Nicaragua - Day 6

On this final day of fieldwork, the geophys group had a special trip planned deep into the crater of Nindiri. Having seen Rob's video of his experience on the same trip the prior week, I didn't think I would enjoy the scramble, wearing gas masks much of the time, even though the scenery looked amazing.

As this was my last day I wanted to do some more ecology work, and I joined Anne, Ed and John, led by Hilary, on a trek through the forest counting butterflies.

We were dropped on the main road through the park, about half way up the crater. To reach the study area, we first had to cross the lava field which was quite rough under foot. From here you could clearly see the route the lava had taken flowing down from the crater several hundred years before (above right).
 The study area was a section of dry tropical forest that was untouched by recent volcanic activity. We did not have a guide, but Hilary managed to negotiate the way using a series of small paths. We followed a circular route, counting species and abundance as we went, and netting some species where we needed to have a closer look.

Today I felt a bit more familiar with the species and also their behaviours and preferred habitats.  I was easily able to identify the Hamadryas and Parides genus. We also found this leaf mimic, Zaretis ellops, as well as dark swallowtails that were too fast to catch.

The walk was only about 5km long but it was another very hot day and as the path was less defined it made it more tiring. I am sure I saw a small green snake coiled around a branch at the side of the part, but I didn't hang around for a closer look! After around 4 hours walking, I was pleased when we re-emerged onto the lava field and started to head back to the main road.

Primary succession in action: lichen growing on volcanic rock, and the first colonising plants

 

There was more drama to come though. Half way across the lava field, we heard a buzzing sound as a swarm of bees approached. We all crouched down, and luckily they passed over a short distance away, continuing on their way.  The minibus was being repaired, so the plan was to flag down one of the park vehicles to get a lift back to the entrance of the park. After waiting 15 minutes or so with very little traffic passing, we decided to walk down the road to the visitors centre instead. This was another 30 minutes or so walk, but I got into conversation with Hilary about her research and it passed quickly enough.

We had a brief stop at the visitor centre to use the toilets and get a cold drink, then managed to get a lift to the entrance with a guard. Then it was a short wait for a public bus into Masaya town, which was a rather cramped experience. We got off at the rather elaborate roundabout at the edge of town, then it was another 10 minute walk to the hotel. This was probably the most active day, and my muscles felt really tired, probably more so due to slight dehydration. We went out almost immediately and I gut a tiramisu frappe at a local coffee shop,which was a delicious treat to end the day.

In the evening we had a cake to celebrate John's birthday, and had a slide show of people's pictures taken during the week. Unfortunately I could not show mine as the card reader did not read the SD card, but I believe a Flikr site is being set up so we can look at each other's. There was quite a lot of overlap, but other people will have photos of me, and Stefan took some good shots from inside Nindiri.