Palo Verde

On an orientation hike we went to a lookout, a large rock outcropping looking out over the marsh. It reminded me of Pride Rock. We watched the sunset, and could see the pattern of macrophytes in the marsh and to the river beyond.

As part of our macrophyte project, Allegra, Aaron, Adam, Zach and I took night samples in the marsh, with the eyes of crocs glowing just beyond the circle of our lights. We were a bit nervous before embarking, but soon became comfortable with the activity.

The beginning of a large range of tropical fruit juices; from guava to pineapple, saursop to passion fruit, papaya and more.

A troop of capuchins came to the trees right across the road from the research station, and some on a tree inside the fence, and made aggressive faces and gestures at us.

On the last morning I started to go on a sunrise hike up to the tops of the bluffs, but I got lost in the woods in the dark half-way up and decided to watch the sunrise from the boardwalk in the marsh instead.

Marsh Awakenings  -  17/1/2014

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Morning stillness over the marsh

Night breezes off the bluffs

Counterpoint to heavy tropic heat

Full moon lies in retreat

Golden horizon silhouettes rising ducks

Chirps greeting morning and dying of night

As howlers bark from their arboreal kingdoms

An eternal sight, connections across the years

Another day, what lies in store?

A whirlwind tour of this alien land

Grab the scarce moments of solitude

Fourteen united in pursuit of knowledge

Of this new facet of our one earth

To explore God’s creation,

A chance of a lifetime.

A kite wheels, he will stay but I will be gone

The fleeting beauty of a place resigned to memories

As any experience may be

But new memories lie to be made,

And the old protected from time’s change

A string of moments, bittersweet for their nature

There remains naught but to live as they come.