18:30 Alone once again with nature. The more time I spend here, the more the country slogan “Pura Vida” seems to apply to how I feel out here and about life. I feel like a completely different and very happy person out in the tropics.
Earlier today
ML and I took another walk to learn about the interesting Siphonaria as well as ML’s thoughts, walks and encounter with a
sleeping sea Turtle, which to me sounds like some sort of spirit walk he did or
a something you could imagine in a cartoon.
In this time we also spotted a ‘blue heron’ which we eventually decided
on being a Tri-Coloured Heron.
I finally captured a photo of a Blue Morpho Butterfly, as soon as these guys see you they scarper... especially if you have a camera! Or maybe it is just as I wear glasses?
I finally captured a photo of a Blue Morpho Butterfly, as soon as these guys see you they scarper... especially if you have a camera! Or maybe it is just as I wear glasses?
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| Famous Yet Illusive - Blue Morpho (D.Philpot) |
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| Butterfly Eye-View (D.Philpot) |
This morning I also took on mother nature… and won! I managed to successfully deploy a further 3 more data loggers, to monitor the environmental conditions (light and temperature fluctuations) in various areas of the lagoon, as follows:
Please forgive me for the quality of this diagram, I quickly adapted it as it appeared in my journal.
Lunch
consisted of both bacon and fried plantain, both in one day… what can I say… I
am lucky!
Right before I
was actually left alone ML took me to the local supermarket to stock up on
food, where I learnt a lot more about everything on the trip out.
I managed to
lose a fight with nail varnish, in that I cracked a few bottles of it which
leaked over some of my books/bedroom items and covered my hands taking ages to
scrub off in one of the sinks (which also got messy). I later cooked dinner, did some reading and
relaxed until it the tide was low enough to go out on the rocks to look at the Siphonaria.
To the right
of the ‘Tableland’ area is a raised after of “rain rilled” jagged knifelike
limestone rocks which are around 6 to 8 feet high and extremely unsafe to walk
around on. It was of course pitch black
also, though carefully I made my way around observing these strange yet
advanced snail-like molluscs and marked some with varnish. Upon walking down the, what is normally, stream
from the lagoon I actually managed to come across the same sleepy Green Turtle
that ML had described to me. This was a
wondrous sight, I placed my torch/flashlight on a nearby rock on a dim setting
and got fairly close to this individual without affecting him too much by my
presence. He can be seen on this video (#63) here and below:
I watched him, just him and I under the stars among a very dangerous rocky area of the reef, as he came up for air and swam in his little pool area and then I left after I knew it wasn’t injured or such.
I then had the best tropical-based dinners ever...
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| A Sleepy Turtles Hideout (D.Philpot) |
I watched him, just him and I under the stars among a very dangerous rocky area of the reef, as he came up for air and swam in his little pool area and then I left after I knew it wasn’t injured or such.
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| Another One Off Species (D.Philpot) |
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| The Siphonaria Mollusc (D.Philpot) |
I then had the best tropical-based dinners ever...
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| Fit For A Park Guard (D.Philpot) |