Friday, February 4, 2011

First Hours in Jalova

After a bus ride through Braulio Carrillo forests, plantations and a boat along a canal, we finally touched ground in the Tortuguero National Park. A small ramble through the ‘South Trail’ sees a very sweaty group of explorers arrive at the GVI Jalova base – where we were greeted by a small group of Mantled Howlers scoffing leaves by the camp gate and the field staff! (photo: starting team in Jalova)
Boss Man Rich – resident maths wiz – gave us a tour of camp – which consists of the office/staff rooms building, kitchen/general evening hang out building, fresh water well and the two dorm buildings. Even before unpacking, Brian (a dorm-mate) finds a cool golden brown snake – which we later find out is a venomous eyelash viper. After staff find out, the poor snake gets evicted and we can finally settle.


Dinner – which was amazing considering it contained red beans – was followed by staff and volunteer intros. As it was the first night everyone was talking and getting to know each other, but nocturnal exploration proved far too tempting to a group of us (including Melissa – the slightly mental yet enthusiastic staff member who likes everything!). The buildings and barrier hedge were crawling with bugs, lizards and in particular spiders!! (The camp contains pretty impressive specimens) 2 hours later and after spotting a brown four eyed opossum in a tree near the office and several tiny glass frogs, me and Sam decide to call it an evening with the sound of frogs, crickets, the ocean waves and who knows what else – sleep seems an impossible task.
Dave Halewood

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1 comments:

Joe said...

:D Glad to hear your having an amazing time Davey! Missing you loads
look forward to hearing from you soon x