I had the 1st, 5th and 9th weeks at Base Camp with 4 weeks in total at the highest camp of Cantiles at 1900m, about 4km away and taking 2 to 3 hours to trek. I found it very hard going first time around carrying a full backpack, but a breeze by week 6 on the 2nd sojourn. Some school groups took 5 – 6 hours. In week 4 from Cantiles, about 12 of us took a little used route by OW along hunting /illegal farming tracks for 6 hours westwards, into the more humid heart of the forest to Danto Camp.
It can pour incessantly with mossie attacks and we were told that Danto makes grown men cry, so this along with being heralded by the guides as an ass kicking trek of 8km up and over ridges was a challenge I could not let pass. I was unsure if I’d be able to do such demanding treks as the age factor couldn’t be denied, and so asked if I could go if I paid one of the guides to take my big pack ( 3 dollars). It wasn’t quite as back breaking as indicated but still some darned steep climbs and descents and felt chuffed I did it. During the 9 weeks I didn’t get blisters or became the slowest at the back and only experienced knee pain from the descents which mirrored that of the 23 yearold toughies! Heartening as age creeps up!
From Danto, we walked out through more the more de-forested western side by a 5 hour hike with mules taking the bags for 4 hours then an open backed truck back to Base Camp. The trip to Santo Tomas on the western side in week 8 was similar with a truck and bus down the mountain to San Pedro city, via the much desired fast food burger joints, and out via the Carribean ocean to another dirt track which with luck we got a jeep ride and only walked for about 40mins with mules taking the bags. After 8 weeks of becoming very fit this seemed a walk in the park, except for the hard hitting, much more humid and warmer climate which zonked many out including me for the 1st day.
I’ve been one of four in the terrestrial invertebrate team with specialities of dung beetles. The field work comprised hiking 4 transects at each jungle camp, 1-3km long, where there is 50m by 50m main site and 2-7, 10m by 10m sub sites which are standardised and constant effort sites regarding the collection of habitat and some fauna data. The dung beetle work was very high tech consisting of red plastic cups as the collecting or death chamber with 50% antifreeze and water dug into the ground with a machete and laid flush to ground level, a bait ball tied on a stick across the rim and a plastic paper plate held at an angle above with 3 machete cut sticks to reduce rain water ingress. These cups are usually emptied into small plastic bags holding ethanol every 4 days or so and rebaited. At each Camp fresh horse dung was delivered each day by a muchellero or pack boy.
As well as the on-going collection for the overall biodiversity dung beetle data, we helped a handful of College students with their research projects. This involved alternating dung balls with mashed banana or chicken offal and in the live traps to assess any dietary or soil wetness preferences, human dung was also used, provided by the student performing in a small lunch box each day.
Most of the guides were great and happy to help and I worked as a team with them. Even though I put down many of the traps, I rarely ever knew where they were and if they had decided to leg it, I had minimal directional sense as to how to get out apart from which way was the up and down slope! My orientation in the jungle was disarmingly poor. I loved being out in the smaller, remoter camps and was a very happy bunny hiking trails, bathing in rivers, making tortillas, great chat and hoots of laughter in pidgin spanish with the guides and cooks and sleeping in hammocks.
On the ridge paths amongst the fab dwarf semi montane forest which teemed with lichens, bromeliads and mosses, we got views of the plains and river along the border with Guatemala and the Carribean. These views were very inviting when trying to rescue one’s lungs and leg muscles from disintegration on the almost vertical climbing up through tree roots and trunks and sliding down mud banks.
We learn’t the hard way during the 1st week at Cantiles about taking adequate food as A and I based our expectations on transect difficulty at Base Camp ( couple of hours often along nice wide paths and back for lunch with afternoon siestas). We’d luckily taken 2 small packets of crackers, 2 mini packets of raisins and bit of chocolate. At 3pm up on the ridge I split the last mars bar into 3 pieces and ‘naturally’ included the guide although it was indicated this was not always the case. We half crawled back into camp after 6 hours knackered and hungry.
One day when the heavy rain with thunder and lightning came in at 1pm out on transect 5 at Cantiles, there was so much rain cascading from my hair into my eyes that I could hardly see the cups, sieve etc to do the work whilst precariously sliding up and down a steep slope to find these darned traps. These mad antics merited another belly laughter episode which I learnt later reassured our 2 guides who were concerned we would want to quit or become sullen. I just found it comically surreal and decided laughter was the best approach.
Most of the guides are nimble, surefooted and can walk hard and fast for hours carrying a machete in one hand, back packs and at night a torch under the chin with 12 x 3m long bat poles across the shoulders. I got some compliments from the guides for being a strong and fit walker and told I was only about 70% slower than them at their top speed. Wow!
Aside from the invertebrate work I took many opportunities to go out with other teams especially the bat, amphibian and bromeliad teams to do both day and night work. Couple of guys from Belgium and USA were doing some interesting research into the invertebrate fauna within the bromeliads such as whether some frog species only inhabit these plants and use them for all life stages. In addition, as the water in the leaves is so acid they may be a means for frogs to counter the 80% kill rates for many species in the Park from the chytrid fungus.
They also put radio transmitters on frogs to determine if some species or individuals used 3D habitat ie up and down a tree as well as along a stream, so this was good fun tracking down these creatures at night as involved hacking up and over slippery rocks, small waterfalls, half falling into pools and ocasional branches crashing to the ground as one of the guys clambered up to track a frog.
There was further scrambling along rivers tracking the ‘peep peep’ of small, cute glass frogs as well as a jaunt at midnight after all this to look for another endemic frog which may or may not have become extinct. I saw some great salamanders and snakes such as an emerald green palm viper coiled up in a bromeliad we were about to cut down, many Godmans’ mountain vipers, jumping vipers and an ocasional banded coral snake both the real McCoy and a superb imitation version.
The huge cane and other toads at Santo Tomas are awesomingly loud at night and this cacophony was mixed in with the cockerel and his harems strolling around the tents and belllowing cows with thunder and rain thrown in for good measure.
Had a turn with the large mammal team and guides who as ex hunters are superb at tracking and lots of tapir footprints, pooh and pathways. Saw a kinkaju or squirrel / monkey type animal in the top of the trees during a night time invert walk. However, the team leader is superbly fit at 28 having rowed the Atlantic and pulled sleges across the Greenlanc ice cap and I could not keep up with this team as a very fast walking pace and they often ran back.
The bat work was good too with fruit, insect, onmivorous and blood sucking species all present. They range in size from small to large sly monsters of the vampires which wait for the slightest opportunity to escape so only the experienced team leader can get these out of the nets and process them to measure arm length, sex, ID etc but one, to her shock, got away and flew ínto me’. Being vampire naive I didn’t realise the seriousness of the issue and just thought ‘another bat and stayed still’ which probably helped to avoid a bite as they tend to land then jump and bite which would have meant a definite rabies jab and trip down the mountain. Another experience!
The night work often doesn’t finish til past midnight and one mad day I did my work, then helped with stripping bromeliads, left Camp at 5pm for an hours hike up and over a ridge to set up 3 nets, got bitten badly by mossies for 6 hours for a haul of 3 bats as too much moonlight and then haul the body and soul back to Camp for about 1.30am to then be waken as requested at 5.15am to go bird mist netting. I did have afternoon rests as my energy slumps then and on 3 occasions slumped in the hammock feeling feverish, shaky and ‘odd’ but luckily felt better by the evening.
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