After my week in Guatemala I arrived in Honduras to begin my 5 week season in the Cusuco National Park in Honduras, working as a Herpetologist for Operation Wallacea. Much of my work was focused on Vipers and Frogs, which up till now I have very little experience with. This was one of the reasons I took the position. Well that and I get another 5 weeks sleeping in my hammock in the forest! After spending a week in base camp getting trained up on all the procedures and getting to know my fellow scientists I was sent off to my 1st satellite camp (Guanales). The next day after arriving at Guanales, I was called over to remove a Mexican Jumping Viper from behind the camp managers tent. This was my 1st ever experience handling a venomous snake, well I say handling. I used a very long and strong snake hook to pick the snake up and move him 50 or so meters... all the while being observed by a dozen school children. My 1st snake removal.... SUCCESS!
After numerous removals from Guanales camp and numerous transects up the mountains of north western Honduras, I returned to base camp for the night to catch up with friends and enjoy the local food and beverages at Buenos Aires which is the local village where all the guides live. The next camp I was sent too was Cantilles, which was the highest camp in the park, over the mountain to the west of the park. In Cantilles I was reunited with a good friend of mine, Achyuthan (Ash) we then spent the week collecting Wilsons Vipers to collect physical data from. Including one very large female found under the guides hammock! After a week in Cantilles a 7 hour hike across the mountains brought us to El Danto Camp, where I was to be stationed for 2 weeks. El Danto gave me great experience with frogs, including tree frogs the size of my hand! There were even tadpoles in the bathing area! I also got to see and work with some of the brilliantly green palm vipers which are becoming exceptionally rare in the park. After a great two weeks in El Danto, it was time to end my season in Cusuco National park. A day long trek to Santo Tomas, a secondary village to the north of the park, resulted in me seeing Howler monkeys! I had heard these guys most morning but had never seen any until the final trek. My 4th yeah in Honduras was as good as always and I would still recommend anyone to visit this beautiful, but underestimated, country! Having a bit of money left over I decided to visit Guatemala before starting work in Honduras the following week (Honduras and Guatemala are neighbours). Starting off Guatemala City, which is, I must say, far nicer than its reputation. After 2 days enjoying Guatemala City, inducing a very last minute nightclub session and a hammock shopping session I decided (along with a traveling buddy of mine: Myron) I decided to head up to Coban, Coban is a central point in Guatemala to go to other places such as Tikal and Semuc Champey. After wandering around Coban in the morning desperately trying to find a shuttle to Lanquin, I was lead down a somewhat foreboding alley way to a shuttle park..... which fortunately turned out to be genuine.
Lanquin is a local town and hostel hot spot for people wanting to visit Semuc Champey. Lanquin is positioned up in the mountains of Guatemala and the hostel I stayed in (Zephyr Lodge) was slap bang in the middle of these mountains. I then visited Semuc Champey which is a limestone river network, with may caves and falls and bridges etc. The tour started off going through a partially flooded cave with only a candle as a light source. This candle went out many times, fortunately the guide was a dab hand at keeping his dry! Next was a huge rop swing which left many of the tour group battered and bruised from trying to pull of flips in mid air. To further this battering we had a 10m plunge of a bridge into the river (this was optional, but I obviously did not turn down the chance). After lunch was a trek up to the view point, which resulted in me seeing a Coral snake (very venomous!). Apart fro snakes.. there was also a fantastic view down onto the numerous pools of Semuc Champey. Which I then got to swim in! Absolutely fantastic experience! A days travel from Lanquin brought me down off the mountains to the flat wetlands surrounding Guatemala's biggest lake: Lago de Izabal. Here I managaed to secure myself some "interesting" hostels for the two nights I was there. 1st was a hillbilly hostel which looked like it was straight out of the everglades... with Burt Reynolds flying around on an Airboat... unfortunatly not present. I was the only guest in this VERY isolated hostel where the only means of...escape? were via a small boat. The 2nd hostel was basically a floating shed for £2 per night. Once again I was the only guest in the hostel, which is a peaceful but odd experiance. A short trip across the border the next day concluded my week long adventure in Guatemala! A beautiful country and g April 11th - April 14th:
For the final days we decided to go with Grom to his farm in Phatalung, a rural farming district to the Southeast. After a 4 hour ride in the baking heat in the back of his pick up truck we arrived at Phatalung. I must say that the we is me, Ricky, Steph and my very good friend Thadd who joined us from Singapore. After a night at groms place we got up early to drive to the local wetlands reserve to see some of the water birds and water buffalo. Followed by a boat ride right out into the middle of the wetlands. Now I am 25 years old and I saw more birds in that 2 hour boat ride than I have ever seen in my 25 years on this earth! There must have been thousands, and thats just including the siberian open billed stork migrating through Thailand. Herons of all colour shape and size were everywhere as were bright blue water hens. The 13th of April marks the start of the Buddhist new year or "Songkran". A somewaht different affair to our, let say it, overhyped new year eve. Songkran is a festival of water, so we jumped into the back of groms pick up along with the younger memebers of his family and drove off into town. Along the way we were continously pelted with water and poweder by the locals, which as you can imagine on a 34 degree day is a very refreshing change! We then picked up a 100 litre drum from groms brother in law and put it in the back of the pickup. we then drove out into the country.... now at 5 miles per hour cold water is a refeshing change. At 35mph its like being hit by freezing cold bullets, but all in good fun! The reason for our drive to the country soon became clear, as we pulled up to a fire engine parked next to a lake. So can you guess how we filled up the 100 litre drum? Yes you guessed it! The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent driving all over the county throwing water over every man, woman, child and scooter we could see. All the while being covered ourselves. I can honestly say, I dont think I have ever had so much fun!!! One of the best experiances of my life! We unfortunatly had to cut our celebration short to return to Phuket so we could fly out the next day. A reunion meal (all be it a short time apart) was heald on the same beach were we had our introduction meal. We then all said our goodbyes (to Luke and Emily) and went to find a hotel for the night. Ricky leaving soon after, then Thadd, then me..... and this ends my tale from Thailand. It was the best experiance of my life, and I urge any of you thinking about visiting Thailand. To just do it. Just go April 7th - April 9th:
1st of all, I must apologise for my obsession with aliteration in the titles and the use of words that start with C. Its just how the cards fall I am afraid. For the final week I was assigned with Grom and Kay (another Thail Ranger) to change the batteries and switch the memory cards for 18 of the 63 camera traps. The first task was to find a boat to rent, after a few hours of bartering at local fishing villages we managed to rent a shoe box with an engine on to move us around the lake. As we arrived at the 1st trail I saw a huge shape by the edge of the water from a distance. I thought to myself, that it couldnt be what I thought it was. However 5 seconds later the boat driver (Kay) tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the mass and said "CHANG!" for the 2nd day in a row it was an elephant. However this was a much better view and we were much closer than the previous day. We were able to glide the boat past the huge female about 15m away. We then pulled up at the trail start (50m from the elephant) and began hunting for camera traps. On the 2nd day after spending a night in the kitchen of a raft house we set off for another day of camera trap hunting. After only getting a tiny glimpse of a Great Argus the previous expedition. I managed to get a full view of a huge male run right in front of me. After clearing out a camera trap which had been infested by ants, grom managed to spot a meter long snake cruising through the undergrowth. After going Steve Irwin, I managed to get within spitting distance (litterally) of an Indo - Chinese Spitting Cobra. Showing perfectly that snakes are NOT agressive, the fine fellow was just crusing along not even reacting to me in anyway. Eventually I let him drift of into the forest. After getting to the pick up site... we realized that the boat was not there. After waiting an few hours, still no boat. So I decided to swim the 1km to the next river inlet to look for the boat and the driver. After reaching the inlet and searching I decided to return. As I came back I saw a HUGE water monitor right at the spot where I wanted to enter the water. After scaring him off I swam back to one of the islands I had used as a rest point on the way out. As I climbed out onto the mud I saw my foot prints from the outward journey. With monitor tracks over the top! The damn thing had been following me.. or had it? It could have been coincidence or maybe because my leg was still bleeding from a leech bite I had received a few hours before. Who knows! After returning to the pick up site it was obvious the boat ws not coming that night, so we decided to set up shop. Fortunatly I had brought my hammock and Grom had a tarp to sleep in. So after making a makeshift "fence" to stop elephants and gaur trampling us to death in the night we settled down to sleep. At 8am the next morning Kay turned up with the boat (why he had not found us I have no idea). After we had found all the camera traps on the 3rd day we set off back to the main island in the far south of the lake. As we set off we startled a fish eagle on a nearby dead tree, which then did a top gun esq April 6th - April 7th:
The rains having truly set in, meant we were completly deluged while doing a mainland transect. For those of you have seen Jurassic Park, life was very much like the scene where Dennis (Fat Guy) tries to escape the island. But without the Dilophosaurus, obviously. When walking on my own on the Island transect the same day, I almost stepped on a Dumeril's Monitor which was right on transect. After an unsuccesful capture attempt I let him be. This was the 1st and only time I have seen this species in Thailand. The following day while walking the mainland transect with Ricky, we heard the sound of bamboo smashing to pieces. When we went closer to investigate the noise. More and more bamboo began to explode and shatter, to the point where we could now see the bamboo in the distance shaking and flying everywhere. We started to run after the sound and as we came to a downward slope we saw numerous tracks in the mud and it was then we realized what we were chasing.... Chang. Or in english.. ELEPHANTS!! As we continuted to follow the elephants down the slope hoping to get a glipse, we realized how dangerous and impossible the task would be. The elephants were having no trouble keeping a head of us even as we ran at full pace (even when they started going up hill). So after we both glipsed a bit of elephant skin dissapearing over the ridge we decide to turn back and return to transect... both filled with adreneline!! April 3rd - April 5th:
For the final week we were mostly based at a Ranger Rafthouse as it was closer to the drop of points for the camera trap expeditions and the new study island and mainland site. The rafthouse also had some Canoes for use. Me, Luke and Ricky desided to make use of these free canoes and went for a midnight safari around some of the adjacent islands. For a few days we were accompanied by a film crew from Reuters - Bangkok. The video can be seen here! I am the one in the insane hat. ENJOY!! http://in.reuters.com/video/2014/04/13/multi-year-study-sees-species-wiped-out?videoId=308833705&videoChannel=1004 April 1st - April 2nd:
After the months of baking, dry heat, the rains have finally come. After a few days of witnessing fantastic lightning. A storm finally hit porcupine island. Fortunatly my Hennessy Hammock held up fantastically (Other Hammock brands are available). The change of temperature and humidity were a welcome change. The following morning as I was walking down to the shore for lunch. The fish trap started rattling around and making an almighty noise. After getting closer it turns out we had accidentaly caught a water monitor. So the following 20 minutes I spent inside a fishing trap trying to help a very angry water monitor. Fortunatly by wrapping the bugger in a T-Shirt I was able to capture him and set him free with no ill effect. March 29th - March 31st:
It appears the snake floodgates have finally opened. Another night transect (Saturday night) on one of the larger islands found us a Common Bronzeback sleeping in a tree, a gravid (pregnant) fence lizard and the icing on the cake - a pit viper. The pit viper in question is a subspecies of Popes pit viper however which one I am, as yet, uncertain. Potentially the Phuket pit viper, a species initially found 2 years ago south of our current position. Sunday was spent watching Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) with the locals on the mainland. So as I mentioned we are currently based back at the dam (hence the internet) waiting the arrival of a Thai film crew tomorrow and the start of the final week of research before the Thai new year in just over a weeks time. I recently just returned from a beer run which involved a 24km (total) trip on a scooter to the nearest 7eleven. Made somewhat more interesting by the fact it was A: Dark and the Scooter has no working lights so we had to use head torches and B: I drove the scooter home and it was the 1st time I have ever driven a scooter or sat on a motorbike. March 26th:
Night research for Geckos and other nocturnal reptiles is now a key part of my role and fortunately on the 26th I was able to night survey a huge mainland site with 8 (140m long) transects. The night started off well, as we saw 3 Gaur (Remember them from "Gaur, Grom and Gibbons"???) from the boat on the way to the research site as well as a female Sambar and Fawn (Similar to Red Deer but larger). Not long after reaching the island we saw the eye shine of a HUGE mammal not 15 ft away. It turned out to be a huge Sambar buck with 2 ft antlers and stood eye to eye with me (6ft tall). It stood watching us for a short while before disappearing off into the night. On the 2nd transect we found one of our small mammal cages left behind from the previous day, with a tree shrew still inside!! This tree shrew was weighted, measured, tagged and blood sampled before being released (The tree shrew screaming the entire time!). After crossing a stream full to the rafters with breeding frogs, we reached the 6th transect. About 10m in we all saw the eye shine of a very small mammal. Which Grom (our guide) explained was a (Meow Lik) or "Small Cat". We had seen a Leopard Cat one of the smallest cat species in South East Asia. Yes its no Tiger or actual Leopard but I was (and still am) ecstatic about this discovery. The night safari was all finished off by a 50m sprint after disturbing a wasp nest on the home stretch to the boat. March 17th - March 25th:
We returned to the initial base island after saying goodbye to our boss Luke "The Magnificent" Gibson at the dam. After setting up my Hammock in the late evening I decided to go for a swim in the lake. *Reader discretion is advised*. So i decided on a naked swim so after removing my clothes I walked down to the waters edge and got my feet in the water (at this point it was pitch black but I had my head torch pointed at the water from a distance). Just as I was about to jump into the water I saw a huge black shape loom past my right foot. I realized it was a huge snake (2.5m) but I had no idea what kind of snake (Thailand has a large population of King Cobras as well many other large deadly venomous snakes). I shouted my good friend Ricky "del bosque" over (Making it very clear that I was in fact naked at the time) then went to get my head torch. Fortunately the snake had not swam far when I returned, turns out it was a Reticulated python just cruising the side of the island probably hunting large frogs or moving from island to island. Our return to our camping island in the northern reservoir finally revealed the porcupine which was stomping around by Rickys hammock and quite frankly didn't seem to care that we were there. After nicknaming the little fellow "Quill.I.am" he promptly wandered off back into the forest. The following day while doing a reptile survey I was VERY fortunate to see a Malaysian Blue Coral Snake, an exceptionally beautiful (and very deadly Asian snake) wriggling across the transect line. In the middle of the day, a very rare occurrence for this nocturnal and rare snake. |
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