18 July

This morning Louise braved the cold of the river again for a morning swim, while Alex took some more photos and Valerie read a book by the waterfall. This time it was even colder as the sun hadn’t risen high enough yet to reach the river and it had been pouring with rain the night before. But it still is a nice way to start the day. We checked one of the camera traps today and found footage of a Northern tamandua! It is the most common of three anteater species in Costa Rica. After Alex had gone for a little photography hike again (didn’t see a lot) we finished off the pitfall traps by attaching the tarp between the buckets. Our plan was to get them out in the field as well, but just when we wanted to do this the rain came back and did not stop until mid-afternoon. It just seems like the frogs do not want to be trapped in our pitfall traps because every attempt we make to get them out, something stops us. This time the key to the workshop was lost. And by the time it was found again it was time for our weekly potluck again. We will try again first thing tomorrow morning. For potluck we made egg fried rice and corn bread. We had a lot of rice to eat because some others made a massive pot of rice pudding. But everything was delicious! With full bellies we went up the mountain again to do the transect we could not do yesterday evening. Our days of rest have definitely seem to have helped. Instead of 1.5 hour like last time we walked up El Jilguero in just 40 minutes! Maybe after all our muscles are getting used to this terrain. Our walk started dry but we ended up in the rain again. It seems like the frogs went into hiding not to get wet because we just found two and only heard a handful. Maybe we have more luck tomorrow.