Puerto Rico - The Jungle

If I may brag about my university for a sentence, I would tote this Puerto Rico study trip is the best university study trip for the price and for any tropical climate loving person like myself. Puerto Rico is also a great place to visit because they accept the US dollar currency, so no need to mess with exchange rates. The people of Puerto Rico are generally fun-loving and patriotic as well.

El Yunque National Forest from the top of a mountain.

As we arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital city, the wet tropical air immediately condenses on our skin, and it's hard to contain the excitement of the coming days of hiking in the jungle, tropical vistas, crystal clear snorkeling, and most of all Puerto Rican wildlife!

 

We arrive in El Yunque National Forest later that night, and settled into our apartment style rooms. After a quick food run the next day, we set to work exploring the jungle and cataloging various wildlife. The jungle is so alive with various tropical birds calling to each other, while the insects heat up their mating calls for the night. And a pleasant, humid aura fills the rain forest as we launch into another evening here, I swear you can see these plants growing!

Kip showed me how to take this cool picture of a sleeping anole
on top of a banana leaf.

One of the other members to our trip, who is a much more knowledgeable photographer is also getting some sweet pics with his Sony DSLR camera, and we buddy up for a night of wildlife photography. In twenty minutes of field experience, I learn more about wildlife photography with my new friend, Kip, than I would ever learn in an afternoon of reading articles and instructions.

The Puerto Rican Tree Snail is said to be the most numerous
herbivore of the island of Puerto Rico.

In El Yunque, we find heaps and heaps of Puerto Rican Tree Snails, which are the most numerous herbivore on the island. We also come across several species of coqui frogs, and what I believe to be the Puerto Rican Rocket Frog. I was able to video the rocket frog calling under a small water fall in the creek.

The Puerto Rican Rocket Frog calling in a nearby creek.

Kruger's Anoles are a bit harder to find.

Crested Aonles are also very common in these parts. Other anoles are present but will take a bit more work to find. In my relentless search for wildlife, I manage to find more crested anoles, a few green anoles, and two Kruger's anoles, here is El Yunque.

Green Anoles are fairly common in this area.

Crested Anoles are easily found in this area and in most
other parts of the island.

An awesome swimming hole in El Yunque!

And to finish off a sweet couple days in the jungle, we hop into a rock pool and explore the water fall that feeds it.

Vietnam Day 4 - Ta Lai Village

I finally caught that dragon that I spotted yesterday!

So apparently, the park just burns their trash, and the monkeys come
to search for some food scraps. This monkey didn't see me, but they
do appear much bigger in person.

After last night's success with the frogs. I've decided on another late day in the park. I take the ferry across the river and into the park around 10:00, my pack loaded with bananas for the day and a few water bottles. I intend to explore the South end on the park today, and again I rent a bike. Hoping to climb Elephant hill for a sporty morning hike but again, I found that this trail doesn't exist. I'm starting to wonder how many trails on this map actually exist.







I take the main road South, bumping along the red mud and lava rock track, and pass a few lookout towers. These rickety old things, are quite rusted and missing plenty of boards, but they are meant to be used to gaze over the grasslands in hopes of spotting large ungulates grazing.

Eh, who needs steps on a watch tower anyway?

Whilst I continue my ride, I spot a familiar black figure slither onto the road in the unmistakable fluid motion only a snake. Booyah!!! That's a cobra! That's a full 1.4m adult cobra. Probably a monocled cobra. I drop the bike a race forward to get a better look and as I do so the cobra spots me. I can see that reaction I really dislike, because it means the animal is about to make a run for it, and snakes are notoriously hard to follow in quick pursuit, through a ditch full of vines and veg. My goodness this cobra is the fastest snake I've ever encountered, and I was only afforded a few chance glances at olive-grey scales as they disappeared into the trees. Man, I was pumped up, angry, and sad all at the same time. As I continue my ride, a large monitor lizard in the ditch sees me before I can even stop my bike. And again, this 1.5 meter long lizard is much faster than I ever thought possible and a few rare glimpses are all I get.

These seemed to be some of the nicer houses in the village.

Closer to the village I view several farm fields and small houses and shacks with chickens, ducks, dogs, pigs, and cows places hap-hazardously throughout. It becomes a bit more clear to me just how these people live. I've never seen such an isolated village, in which the people live so modestly, yet so happily. Children play in large groups, in whatever front yard they please, while mothers cook in the backs of open front houses that are no more than 300 square feet of floor space. The men seem to be all out working, repairing, or cleaning whatever needs to be done. Nobody has fences, front doors, or large automobiles, and I can't help but wonder, who is really happier?

And when I got back to my cabin, I saw this MASSIVE sider on my wall.
Good to know that something is here to eat those pesky moths!

Vietnam Day 3 - Crocodile Lake

Today's the big one folks! The adventure to Crocodile Lake! The lair of the endangered Siamese crocodile. Oh what a blessing it would be to catch a glimpse of this rare and elusive animal! But I'll be honest with ya, my chances are slim, because I've got one boat dock and maybe a tall hill to look from, over the vastness of an entire lake full of lillies and chest high grasses, but I'll make the intrepid effort anyways because I like nature.

So I rent a bike from the national park HQ and cruise the 12km up to the trail head. Though I did see a mother Douc (a type of monkey) and her two babies fairly close on my ride, I didn't see much else. I attempted to add variety to the day by visiting the "batt caves" and the "thousand trunk tree" on my way. But to my dismay, these places don't exist, or better yet, maybe the trails to these places having been marked yet.

But the trail to crocodile lake is indeed marked and looks nice with the concrete and boulder path they are making for it. I take my time to walk the length of the trial. It's another 5km, so I take a lot of time. More so because I have nothing else to do and I believe there is a better chance to see crocs closer to sun down.

Along the trail I see plenty of skinks, and even a few forest dragons. I can hear monkeys crashing through the trees around me, but I rarely see them because of the dense foliage. Then, on a rock right next to the trail I see what I first think is just another skink, no, this has no legs! Yes!!!! My first Vietnam snake! It seems to be a lance head viper of some sort (I would later find that it was just a mock viper, which is a harmless natricid snake) But for the moment this little gem is the most exciting thing is the forest! After a few choice pictures I begin down the trail again, only to find another mock viper! What awesome luck today!

At Crocodile Lake, my time is sent resting and scouring the land and lake-scape for the elusive croc. Would it surprise you if I said I didn't see any crocs? But I did see . . . more skinks! I knew, that's not a huge surprise either because they are everywhere. But as I head back, darkness doesn't seem to come as I think it should. I get back to my bike excepting full darkness, yet it is still light. But, after a few km through the bike ride, the switch is cut, and darkness covers the jungle like the thick amount of peanut butter that covers my morning toast.

This makes the frogs start calling, and golly they are out tonight! In no short time, I begin to worry when the ferry to get back across the river stops. So as I ride back, I struggle with the urge to take pictures and find new frogs against the prospect of missing the last ferry, and in the last 10 minutes of my bike ride, I believe I cataloged 6 new frogs into my personal frog list! Plus, I made it to the ferry with plenty of time.

Vietnam Day 2

I awake at sun rise the the craziest jungle bird calls I've ever heard, and for a moment, I'm scared out of my mind! "Where the heck am I. Holy crap! I'm in Vietnam!" Have you ever waken up freaked out, not knowing where you are? Then after a moment you realize it's all good.

Every Morning I took this ferry across the river to the National
Park.

After a breakfast of some "opal eggs" and bread, I head off into the park. I take the tour of the endangered primate center. Which sounds much more impressive than it actually is, but it is still a valiant cause and a decent centre for rescued endangered primates. Apparently, the bush hunters and trappers are a really big problem here because of the illegal pet trade.

The Dao Tien primate center is one of the key features of Cat
Tien National Park.

In the late morning, I decide to do a little recon on some close trails. I grab a park map and plan my routes. On my first trail though, I realize there is a problem. I've got an urgent "code brown" here and I'm gonna needs some leaves pronto. These will do... Some of these too... I hope they're not some Asian poison Ivy of some sort. Tree? tree? Tree! Ah that one there, plenty of privacy. At least there's plenty of cover here in the jungle, even though it's the slow season for the park. Ah, that was close. . . Well, I don't think I'll be having the Opal eggs for breakie anymore.

No that is not the tree I "went" behind. This is just one really cool big tree.

I hike the "Botanical" trails, but honestly, I can't tell ya if there's anything "botanical" about them because they look just the same as the rest of the jungle. I must need to brush up on my botanical acuteness.

The insect fauna was absolutely stunning!

I buy a load of bananas on my way back to the lodge. The bananas here are about half the size as the ones in the States but these are also twice as sweet. After a luke warm first day out I retire to the lodge deck and plan tomorrow's big day.

The bird fauna, though diverse and abundant, is very hard to photograph through the
thick jungle foliage.

Vietnam Day 1

As I cleared the customs counter with my freshly stamped passport, I quickly grabbed my bags and emerged into the great metropolis which is Saigon. I felt like a fish out of water. One lone American amongst a hot humid babble in Vietnamese crowds. What do I do?!? Okay, the game plan? Bus. I take bus 152 to the bus station, then the Cat Tien bus up to the park. There! Bus 152! Okay, I hike luggage up onto the bus pay the driver and away we go. Alright, making some good time today.

It started to down-pour about ten minute after I got off the bus and into this cafe.

But as the bus troops on through the city exchanging passengers, I start to wonder, what does the central bus station look like? Does this route even go there? Of course it does, the google map told me so. Google maps have never told me wrong in the past. But it's been a while now, and my failed attempts to ask the passengers where the central station is are making me doubt. So I resolve to just ride it around to the airport again and catch a Taxi to Cat Tien. Well, to cut a long confusing language exchange short, I couldn't just take this same bus around back to the airport. . . Soooo off I go out into to urban chaos again. In the middle of Saigon. No clue where to go.

Maybe 40,000VDN for locals... But 100,000VND for the American.

That's okay, it's still only about $5.00.

Lucky, after an over priced meal (they charge foreigners 2-3 times more than locals here) I hailed a taxi, showed him my map, and got him to say "Cat Tien, okay!" (I'm drastically reducing the drama and stress of the previous three hours of searching for directions, buses, tours companies, lugging my luggage of the last 5 months through the bowels of Saigon. But if you want to hear more details, just give me a holler! ) and we were off across the countryside, which is mostly full of small connected towns and villages where the houses look like tin sheds and everyone is trying to sell someone something.

The entire 160 km trip to the national park was lined with
villages and towns much like this. The open country side was
almost nonexistent.

After an hour or so, my driver gets out to take a piss behind one of the houses, have a smoke and even buys himself and I Red Bulls. At this time I start to get a bit worried because I'm just sitting here in a taxi, whilst locals walk by a stare at me, mostly not welcoming looks. But as we head up the road, through a down pour of rain which fills the road some much our cab can barely swim through it, my cab driver has to get out 5 more times to ask for directions, and all I can do is helplessly watch the meter tick up 1,700,000 dong, 1,800,000 dong, and I try to ask how much further, or if he even knows how to get there, but all I can get from him "Cat Tien, okay"

Do these mossie nets make my bed look
like a pretty princess bed?

After we arrive at Cat Tien, I come to find that the hardest part of taxi rides in foreign countries is actually getting to the correct address. Apparently, addresses here are poorly created, and mean relatively nothing. Thanks for nothing google maps. What you need to know are what the names of the neighboring buildings are or the families that live near by, and stuff like this. But we ask another hotel owner and he points us just up the street. At The Green Bamboo lodge one friendly hostess girl greets me with a pretty good english vocabulary! Praise God!!! Someone here speaks English!!! But before the cab driver lets me go he tries to charge me 4,180,000 dong instead of 2,180,000 dong because we went through a toll road which only costs 100,000 extra. But I had heard of stories such as these and since this was a metered cab (very important) I new what my fee was. I did the math right in front of his face, and I paid my 2,180,000 no more no less.

My lodge had a sweet deck!

Yes! I like this view.

After fending off the crazy cab driver and running my budget $100 deep from a stupid cab ride. I'm here! Cat Tien National Park. Monkeys, snakes, frogs, lizards of all sorts and wonderful fig rainforests await me! But right now I'm so shaken up. I sat on my bad for about 15 minutes trying not to pass out. I never thought I'd be in such shock. I think I'll just sleep it off and let the rain on my thatch roof wash away the stresses of travels.

Islanders

I can remember the feeling of my first fall break. The teacher of my first grade class had announced we would be having a four day weekend! And to my little six year old ears, this sounded like the most beautiful creation since chicken-fried steak. My gut was full of anticipation as I rode the bus home like I was returning to the homeland from my academic prisoner of war camp which was first grade school. I sprinted down our drive way hailing the good news to the world, proclaiming my freedom at the tops of my lungs.

Well, I haven't changed much in 15 years and I still relish every extended break from school. Here is Australia, they call it lecture recess, and during lecture recess, my mate Harrison and I planned to explore the wonder land of Magnetic Island.
As we meet in the dinning hall this morning, we stuff our bags with extra food rations and then hop the bus over to the ferry terminal. A 20 minute ferry ride, and a 15 minute bus ride landed us right smack on Horse Shoe bay. I walk up to the beach life guard and ask him where the best hiking on the island is, and he replies, "Yeah, the trails on the East side get a fair bit of hiking, but the west side is pretty narly. Not many people hike there." And at those words, Harrison and I undoubtedly agreed to head West. It's not that we didn't want to seek the other friendly hikers. It's more the matter that we want to see things other people have never seen.

So we advance across the "narly" shore line, which consisted of gigantic boulders covered in barnacles near the water. And after a few hours of our rock scrambling travels, I am struck with the brilliant idea to bush wack. "Hey, let's bush wack just over this ridge, mate."
To which, Harrison replies, "Okay, I'm keen for a bit of that"

So with our 10 kg (that's 22lb) backpacks, we climb the cliffs which separate the boulder shore line from the up land of spinifex grass and small Eucalypt saplings and scrub bushes. It really looked quite easy and agreeable to hike from down below, but this territory was quite possibly the fourth most diabolical places I've ever have to hike through.

If you don't know spinifex grass personally, just think of a chilla pet which is made of needles. This grass  blankets the landscape of large jagged rocks with a quilt of leaves and stems build to puncture the epidermis of your legs on contact, which is inevitable whilst wearing shorts. Every step was a gamble, because the spinifex hid every rock crevice, and I even fell chest deep into a hidden rock crack. Surprisingly, the spinifex feels soft, in a twisted suffering sorta way, when you fall on your back into a hidden rock crack. But despite the fun we were having frolicking through the rock and spinifex wonderland, whilst the green ants invaded our entire presence, we decided to head back to the shore line. Rock hopping was a cake walk compared to scaling the 60 degree incline of Mordor.

We decided to wash our battle scars in the ocean on a quick snorkel through the boulders, which actually produce a fair few micro reefs around the island.
We saunter on over to the East side of the island to join the normal hikers, and to my pleasant surprise, the trails over here are beautiful, and well maintained through a fantastic landscape with excellent views and enjoyable hiking. My inner, childish, fall break excitement has been satiated for another break.    

The Town Common

    Every once in a blue moon I get all G'd up on these hair brain ideas to getting up early and strike out on an adventure. Most of the time the buck stops at the alarm clock the next day, but for some reason this morning I am able to vault myself out of bed at 6:00am. I shove an orange down my throat and snag my bag on the way out of my dorm room. This morning I had planned to cycle up to the Town Common, which is a local nature park on the North side of town. From a quick look at the Google maps, I guessed about a 12k bike one way, so maybe after I returned I would've put around 27k under my tires, and a few more under my own two feet.

    As I ride out of campus on the thick morning air, the beams of sunshine start to cook away the night's humid air. I cross the Ross River, and as I glance at the water I spot a huge freshie! What a site! A 2.3m fresh water croc just floating in the open water right below me. This is a fully grown adult size as far as freshies go. I snap a few quick pics and ride on.
    This bike ride took much longer than I had expected. Given the flat landscape of Townsville, I had reckoned it wouldn't take but 35-40 minutes. I entered the park around 45 minutes and the dirt roads here are worse then back home. The wash boards and pot holes are short and deep and my deep fried quads are struggling to keep my body lifted and the pedals moving.

    I finally bail off my bike a few k's before the trail head I'm heading to so I can refuel and hydrate a bit. The scenery here is gorgeous!

    Once I make it to the trail head, I shackle my bike to a tree and hobble up the stone trail. Gosh, I feel like an old man or a new born baby colt trying to work these tired legs. But as my land legs return, I find more and more breath taking views a top the ridge. And I see more and more trails I'm going to have to try next time I make it up here.
     After a few k's of hiking I spot a small snake. A whipsnake by the looks of him and his speed! Whipsnakes are lean slender Elapid snakes. This could be any of the three species that occur here; my ID isn't perfect. But unfortunately there are many rocks and ground cover all over this steep hills side and he is gone before I can catch him or snap a picture.
    At the midpoint of my hike, I take a seat on a rock with a commanding view to eat an apple. This sounds like a glamorous, charlatan idea until I notice that my skin feels like it's on fire and I find that I'm under siege by a hoard of green ants.
    As I head back to my bike, disheartened by the lack of reptiles for the morning and exhausted from my adventures, I spot a chunky body form with scales on it right smack in the middle of my path. My initial delirious reaction was "Yes! a death adder (beautiful snake, highly venomous)" Then I saw the legs "Oh, blue tongue skink! Well that's cool too!"

    Blue tongue skinks are sort of a hallmark species for Australia as far as herps go. They have  a marvelous wide blue tongue they use to mop up enormous amounts of ants and other insects, and they also use these tongue as a formidable defensive posture. These lizards aren't fast at all, and their only defense in camo or acting really scary.

    This guy afforded me plenty of excellent pictures and I bid him good bye so he could continue his fest of ants on the trail.
    As I rode home, I relished to sense of success in seeing some breath taking views and one very unique skink. After I arrived back at my dorm, I plugged in the GPS coordinates of my rides and hikes for the day, and was incredulous at the fact that I had rode just shy of 33km and hiked 10km. So I decided to retire the rest of the day to my room.