Eight Battus!

On Sunday we headed to the meeting spot to see Marco and David at 9AM as we arranged. We saw them on the distance and they were playing with the butterfly net, when we finally got close David said: "we got eight!". So I said wow that's really good let me see. I went through the envelopes and check every specimen and in fact they all were Battus! Matt was also really impressed by the kids' butterfly collecting skills. While talking to them we saw a couple other Battus flying by but we couldn't catch them. We told them they could keep the net and payed them a bit more, we payed them $96 Lempiras.

In our conversation they mentioned that some of their family members had traveled illegally to the US and were working in construction and other low wage jobs. I told them: "guys finish school and then go to college, it's very important and do what you love. If you want to be an artist be an artist, if you want to be a nurse be a nurse, don't fall for what the other people says about professions and money, you gotta a do what you love. Keep collecting and learning about butterflies, we will keep your contact info and whenever any of our colleagues heads down here again you may work for them. Stay in your country and get a degree in something you like, and then you may go abroad, you will see that it's worth it believe me. They agreed. We shook hands and we say good bye...

Curla

So yesterday we went on a day trip to La Curla national park. It's a park that starts in the squirt of a large mountain range and have trails that go into it. Roberto an American teacher and naturalist that has been living here for more than 30 years picked us up at 830AM and we headed to the park. The trail was beautiful and the forest was in great shape, it was sunny and all the butterflies were out. As we gained altitude we got to a spot were we could see the low lands and at the end of the view the ocean!! it was spectacular. We saw crazy looking insects, I took pictures of plants and flowers, and we all got some new butterflies!

Marco and David

So today we went to look for this butterfly Matt wanted. It's a butterfly that may be a new species but we only have caught one specimen, and in order to have a new species described you need something around 10 males and 10 females. So we went to the spot where we had seen these butterflies and in fact we saw 3, but these guys are so freaking fast that it's is very hard to catch them...we got bored after trying and trying so we headed to the little town I discovered the day before. We went to Don Porfirio's pulperia to have a coke and I payed him his Lempiras and I got my dollar back. In the pulperia I saw Michelle again and we said hi to each other.

After this we decided to head to the main road and try to get a bus that would take us the beach. We rode in a small mini van and it took us to a town called Ceiba (Ceiba is a jungle tree that is huuuuuge). So we arrived at Ceiba and asked around where the beach was, finally we found the beach and we were disappointed...While in town some of the people in the street looked at us in a funny way, -we were in field clothes with long butterfly nets and backpacks-, a guy said as we passed him catch me catch me I'm a butterfly, I just though it was funny and smiled. Matt had no idea what was going on because he does not speak spanish. The town was very dirty and so the beach, we took a few pics and got some pastries in a bakery and then decided to head back to Pino. On our way back into the forest we decided to give another try and spend a couple more hours collecting. While doing so we saw two kids approaching and when they got to us we saw the butterlfy (It's called Battus) so Matt sprinted like a mad bull and swung the net a couple of times and he missed, the kids and me were laughing, it actually looked pretty funny. The kids asked us why where we collecting butterflies and we told them the we were biologists and that this was our job. They decided to join us in our collecting hike. I asked "what's you name?" One of them said I'm David and the other one said I'm Marco. Then I asked them do you live nearby with your families? Marco said I have no Mom or Dad, my Dad was killed when they tried to rob him... I have no family and I sleep where the night catches me...How about you David? I said David said: I don't have a Mom or a Dad I live with my Grandma, my Dad got killed in a fight...So I changed the subject and told them: do you guys want to help us? we can pay you 10 Lempiras for each Battus you get and we have an extra net you can use. They said yes!! we wonder around this forest all the time so we will be glad to help you! So we taught them how to catch butterflies, how to handle them without damaging their wing and how to store them in special envelopes. We continued our hiked and Matt spotted another Battus. He ran pretty fast swung the net and got it!!!!! I yelled yeah!!! we got one!

Marco and David took us to some really neat jungle spots we didn't know, then we headed back and told them to meet us again in two days in the spot where we originally meet. We shook hands like men and told them let's meet again on Sunday at 9AM. We'll see if they bring a few more Battus...

The perfect day!

Yesterday night it rained non-stop it was unbelievable. I thought men tomorrow it's going to be all dark and cloudy again...

I woke up and the sun was out!! grabbed a quick breakfast and head to the field with Matt. We spent 4 hours hiking and I had my best day ever I got 18 of my butterflies, my collecting is officially done I'm soooo happy!!

Then in the afternoon I headed out again to look for butterfly aggregations and I got lucky again I found 2!! it was so easy and it was still before sunset that I decided to keep wondering towards the east in some off road trail. I heard some voices and loud bangs from either shots or some sort of fireworks I followed the noise and all of a sudden I'm in the edge of a soccer field of a local town. I went to the locals and asked for a little shop to buy some chips and coke (they called this stores here "pulperias") and they told me, yeah just keep going this way you are almost there. The town looked very poor but people was nice. The pulperia was a tiny window and the owner was called Porfirio. I told him I only had American dollars and he told me "No dólares no" (I don't accept dollars) only Lempiras (the local currency). So I told him just accept this bill and I will come tomorrow and bring you Lempiras and you give me my bill back, he said, how much is the exchange rate, I told him 19 lempiras for a dollar, so he said ok that's fair (the coke and chips were 10 lempiras). While drinking my coke there was a little girl buying groceries for her family and I asked her "what's your name" she said I'm Michelle. I told her I study butterfies and I just came out of the big mountain that is there (I pointed to the mountain range). I asked do you know how's it called? she said "pico, something" I told here It's called Pico Bonito "Beautiful peak".

After this it was dark already, so I headed back to the forest and of course non of the trails were recognizable. Luckily I had created a track route with my GPS and use it to navigate back.

Rainy Rainy Pico Bonito

So yesterday I had my first day collecting. I hiked all morning and luckily I caught a few of my butterflies. The weather is definitively not cooperating, it's been cloudy all the time and rainy. There is a lot of cocoa trees around the area so we tried the fruit. It's a big yellow fruit that grows off the trunk of small trees, the fruit is delicious and doesn't taste like chocolate at all. It's filled with big seed that are surrounded by a white pulp that you remove and eat, it's sweet a but sour like a mango-apple combination, very good!!


In the evening Matt and I went hiking in the evening to a nearby off road trail looking for butterfly aggregations but no luck. When it got dark all of a sudden we heard two angry dogs approaching and barking at us. I told Matt "man just be cool and don't run" , -I was freaking scared- they got really close to us barking like crazy and all of a sudden a country man showed up and took them away. He was just doing a round guarding his property. We also walked down hill to an amazing river where we chilled for a bit and took some pics.

Both nights we've had a lot of rain, in particular yesterday night. This morning was even cooler... I went searching for the flowers that my butterflies like but no luck...It was a very humid morning with some drizzle. Well that's the field... It's still raining and it's so cloudy that I can't even see the mountains...

PS: no places to rent a board :(

The Endless Summer - Honduras

Well well so as if 6 months of field in Costa Rica and Panama were not enough...after barely a month of being back in the US my advisor tells me he wants me to come and explore a national park in Honduras where they are planning to do research... what would I say? yes of course, trying to hide my excitement!!!!!! So today me and other 3 colleagues drove down to Miami and took a plane to San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

The flight was ok, I saw The Endless summer in the plane. It's a vintage surf movie that is really cool and funny at the same time, (loved it Bridge ;). The airport in Honduras was small and I didn't have any problems through immigration and customs. An already arranged van was waiting for us and after 2 hours we arrived to the lodge. The drive was very entertaining through curvy roads and with cool mountains in the horizon. A lot of poverty in this country, sad... The lodge is beautiful our cabin is very nice and we have internet!

The park is located in the north facing the Caribbean. I was talking to our driver and he told me there is a beach just 30 minutes from here and because of the tropical storm the waves should be nice! tomorrow, hahaha (besides doing my main mission, which is to explore the park and get some data for my disseratation) I will see if there is a place to rent a board in this beach called "La Ceiba" if yes, oh men I will surf every morning early and then go to the forest!!!

Ok I'm dead it's 10.28pm and I woke at 4.20am this morning, plus I just had an amazing weekend celebrating my birthday...gonna go to bed