your feet and fingers, which is not painful but incredibly ticklish.
Arguably the most spectacular moment of the trip is when the river enters a dark gorge. Cascades of water spit down out of the rock and there is an old and decrepit looking bridge above us. The ambience is peaceful and yet slightly eerie as the sound of the water echoes from the gorge walls. We sit in silence letting the current carry us along gently and enjoying the atmosphere, that is until we are drenched as Fabien sneezes a handful of water over us! A group of rather loud rafters also enter behind us, hollering and whooping, so we decide to carry on.
It isn’t long before a large rusty iron bridge indicates the end of the rafting section of the river and soon afterwards the main road bridge to Siqurres spans the river carrying its noisy cargo of lorrys and cars. It’s a rather rude shock to the system after two days of peace and beautiful scenery. I think we are a bit melancholy as we land the rafts for the final time. Happy that we’ve had such a great time, and sad because I think we could all go and do it again.
Last night we had the revelation that nobody actually knows when our bus goes back to Cano Blanca and when we can get a boat from there. We are supposed to be back tonight otherwise it will mess up the rota for the coming week. Oops. As we are changing out of our wet clothes and gathering our things, Manuel rings the bus station and finds out that our bus leaves in roughly 15 minutes. He then drives us into Siqurres stopping off at a bus stop a little way along from the terminal to find out if the bus has passed yet. He finds out that we still have another 15 minutes or so before it leaves the terminal. Off we go and Manuel actually escorts us into the terminal, helps us find our bus and makes sure we get our tickets.
I can’t recommend these guys enough. As well as being the best at what they do, they are such genuinely good and warm people, that I couldn’t imagine doing this again with any other company. We got a significant discount for being with GVI but even if we had paid double what we paid it would have been a steal. I actually cannot think of anything to improve on this experience!
Please if anybody is considering doing some rafting in Costa Rica (and you should!), get in touch with these guys:
Alex Segura Amador – asa@costarica extreme.com
Incidentally, we got a boat back to the base almost straight away upon arriving at Cano Blanca and got back in time for tea, which brings the weekend to a close nicely!
DAY 22
30th Jan
Out looking for monkeys today. They kindly oblige and we see all three species for a reasonable period of time. The Howlers even set up a nice chorus of hooting and hollering for us from up in a large tree.
We do some more work for our BTEC in the afternoon which consists of discussing survey design. We will have several surveys that we will all pitch in and help to plan and carry out. The most interesting one is a potential survey of the Eyelash Vipers which will of course also pose several important Health and Safety considerations i.e. don’t touch, harass or approach within so many feet/metres. This of course precludes any form of measuring or marking the animals. They are so abundant here that some kind of survey would be pretty interesting.
DAY 23
31st Jan
My turn for camp duty again. So its another sweaty day doing cleaning, cooking and washing up. Its not as much of a stressful day as before, mostly because I decide to leave all the food choices to everyone else and just do as I’m told! We make a pretty damn fine tea, if I do say so myself, consisting of sweet potato mash (made entirely by me!), lentil and sweetcorn burgers, plus a delicious tangy vegetable salsa.
The highlight of my day is possibly when the boat team comes back from picking up another Jag Walk team (which turned out to be fairly uneventful) and they bought me a box of cornflakes (I’m quite honestly sick of porridge for breakfast!) and it turns out to have a plastic Clone Wars lightsaber in it! Its not a very good toy but it provides a bit of amusement for me! I got Yoda’s green lightsaber in case anyone was wondering….
Day 24
1st Feb
I am out on the canals today. Our group is exploring some new canals for possible future bird surveys. Predictably it rains for much of it. We’re fairly prepared this time and have all our waterproofs and equipment in dry-bags. We find some nice spots and see plenty of the common birds, and at one point what is thought to have been an otter plunges into the water from a half-submerged log in front of us. I was looking the other way at the time (of course….). The most humorous moment is when we are treated to the sight of Rich, our boat driver having to position himself rather awkwardly on top of the engine block in order to untangle some weeds from the propeller.
Its very humid today back at base and the insects are out in abundance along with the birds that eat them. I tempt fate by doing some washing (I still had wet stuff from the rafting. Yuk!) and hanging it out to dry but sporadic showers keep it from drying despite the heat.
I manage a quick half hour walk in the forest before lunch. I really love the jungle. There is always something to see: a huge Blue morpho butterfly the size of a bird, a small Red-eyed tree frog asleep precariously on a grass stem, a huge Marine Toad squatting malevolently in the undergrowth, a small Anole lizard basking on a branch, a curious wasp nest that consists of two parallel ‘tubes’ constructed from mud on the underside of a leaf, and finally a large wolf spider lurking next to a red flower has caught and is eating a brightly coloured butterfly.
DAY 25
2nd Feb
It continues to rain sporadically through the night and day. My clothes have been rinsed through about 4 times now. Come back sun all is forgiven.
We spend the morning working on our BTECs, which is coming on nicely. Again we are out trying to ID species in the field, something which comes quite naturally to me.
DAY 26
3rd Feb
Its still mostly raining. I’m beginning to run out of clean shirts. Fairly uneventful morning although we get to walk a couple of miles up the beach to where a camera trap has been set up, using the cunning disguise of a pink plastic chair that was salvaged from the tide line. Unfortunately, strapping it to a tree kind of draws the attention. Its still there and excitingly there are lots of jaguar tracks all up the beach at this point – its looks as though it would have walked right past the camera. Its an old film camera and its all been used up. This could mean that it has been taking pictures of the waves of course as it uses a motion sensor, but it could also have the first jaguar pictures on it. We won’t know until the films have been developed and we need to send them off to San Jose for that, so we won’t know for a while. We head back through the jungle to pick up another camera, which unfortunately doesn’t seem to have worked. They are a bit temperamental.
Frustratingly although we did see a cool Red Brocket Deer which wandered out onto the path in front of us at one point, the rain keeps everything else away. Even more frustratingly, other teams got to see a really cool red, black and yellow Coral Snake and some rarely seen birds out on the canal. I guess you can’t be everywhere at once, but I’m still quite a bit disappointed.
In the afternoon we a treated to a visit from all the GVI Regional Directors and Co-ordinators. I must admit I was expecting a bunch of ‘suits’ but they all turn out to be really nice people that come up and introduces themselves and want to hear about what we’ve been up to as well as telling us all about their various projects. We have the overall director of GVI and directors from projects (both community and conservation work; sometimes both) based in South Africa, Kenya, India, Thailand, Mexico and other parts of Latin America. They each give a quick presentation about their projects and then subject themselves to being quizzed by all of us. I’ll reiterate that they are all really down-to-Earth and personable people (as well as being an inordinately handsome bunch!) and the buzz around camp for the afternoon is really fun and enjoyable. I get to speak to the guy from Kenya, who is also starting up a project in Ghana which he is really stoked about and makes it sound really interesting and exciting, as well as Stephen, who has just wrapped a project hiking through remote Patagonian mountains and is due to take over as our co-ordinator when Dave leaves in a few weeks. He seems like a really good guy, though it will be a real change of pace for him and the heat is certainly something he isn’t used to! They don’t stay for long unfortunately, but it was really great to meet them and I think we all got inspired by them and made a few contacts for future endeavours.
DAY 27
4th Feb
Day off today. I go for a walk with Sam in the jungle and succeed in seeing a couple of new jungle birds including the beautiful Slaty-tailed Trogon. The usual Eyelash Vipers and small lizards abound and we spend a bit of time following the fascinating trails of leaf-cutter ants as they cut across the jungle floor. I try and take some pictures and video but it’s really to capture the flow of the columns of marching ants.
We have another long weekend coming up and the same group of us, plus a few others are planning a trip to Puerto Veijo, on the southern most part of Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast. It’s supposed to be really scenic and nice down there, although Puerto Veijo is getting a bit of a reputation as a backpacker town, with some negative aspects of this in the form of weed-dealers and touts. I think I’ll probably skip through here and leave the others to party it up and I’ll go and do a bit of exploring in the nearby Wildlife Refuge.
We also have a meeting with the GVI staff tonight, in which representatives from each dorm convey the general opinions and comments on things so far. The over-riding consensus is that we have way too much free-time and want to get more involved with things. Some people I feel are being a bit too negative about things, but I can’t deny that I would rather be out in the field a lot more than we are currently doing. A lot of this stems from the fact that it’s a new base and things are still being set-up, and its also low season for turtles; but the counter-argument is that maybe not so many volunteers should have been taken on at the moment if that was the case. I’m still having a great time, but I can lose myself in the environment and I’m quite happy looking for things on my own. People that don’t have my level of enthusiasm are perhaps looking for a little more guidance and involvement. Still, hopefully things will improve as we are about to start doing proper bird surveys on the canals in a canoe, which I can’t wait for.
DAY 28
5th Feb
Hmmmm. Rota is up for this week and I’m pretty disappointed. There are four days before our long weekend and on three of those days, there are bird surveys. Due to the odd number of volunteers and spaces available in the canoe, someone does not get to do any of them. That someone is me. I’m pretty gutted to be quite honest. I’m on Camp Duty one day, I have a cool forest walk and the chance to use the internet on another day which is good. The other two days I’m not really doing much. I’m not particularly happy about this turn of events.
It doesn’t help when we go out this morning starting at 8 and having to get back by 10, which means we spend the last hour rushing back and not having time to stop to look at the myriad of sights and sounds that the jungle presents. I’m a little frustrated. This is further compounded by the fact that the bird survey saw lots of very cool stuff. Typical!
I cheer up a bit by applying some brain power for our BTEC work this afternoon followed by an evening night-walk in which a few of us venture into the jungle with torches. It’s undoubtedly eerie and the jungle takes on quite an ominous atmosphere at night. You definitely feel out of your comfort zone. I love it though – there’s a different crowd around during the night. The spiders for a start, They are big, mean-looking and hanging around in high numbers on either side of the trail. We also see a lazy Red-eyed Tree-frog who appears to be having a lie-in, an Eyelash Viper just waking up for the night, a new snake – Blunt-headed Brown Vine Snake, long and thin, and best of all my habit of shining the torch up into the trees at regular intervals, finally reveals a Two-toed Sloth hanging motionless above us.
My camera is pretty useless in the dark (or rather I don’t know how to best use it yet!) so Sam is managing some pretty decent pics. I’ll have to borrow them.
DAY 29
Feb 6th 2010
Camp Duty
Great. Camp Duty, my favourite. At least I’ve got my roomie, Charissa, to keep me company – and direct cooking operations. It’s hot and sticky today and typically, the bird survey manages to see cool stuff that I’ve not seen yet. So again mood is not the best. There is the exciting news that one of the survey teams has found the first dead turtle of the year. Charissa and I are given the all clear to go with Leonie, one of the interns, and have a look. It’s a fair walk and it’s pretty hot. I pity the Jag walkers if the weather is like this tomorrow. The turtle is pretty gruesome but kind of exciting. It’s very early for them to be coming ashore, and clearly it was a very bad decision on its part as the jaguar(s) were waiting and it was brutally killed. There’s some photos but use viewer discretion as they are a bit gory.
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