Nicaragua Day 2

Our first official day on the project, but still really a taster day. We stayed together as a group and drove to our study area within the Volcan Masaya national park. After picking up our guide/guard at the entrance, we drove up to the visitor centre and spent half an hour looking around and orientating ourselves. We then had a practice using the GPS and gravity meters before driving to the car park at the top of the volcano.

There were stunning views from the top (when the gases cleared). We took some more readings just to the side of the car park, then had a gas mask check before walking round to a more remote area. With the guide with us we could go into more remote areas. There was a bit of a scramble down into the crater, which steps down inside. It was like walking on the moon, with dust and rocks below foot and with our gas masks on it made breathing sound like Darth Vadar. One of the most bizarre things was some of the animals that live in the volcano. If you stood still, you could hear bees humming. These were solitary bees that burrowed into the volcanic ash, and I took a few moments to watch one burrowing a hole and kicking the ash back behind it like a miniature mole.  A few days later I managed to capture a sand wasp on video:

Sand wasp Microbembex monodonta burrowing

 

We returned back to the visitors centre and found some shade to rest and have a picnic lunch. Afterwards we had a taster session of the ecology work, and did a circular walk looking at the plants and catching butterflies. It was my first time in a tropical forest, and there were some stunning flowers but not that many of them. At this time of the year it is the dry season, and it was very hot (38 degrees in the shade). Although we were only walking for an hour or two, I was ready for an early finish.

On the way back to the van, we saw a pair of white faced macaques which was good as they are rarely seen in the park now and it was thought they may have moved on.