Cuerici

At almost 9000 feet, this is much colder than the other sites. The stars were beautiful and clear because of our remoteness.

We went for a nature walk with Don Carlos, and he pointed out oaks in the primary forest that were over a thousand years old. It was sad to think of hem being cut down for things as mundane as wine barrels. We also saw a Vaccinium sp., the same genus as ‘ōhelo and family as blueberry.

Hannah, Jess, Vivek, Amelia, Allegra and I went out to try to mist-net bats. We saw some and heard some, but did not catch any in our nets. While we waited we lounged around chatting and looking at the stars. Later I laid out in the yard, in the shadow of the hill, and stargazed. Zach and Lars didn’t see me when they went out. The field station and Alberto’s house were lit up, as were the flowers on the hill from underneath. I listened to ‘Stars’ and saw two shooting stars.

We went looking for the source of a squeaking noise in the forest. I saw the glint of eyes a few times, but others maintained a view of it and saw a bushy, striped tail. We believe it may be a ring-tailed cat. Later we had a module in which we examined 3 bats that Hannah caught in the mist nets. We watched the leaf-nosed one drink sugar-water, and both species had very cute, fuzzy faces and tiny teeth.