Lalo Loor Biological Station

2-3-09
Today is the official one month mark in my trip. We got into the dry forest near the coast of Ecuador yesterday and are staying in a reserve that Ceiba helped form called Lalo Loor. The dry forest is a lot like the temperate forest in that most trees seasonally lose their leaves and in many ways it resembles a temperate forest. The first day we got in late afternoon and settled in. Once it got dark most people went on a night hike, but I like to know my surroundings a little better before venturing into the darkness, so I stayed back with a few others. Unfortunately, our house was soon invaded by very large ants. The first one was spotted by Rita, who is currently trying to get over her fear of insects. She came running out of her room proclaiming there was an ant the size of a shoe near her clothes. I went in to investigate, and while the ant was larger than any I had ever seen before, about 1 inch in length, and had biting mouth parts that did not look friendly, it was definitely not the size of any adult’s shoe. We showed the ant to our professor who had come back from the hike to get a flashlight and binoculars to get a better look at a snake in a tree. She did not know what kind it was, which did not make us feel any better. More and more ants began to appear and soon we felt surrounded. Then one of the local employs came in and picked one up without hesitation and asked for our hand to put it in, we were still ot convinced they were safe. We asked him if they were poisonous and he said no, but would not tell us if the bit or not. Finally we got used to them and tried to go on with our business without too much worry. Eventually the rest of the group came back and also noticed the ants. By this time we were not impressed by them anymore and the night slowly wound down. Today I was woke up at 5:30 to the sounds of exotic birds and howler monkeys. At about 6 some of us went to find the monkeys that sounded very close. We found them in a tree about 100 meters from out house. They were just shilling in the tree having their daily breakfast of leaves. After watching them for about 30 minutes we headed back for breakfast. At 7:30 we left for our day hike, which was scheduled to return around 2:30. These hikes are usually fairly easy because we stop a lot to take notes about flora and fauna, but the day was hot and we were all wearing long pants and rubber boots. This is typically attire in order to avoid scratches as well as ants and snakes from climbing up your legs. Other than this being very hot, mosquitoes know no boundaries and apparently have a special taste for my hinny. Needless to say I was kind of miserable on the hike. I do not especially like hot weather, I would much rather be in the mountains. But, one thing that the mountains do not have that I do enjoy is monkeys, and we saw about 3 groups on our hike, which made up for being physically uncomfortable. We arrived back at camp around 1m, much earlier than expected, and being the other groups. We were all very hot and dirty and we aching to go to the beach. Jamie Rose asked our teacher if we could, to which we were all expected to be denied, but amazingly she said yes. She told us which beach to go to and said it was about a 45 minute walk. So we changed and started on our way. Once we got to the main road the sun got really intense and we decided walking way much less efficient than hitch hiking. Luckily the next vehicle to drive by was a bus full of people. All the seats were taken but the lets s stand in the back with the food for free. We didn’t know exactly where our destination was, so we got let off a little past it, but we still definitely saved lots of time and energy. We got to the beach and immediately went in the water. it was perfectly refreshing and warm. We stayed there for about an hour and enjoyed every moment. I think I enjoyed it a little too much though… I got caught up in the freeness of the beach and did a celebratory cartwheel. Unfortunately forgetting that I had just taken of my cast one week before and my wrist was definitely not ready for that kind of action, lesson learned. We hitched a ride back to Lalo Loor in what smelled like an empty fish truck. When we got back to the rest the group greeted us with scorns and snide remarks. They were not very excited that they were not able to go to the beach as well, and very bitter. After a short lecture we ate dinner and spent the rest of the night playing some camp fire games, although we didn’t actually have a camp fire.
So far this trip has been pretty amazing and I cannot wait for the next 3 and a half months! My next trips are: 2.5 weeks in Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the middle of the Amazon, then I have a week for spring break which my mom is visiting for, then we go to the coast for a week, followed by 2 weeks in the Galapagos , then finally I have a month internship in the Amazonian town of Tena (more information to come.)
Pienso que Ecuador es superchevere! (Translation: I think Ecuador is super cool.)