Jungle Expedition Part II

Well, after setting up our camp, we started to explore the jungle. Britton was prepared with plenty of specimen jars. We saw gobs of strange and beautiful and bewildering insect and bug creatures.

This is one of the most unique bugs I've ever seen. It was nearly two inches long, and it just sat on the tree bark totally unafraid of us. Anyone know what it is? I have no idea.

We also saw all kinds of beautiful plants and flowers. There's so much to see in a dense virgin jungle like this, that you could literally spend all day in a small patch and still miss things.

Of course, you have to watch your step too. Some plants are well protected. These spikes are about three inches long, and very strong and sharp.

We also had time to work in some Tarzan-style, vine-swinging. It was great fun!

And then we did some fishing in the small jungle river.

Although we didn't catch anything, our guides set some lines and left them out all day. At the end of the day there was a nice catch for supper.

Before dark we set up a white sheet along the creek, with a bright white light shining on it. As if this wasn't tantalizing enough for night insects, we also hung up some ropes soaked in our own home-made butterfly bait. Despite the full moon, (there's never as many insects when there's a moon,) we attracted some nice moths and hundreds of other little insects.

Then we did some intense frog and toad hunting. We caught dozens of both, with several different species of each. Good thing we had our guide going along with us, because there are several poisonous types that he steered us away from...however, the others are good eating. At least that's what we were told. I always thought edible frogs were big, but alas, just about anything here seems to be edible as we found out the next day. So the unlucky ones came back with us in plastic bags.

And then, to top it all off, we succeeded in finding ourselves a nice, live scorpion using a special ultraviolet flashlight. Scorpions have the unique characteristic of fluorescing bright blue under UV light. The scorpion literally seems to shine brightly like a bright blue light in the dark night.

It was a fantastic first day!