Adios Field Camps

Sadly, yesterday was our last day in the field. I still can’t believe that I might not see paramo again, or that was my last time climbing through the moss jungle.

Anyways, this trip to the field, we split our time between Rumi Loma and La Libertad. It was odd to see Rumi Loma after the burn. Although the fire had ended two weeks before, the cabin that had burned was still smoldering, and clearly nothing was salvageable. I’m grateful for the trails through camp. They seem to have been what stopped the fire. There was one place where the fire had gotten to within a foot of another cabin. It is miraculous that it didn’t go up in flames as well. (FYI the photo of the burned lizard really is black and white.)

After relaxing at Rumi Loma, on Friday we hiked from Rumi Loma down to La Libertad. The hike was only about four hours, and it ended up taking Jesse the same amount of time to drive Big Blue down. The hike was fun because we started playing mind games for the first time this term. None of them knew the “53 bicycles” one, so that took awhile. Also on the hike, we found a cacique nest and could hear chicks inside of it! An adult kept flying back and forth, probably feeding them.

This was definitely the week that we started playing games. Besides mind games, we began playing telephone pictionary and mafia in the evenings. We ended up with some crazy things with telephone pictionary. I mean, it’s hard not to when the first sentence is “I’m so rich, I use mahogany toothpicks.”

On Saturday, Catherine came up to camp for our last class. She also brought Josue, our vegetation expert for the transects, and surprisingly Hannah. Hannah was a RRCS student two years ago. Additionally, she’s a Carl who happened to be in my problem-solving group for E&A. (So I’m pretty sure there are more Carls in Ecuador than SC. So far, I’ve run into a peace corp member, another Carl on study abroad, and Hannah, and I have plans to see two more. Seriously, I haven’t seen that many Carls in SC, despite having two others in my immediate family.) It was hilarious hearing her stories and seeing similarities between different RR semesters.

On Sunday and Monday, we took Josue out to our two plots and went over the transects with him. Monday especially was a lot of work. The hike just to get to the moss jungle plot is fairly significant, and then we had to make both of the transects, one of which had a 30 foot drop in the middle. It is still such an odd feeling to be supported just by branches and vines so far above the ground.

Now, I have just under two weeks left in the program. Hopefully, they’ll go smoothly.

Crashing Through the Forest

We just returned from another week at La Libertad.

This week was a bit more intensive as far as working on Elizabeth and Tim’s transect project. On Tuesday, we hiked to Plot A, which was made last term and did two mammal sign transects with Don Jose, a local of Colipato, the closest town. We found bear sign, agouti holes, deer sign, and what may have been tapir tracks, but he wasn’t certain.

We then had to make another quadrant. However, our new location was at the top of a steep trail, which rises 600m. We hiked up on Thursday and split into two groups. Coral, Alex, and I went one direction, attempting to make a 100-m side. This part was actually kind of fun. The vegetation was quite mossy, and many times, you were standing on branches and moss 10 feet above the ground, hoping that it would support your wait. We became pretty good at climbing around in such a matrix. Also, two Glowing Puffleg Hummingbirds came within a couple of meters of us and flitted around for a minute. That was awesome!

During lunch, it began to rain. This was good because all of Ecuador is very dry right now, and the dam which provides both water and electricity to Cuenca is at a 20 year low. However, Coral and I then had to make another side through denser vegetation of ferns which were laden with rain. Soon, our legs were soaked. Also, the cloud cover greatly reduced the visibility, so that we could barely see in front of us. Then, after 40 m, our side ran off a cliff. We had already climbed down things which we weren’t entirely certain of how we would climb back up, but we were not about to try climbing down a cliff, especially with bad visibility, so we ended up cold, wet, tired, and without a complete side. And of course, a hike back down to camp was left.

We then returned on Friday. I was so tired from the day before. In fact, all of us were. So although we got some more work down, the quadrant is still not complete. Oh well.

In other news from the week, we heard that half of Rumi Loma burned down. As I mentioned earlier, it has been quite dry. Thus, when Rumi Loma sparked, it continued to burn for three days. Amazingly enough, only one of our cabins burned down, and the kitchen is fine, too. Our plan is still to return to Rumi Loma and see the damage ourselves.

Frogs, Frogs, Frogs

What a weekend! It started on Thursday afternoon, when Alejandro, a student in Quito and an amphibian expert, arrived in Cuenca. He might be only 18, but in the last year, he found a frog that had last been seen in 1995, and thus, believed to be extinct. He is highly knowledgeable about the frogs around Rumi Loma and La Libertad. So on Thursday afternoon we went to his talk on amphibians and reptiles at la Universidad del Azuay. The lecture was in Spanish, so I followed some but not all of it.

On Friday, we (our group and Alejandro) left for La Libertad. We had no troubles with Big Blue! Of course, he had just gotten out of the shop Thursday afternoon, so we should be able to assume that he’s fine…

After getting to La Libertad and unpacking, Alejandro told us some about the frogs that we could expect in the area, and we headed out around 4:00. The first frogs we found were large tadpoles in a few pools in the middle of the cow pasture. Alejandro identified them as Gastrotheca pseustes, or San Lucas marsupial frogs. Not all frogs in Ecuador produce tadpoles; some give birth to miniature adult frogs, so that limited the possibilities a bit. After a bit more searching, Coral found the mother! Alejandro said that it was quite possibly the only female Gastrotheca within a kilometer.

After dark, we hiked along and through the stream looking for more frogs. We found a fair number of Pristimantis orestes and Pristimantis pycnodermis. One interesting thing about the Pristimantis genus is that its common name in Spanish translates as rubber frog, but due to a misspelling some time ago, it is called a robber frog in English. Rubber makes a lot more sense.

We also found seven red-eyes! Red eyes were only recently discovered and have yet to described by science, so they are simply Pristimantis sp. 2. Their eyes are metallic red. So cool!

We also found a frog that Alejandro had never seen before. He knows that it is a Pristimantis and has a guess on the species, but if he is correct, it has never been found in our area before.

On the way back, we spotted an Andean Potoo. Potoos are rare birds, so it was cool to see him, even if we couldn’t see all that well.

We didn’t get back until 11:45, which is rather late when you consider that most of us had consistently been going to bed at 10:00. However, the time flew.

The next morning, we measured (mass and length) and described the coloration of each of the frogs that we had captured the night before. It was interesting to see the female and male pynodermis next to each other because the female is literally 20 times larger. The following picture really does show two adults frogs of the same species. They're just different genders.

We weren’t leaving until 4:00 again, so we had a bit of free time in the afternoon, during which Elizabeth started teaching us some basic standing on each other tricks. We started with airplane, like when you’re a little kid and balance on your stomach on someone else’s feet. The difference was I remember using hands then, and we didn’t now. Then, we did airplane with the balancing person upside down. Next, we moved onto something called cathedral. It is basically a two person handstand, but a picture describes it best:

That night we went out and found more frogs, including a Pristimantis riveti, which was hard to capture because we was on nachran over the river, about 2 meters up, which is really high for a frog. However, Coral and Alejandro amazingly were able to get it. We also found a nest of baby Pristimantis orestes.

Basically, this weekend revolved around frogs and was a ton of fun. I can actually identify some of them now!

A First Glance at La Libertad

La Libertad is the lower of the two field camps, though 2917m is still quite high. (Rumi Loma is about 3450m above sea level.) It has a number of differences from Rumi Loma. First, you can drive much closer to it, so there is not nearly as far to carry supplies. Yay! Second is the lack of building. Our kitchen was actually a sturdy tent with foot high grass as the floor. However, there were actually a number of choices for sleeping, which did include a couple indoors. Choice number one, which Alex choose, was to sleep in bunk beds in a room that shared a wall with Ramiero’s family. Ramiero works for Stu and has 5 kids, so they’re capable of making quite a bit of noise. Choice number two, chosen by Jesse and Coral, was to set up tents by the kitchen. The one problem with this is that there have been problems with ants eating the tents in the past. Choice number three, chosen by Elizabeth, Tim, and me, was to set up tents inside a shed/museum nearby. This way we didn’t have to worry about ants, but could still sleep in our tents. Tim and I used our own tents (well, actually mine belongs to my sister. Thanks, Sarah!), and Elizabeth used one that belongs to Round River. The third difference was that we had electricity. And fourth, the only rain was misting and it was rare!

One common experience between the two camps was Big Blue breaking down. Again, we weren’t too far away when the accelerator stopped working, but unfortunately, Stu wasn’t with us this time. So Coral asked a lady in a house nearby if there was cell phone reception anywhere, while the rest of us prepared to hike the essentials in. Coral and I ended up walking 20 minutes back down the road in order to call Stu and Catherine. Thankfully, we were able to make a connection and found out that Patricio, the guy who had fixed Big Blue before, was at La Libertad that day. Thus, he’d have to pass us on his way out and could at very least drive some of our stuff in. Coral and I went back and told the others. We decided to start hiking, just because we had no idea how long Patricio would be. Plus, Patricio didn’t even know we were there. So we finished repacking, locked up Big Blue, and started hiking. We hadn’t even gone 100 m when Patricio came along! Then, he looked at Big Blue and fixed the problem within 10 minutes!

Of course a whole week would be a lot to describe in such detail, so here are my highlights:

Orchids: We had seen some wild orchids in bloom at Rumi Loma, but there were tons in the cloud forest surrounding La Libertad. Most of them were smaller than the showy ones sold in the US, but they were absolutely amazing, and we became skilled at picking them out.

Parakeets: Pretty much every day, we saw at least 12 golden-plumed parakeets fly overhead. Usually, they weren’t close enough to see their colors, but they are the only parrots in the area with long tails, so we could always tell them apart. Plus, by the end of the week, all of us could recognize their call. My other favorite bird that we saw was the Turquoise Jay.

Hike with Stu: On Thursday, Stu drove up from Cuenca and took us on a hike from his house (which is amazing!) back to our camp. We walked through cloud forest with orchids, some bear sign, and came up above in paramo. From there, we hiked some along the ridge, and then headed back down. By this time, clouds were settling down on top of us. It was so mystical. I wish that my photography skills could capture it, but there is no way. Along the way back, we set out our first two camera traps.

Camera Trapping: Each of us is in charge of a research project this semester, but all of us help with each project. My primary project is camera trapping in order to see large mammals, including spectacled bears and puma. The cameras are attached to motion sensors and set out in locations with previous bear sign. I’m excited about the prospects, but also a bit wary about how many photos I’ll actually get. We tested all of the cameras, and most of them require quite a bit of motion before they take the picture.

Playing Archeologist: I mentioned before, that Tim, Elizabeth and I set up our tents in a sort of museum. Basically, there are about four wall plates talking about pottery during different Cañari time periods with examples that were found in the surrounding fields. Stu told us that if we paid attention, we would find pottery shards ourselves. On Saturday, Elizabeth noticed one, and then Coral saw one directly next to it. So we paused our hike and started digging. We ended up finding five pot shards which fit together to make up almost a quarter of a pot.

Tree Climbing: On Saturday, we hiked into the cloud forest to a large Podocarpus tree, which had a ladder on the side of it. However, we couldn’t use the ladder because a) it was slippery, b) a rung was broken, and c) the ladder came up beneath the platform so that you couldn’t move from one to the other. Instead, we threaded a rope over a branch, tied it down and harnessed ourselves in. Then, we used this in conjunction with the ladder to climb up. (Alex doesn’t like heights so he stayed on the ground.) The view was beautiful, and it was nice to get a closer look at the canopy. We then figure-8ed down.

Alpacas: Stu uses his land to raise alpacas, and their fields were all around us. Stu breeds his for the best characteristics, and on Sunday, he and Ramiero picked out the best ones for competition. I ended up helping most of the morning. Mainly, I opened and closed the gate when told to, but I also caught an alpaca and held it by the ears, and put a muzzle on another alpaca. Mainly, I learned a lot about what makes a good alpaca. In competition, about 70% of the score is based on fiber. The fineness is most important, which varies by only a few microns but makes a huge difference. You also want to the fiber to have crimp with a high frequency, to be dense, to have shine, and to have indistinguishable base hairs. The rest of the judging is based on composition, so the alpacas need good teeth and eyes.

Night Sky: The first night was super clear, which made me incredibly excited. Unfortunately, we were not able to pick out the Southern Cross. Thankfully, we have some star maps at the house, so I´m going to check them out, so that I´m prepared next time we go out to the field. We did see Orion, though. I found it a bit comforting to see such a familar constellation.

Sunrise: Yesterday, all but Alex woke up at 5 am in order to watch the sunrise. At this time, the sky was completely clear and we could see a ton of stars again. We then hiked up the mountain to get a better view. As we hiked, we watched the stars begin to disappear and clouds roll in. We got to our spot by 5:30 and watched the sun come up. Since we’re near the equator, the sun rises surprisingly quickly. It was beautiful. We hiked back down around 6:15 and then made a delicious breakfast of omelets and hash browns.