13:12 Collected bags of gastropod snails
in time ‘quadrats’ then sorted them out into species or at least similar
looking individuals to start. DL checked everyone’s sample with high expertise
and I assisted her where possible whilst going through my own sample, some of
which I knew, others were new to me. We
then had some extra time so I was shown that we can even ID them down to family
level atleast blind, so she went ahead and asked me to give her any complete
shell so long as it was not a fragment and low and behold she got each and
every one right.
We then took a walk up
the upper Quebrada San Miguel stream bed which is a beautiful place that needs
describing. The trail appears out of
nowhere when it is first pointed out and immediately begins with a steep climb
upwards for a good couple of hundred metres before reaching a flattened
area. At this point it dips down and you
lose the sound of the ocean behind you and after a little bit more, as long as
everyone is quite, you can hear the stream flowing from afar. Upon reaching the stream I noticed its wide
birth and it was explained to me that with heavy rains in some years a large
head of water can carve out this stream bed, this was evident from the couple
of gigantic trees with most of their roots exposed.
 |
| Upper Stream Bed (D.Philpot) |
I heard there were crayfish about but
did not see any today, but once we reached the top I got to see a wonderful
waterfall that ends the trail and so spent some time swimming with the students
whilst keeping an eye on the high tree canopy above this oasis...
.JPG) |
| My Private Swimming Pool (D.Philpot) |
On the way back down DL asked me to lead the
way back down, which was different but very cool and I enjoyed it.
After making it back with all the students I relaxed in a hammock where I
got my first few photographs of a Variegated Squirrel and some White-Faced Capuchin Monkeys, so very
sweet to watch:
 |
| View From The Hammock - The "Yard" To Sea (D.Philpot) |
 |
| Canopy Flare (D.Philpot) |
 |
| Variegated Squirrel (D.Philpot) |
 |
| First (Lazy) Capuchin (D.Philpot) |
17:45 Oh my god! Anteater!!! The one
creature I wanted to see the most and I have not long got to spend some time
with one. Such a docile animal, a group
of us were sitting on the beach with DL watching the beautiful sunset when
someone said “Hey, what’s that?” and sure enough it was a vested anteater or
tamandua, its more local name.
.JPG) |
| View Forward, My First Of Many Sunsets (D.Philpot) |
.jpg) |
| View Behind, My First Anteater (D.Philpot) |
It walked
up to a coconut palm tree, climbed it pretty slowly and almost vertically up to
the coconuts where it fed on ants, presumably. I watched it for about 10 minutes, the
students headed for dinner at 18:00 but I stayed and as also presumed it came
back down so I got some very good photos.
I was only shy off 2 metres away, but the individual was only curious
about what had snuck up on him so crept a little closer so there I stood with a
silly grin on my face until it slowly wandered off through some Bromeliads that
line the beach.
Elias was invited in as a special guest
lecturer giving a great talk on the past of the area including family history
which brought to light the lack of medical facilities they had as he spoke of
his father passing away when he was only 4.
22:00 Later in the evening around 20:00
we got a bonfire going, roasted some marshmallows and I was introduced to American
“s’mores” where you put them between cookies (biscuits). Two racoons also passed through the area an
hour or so ago, they came up the path and searched close to the kitchen trying
to salvage some food.