Batipa Day Six


 May 24


At breakfast, Edmundo caught a dart frog. He put it into a little container so we could all get a look at it. Apparently, they’ll only harm you if you ingest the toxins on your skin— so you can touch them and be fine, but you should wash your hands before putting them anywhere near your mouth or eyes. I really love amphibians; I’m hoping I’ll get to spot a cane toad before we leave.


Today was our last field day. We were done taking samples pretty quickly, too; we were even back before lunch! A crew from Oteima university (which funds/runs Batipa) came to film, so we went out again to simulate another sample plot and explain what we’ve been doing. It was neat!


Afterward, our day was mostly devoted to working on a presentation for Saturday. We’ll be going into the Comarca and giving them some information about water quality and treating dirty water. It was a little hectic, but we came up with something pretty interesting in the end.


Today was full of animal sightings; someone caught a juvenile snake, and we saw a monkey running straight through the grounds. I even saw my first (wild) tarantula!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Three in Batipa

May 21 Today we had cereal and fruit for breakfast. It was my first time trying papaya, and I actually really liked it- it's a really striking, reddish-orange color. I'm normally a pretty picky eater, but I've had a lot of fun trying foods that are new to me. We can't exactly walk to the grocery store or to a restaurant from out here, which means we pretty much just eat whatever our hosts make! I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunity to keep on enjoying new things.  Today was our first day doing work out in the field. My group is studying insect distribution in different parts of the preserve! We went up the same path that we took yesterday, though this time it almost felt harder. I think we were going at a bit of a faster pace, and we took less breaks. It meant that we got there quicker, but it also meant that I really  struggled to catch my breath. This trip has really made it hit home how non-athletic I am. (Hopefully by the end of it I'll be a little mo
Read more

Batipa Day Nine

 May 27 Today wasn't very eventful. We mostly sat together in our groups to work on our presentations. We ended up getting ours done after about 8 or 9 hours (with breaks for lunch, etc.) Feels good to be finished with it, but it also feels a little strange; it means that tomorrow is our last day here at Batipa. I'm a little relieved to be heading home soon, but also a little sad. I think I’ll miss listening to howler monkeys before I fall asleep.
Read more

Batipa Day Eight

 May 26 Today we were all given a chance to relax/unwind. We were taken on a boat trip to tour various islands, and we were able to go snorkeling for a little while. At the first beach we visited, I was stung by something that looked like a jellyfish-- it stopped hurting after maybe thirty minutes, though. That beach was also full of hermit crabs, which was fun to see. We even got to swim over some coral and see the little striped fish that swam through it.  We stayed longer at the next beach, and had lunch there. It was all really nice, but my favorite part was on the way back home; we were able to see a pod of bottlenose dolphins! They were right next to us for a while. I did end up getting very sunburnt, which I wasn't happy about, but oh well. 
Read more