Round and about

One good thing about the rain is that, while the forest at Santa Rosa is shedding its leaves at a speedy rate, the forest here is still lush and verdant. We’ve had a few sojourns into the forest so far to collect caterpillars for rearing. I am yet to get my eye in! But, you know, I keep getting distracted by vultures, white-faced capuchins, mantids, ants and spider monkeys, who showed their displeasure by raining down bullets of ca-ca on us, and many other things. I saw my first frog the other day. I had to squeeze it out of its leafy tube to have a look. It was rather plain. I want orange and blue ones goddam it! Osvaldo pointed out an ant which was huge, about an inch long. I had no idea they made them that big. It was beautiful as well, all velvety black with white markings and orange antennae. There are, however, zillions of enigmatic leaf-cutter ants and their huge nests. I haven’t seen any howler monkeys yet, but I can hear them at dawn and dusk. Their howling can be quite sinister, but I like it. Apparently, according to Winnie, the house is within the territory of a jaguar! Like, totally cool dudes. Unfortunately, I was not able to capture these amazing things on camera, but I did get an average picture of the majestic chestnut-mandibled toucan and a broad-billed motmot, which flew into my view as I stood wondering why I can’t find any bloody caterpillars!