Rainmaker

Last night was pretty chill. After the coffee tour the rain started up again and I stayed in the rest of the evening. I watched Netflix on my phone, organized my suitcase, and ate cake with my host family in celebration of Padre’s birthday. Padre is the priest at their church.  My host  mother, is very active in their local parish. 

Today our group went on a tour to hike Rainmaker which literally feels like hiking through a rainforest. Going through it reminded me how vast this earth is and our universe. So many animals live in the jungle and there are so many layers to the jungle. We only scratched the surface of what’s there. We saw a small, poisonous, frog, a chameleon and a millipede. But due to the rain, many animals were hiding. Jaguars and pumas also live in that jungle, but it’s extremely rare to see them, especially the jaguars. Our guide said, they tend to see you before you see them. I also find the animals in the wild tend to keep to themselves and they don’t bother humans unless provoked or unless humans are associated with feeding or food. 

This evening we had a jungle tour at night to see the nocturnal animals.  The tour was on the same grounds as the coffee tour. It was interesting to walk through with my flashlight. I prayed that we would see a snake and we actually saw two! For whatever reason I wanted to see a snake; I don’t know why! 

We saw tons of frogs of different varieties and even tadpoles which you can see swimming in the eggs stuck to the underside of leaves where they grow for a few weeks unless eaten by snakes before dropping into the pond. Those frog eggs were truly incredible to see up close. 

We saw a poisonous spider and huge toad. Half of these creatures were spotted by the group and not the guide, quite unlike our other nature tours! This tour definitely felt way more immersive than the others. Perhaps the darkness made us all feel more closed in. Or maybe we were in a smaller surface area. Maybe they are more small animals and insects out at night and on the larger tours, during the day we were focused on spotting larger mammals like monkeys and sloths. Who knows? But I enjoyed this one the most I think. That said, I was also glad after two hours when it ended!  I’m also glad to be done with hiking through mud and dirt with wet sneakers lol 

After the tour, around 8:30 PM, we met another volunteer for dinner at a local restaurant. I got the most delicious piña colada and a salad. I’ve been craving a salad and it was glorious! As is the custom during this season, we walked home in the pouring rain with backpacks under ponchos (or rain jackets). One more day to go!