… the winding Tempisque River, which we just came back from this morning, and just the sheer amount of life that’s literally crawling between every nook and cranny. I kid you not.
So earlier today, back from our Tempisque River Tour, where Crocs swam just a few meters away and White-Faced Capuchins jumped onto our boat, I decided to take a shower. Gone were the chemicals and caked blood from burst mosquitoes. I step out, I grab a towel, I reach for my pants, and I find a Scorpion. I kid you not. The following few minutes were spent by me shouting “Give me back my pants!” and the chatter and squealing from the people outside (who I’d asked to shake the bugger out).
Snakes curl up near the bathroom and Tarantula nests dot the hillside right outside our dorms. Macaws fly across the mountains at sunrise as Howler Monkeys roar back and forth, and at us when we call at them. I made a nice video of that, but I haven't been able to post it yet: the first guttural sound is me, and the reply is the howler. The speaker at the end is another student. Not much to look at, as it was fairly far away, but turn your volume up!
(Go here for video of howler!)
We are all scarred and itchy, and we all anticipate Rincon de la Vieja (mud pots and hot springs!) tomorrow, but I think now we all appreciate a little more… life’s cycles and all its workings, big and small… that it doesn’t start with the rare Jabaroo, but with the humble Mosquito.
On the academic side, 3 studies were done in Palo Verde: one group studied the ‘Optimal Predation Theory’ with Jacanas and aquatic insects, another Seed Dispersal, and my group looked at Pollination. I stood ankle-deep in a marsh, under the sun, and stared at a single plant for 2 hours… and strangely enough, thought it was quite interesting. The Jacana group had to wade through floating islands of cow dung.
We are almost at our final site, a primary feather in the wing of biological field stations (bad analogy, I know): La Selva. I don’t want to think about the end yet, and I won’t because I have 2 tests, 2 presentations and 2 papers in the way, but I know it will jump up on me, just like how June 15th jumped up on me a few weeks ago. I will take each day in stride though, because there hasn’t been a day, not a single one, when I missed home or wanted to be elsewhere. I am exactly where I belong. So, I go, and I will see you all in La Selva.
P.S. I still don’t like mosquitoes very much.
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