Sun, Sand, Speleothems, and Stars

This summer I decided to stay in the US - because while I'm disappointed, concerned, and upset about the direction the country is going, I needed to remind myself that there are still good things to be found in some slightly disturbing places. I started my trip in El Paso, Texas, where I picked up my rental car and immediately drove out into New Mexico. 

WHITE SANDS NATIONAL PARK

It was around 2:30 pm and ~94° when I got to White Sands National Park, located in the Tularosa Basin in the northern Chihuahuan Desert . White Sands encompasses the largest gypsum sand dunes in the world - about 225 square miles. Most sand dunes are comprised of silica, but the unique geography of this area made it the ideal place to develop gypsum dunes. 

About 250 million years ago, this area was covered by the Permian Sea, which deposited water-soluble gypsum into the ground. 70-30 millions years ago, tectonic activity pushed up this ground to form the San Andres Mountains to the west and the Sacramento Mountains to the east. During the wet weather of the Ice Age, gypsum was carried down into the Tularosa Basin and trapped there, forming Lake Otero - a huge lake that covered most of the basin. When the water evaporated, it left gypsum crystals (in the form of selenite) on the ground. The movement of wind and water breaks down those crystals into small grains of gypsum sand. The formation of the sand dunes really only began around 10,000 years ago.

Gypsum sand dunes are interestingly different than other sand dunes. They don't hold heat like regular sand, so it's cooler to the touch (but the glare is absolutely blinding and you basically have to shoot photos with your eyes closed and hope for the best). The sand behaves differently as well, since it dissolves in water and hardens, increasing wind resistance. This also means plants can grow faster and not get buried by the dunes.

One of the most interesting things to observe is the rather quick adaptation made by the animals living in the dunes. Because lighter colored animals can blend into the sand and escape predation, animals such as the bleached earless lizard, the Apache pocket mouse, and several crickets and spiders have basically turned white.

Cool to see an oryx, but not cool that they are there...

Another interesting (and slightly disturbing) thing you can find in White Sands is... the African Oryx. Whaaaa??? you may ask. Well, in their infinite wisdom, the hunters of New Mexico decided they need something fun to kill, so about 50 years ago they released 90+ oryx in the White Sands Missile Range.  The thought was that the population would stay around 500-600 animals and remain in the Tularosa Basin, but hmmm. Animals actually wander around. With no predators (except the hunters) and an abundance of food, the population is now more than 5,000. And even though a million-dollar fence was put around the National Park, a handful of oryx are still inside, trampling the fragile environment and outcompeting native species for the limited resources. 

Hiking around White Sands during the day was hot and blinding so I didn't go too far, but after checking into my hotel and grabbing some dinner, I returned to the park for the sunset stroll later that evening. With the sun going down, it was much cooler and easier to see without the bright glare. We could also see flashes of lightning from the approaching thunderstorm, which made for a lovely and dramatic sky.

GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK

The next day, I drove to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, home of the highest point in Texas - Guadalupe Peak (8,751 ft). This park is isolated and unassuming - while it isn't as visually stunning as many of the other parks I've been to, there's some pretty interesting geology and history behind it: namely, the mountain range used to be an underwater tropical reef!

Shell fossils along the
Devil's Hall trail

During the Permian Age (250 million years ago), this area was the site of a huge limestone tropical reef called the Capitan Reef, on the northern end of the Delaware Sea. A huge diversity of marine creatures lived in those waters, leaving an abundance of fossils in the bedrock. During the late Mesozoic, uplift created the Guadalupe Mountains. 

Pinery Station, with a view of the Guadalupe Mountains

In the caves and alcoves of the mountains are signs of human settlement, and Mescalero Apaches lived in the mountains until they were driven out by the US Army at the end of the American Civil War. Pinery Station was also constructed as a stop for the Butterfield Overland Mail route.

Sadly, when I visited in late June, a huge portion of the park was closed due to 'high and extreme fire danger.' Which was kind of weird, since it rained every night (although there was a lot of lightning, so...). But it meant I had limited choices for hiking trails and not a lot of places to see or things to do. 

Aside from the short Pinery trail, there were only two other open trails - Devil's Hall and Guadalupe Peak. I spent some time in the Visitor's Center finishing my junior ranger book and waiting for the drizzle to stop, so by the time I got out to the hike it was too late for the longer Peak trail. 

Instead I followed a boulder-strewn wash to Devil's Hall, where steep canyon walls showcase interesting layers of rock. It's a poorly marked trail so I got lost a few times, which is a little nerve-wracking when you're hiking alone! But at the end, you enter a cool geologic formation. You enter through a steep ledge called the Hiker's Staircase and into the steep-sided canyon that is the Devil's Hall.

A bonus of it being fairly deserted is that there is more wildlife, and I spotted this little guy sunning himself... can you find him??:

I spy with my little eye.... (he's staring right at the camera!)

Later in the hike, this fearless little glossy snake came right over to me before slithering off into the brush:

On a side note, I got a text from my hotel that night telling me that the only food available in town was closing at 3pm... so it's a good thing I'd brought lots of random snacks with me. The lady at the hotel said it was because they didn't have enough workers to keep the restaurants open - even in the larger town 35 minutes away, many of the restaurants couldn't stay open even on weekends because of lack of help. Yikes.

CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK

Although it started raining again, I headed up to Carlsbad Caverns that evening because I wanted to see the bat flight program. There are actually 17 species of bats that live in the park, but the most famous is the Brazilian free-tailed bat. (In fact, in the early days of the cave's history, settlers would mine the cave for bat guano to be used as fertilizer for the California citrus groves.) Carlsbad Caverns are below the same mountains that form Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and on most summer evenings, up to 300,000 Brazilian free-tailed bats fly out at twilight to feed. (The number was as high as 793,000 in 2005!)

When I arrived the ranger told us all to keep our expectations low - the weather, combined with a low population of bats (due in part to the long drought the region was experiencing) meant that they weren't seeing much activity. But he did spend about a half hour answering questions and dispelling myths about bats, until at about 8:15pm the first bats began exiting the cave. It wasn't a huge swirling mass that you sometime see in photos, but a slow and steady trickle where groups of a few hundred would come out together.

It was interesting that every bat always turns left coming out of the cave, then circles around before flying off (usually to the south) to feed on moths and other insects.

Those flying specks aren't bats - during the day they are cave swallows

I actually returned the next day, when the rain stopped a little earlier, and there were a lot more bats that came out the second night. I didn't take photos because any electronics, noise, or light disturbs the bats, but here's what the cave entrance looks like:

Because of the fire danger that also closed most of Guadalupe Mountains NP, almost all of the outdoor activities around Carlsbad Caverns were closed. But the good stuff is all underground, so I headed straight for the main caverns for my morning self-guided tour.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is actually comprised of 120 different caves, formed about 5 million years ago. Oxygen rich rainwater seeped down to mix with H2S-rich groundwater that moved from deep underground. When the two waters met, they combined to form the sulfuric acid (H2SO4) that ate away at the limestone. The Carlsbad Cavern is about 30 miles long, and the Big Room in Carlsbad Cavern spans 8.2 acres. The newly discovered Lechuguilla Cave, which is only open to scientists and other researchers, is over 140 miles long!

Goin' down, down, down the Natural Entrance

There are two ways into the cavern - the steep 1.25 mile Natural Entrance trail, and the elevator. Because of covid, the Natural Entrance is one-way so I opted to hike down and take the elevator back 754 feet up to the visitor center. I also paid for the audio tour, which was totally worth it and gave a lot of information about the cave in general, the history, and various individual formations found inside.

This ladder was installed in 1924 by a National Geographic team

In the 'twilight zone' (the transitional area between light and dark), we could see where the cliff swallows had built their nests (and several dead chicks that had fallen out of the nests). Further into the cave is where the bats roost, but the path turned the other direction and headed further down, towards the Big Room. 

We passed the rickety wooden stairs that used to be how tourists entered the caves back in the old days, as well as several decrepit rope ladders hanging down into nothingness. Just imagine being one of those first explorers, wandering around while hoping your light doesn't go out!

Year round, the temperature of the caverns stays at a fairly steady 56°, and there is a constant flow of air that circulates through the cave system. And the Big Room is truly massive - it took over an hour to wander through. It was easy to see why Will Rogers described it as "Grand Canyon with a roof on it."

MCDONALD OBSERVATORY

The main reason for this trip was a teacher workshop at the McDonald Observatory, located on Mount Locke above Fort Davis, Texas. It's in a really desolate part of the state, but that just means the stargazing was sure to be amazing.

Bonus: driving past Marfa Prada on my long and lonely roadtrip through BFE West Texas

The course was "Searching for ET: Planetary Habitability and Exoplanets," and I was so excited to see the telescopes and do some stargazing. The workshop was excellent, and not only did I learn quite a bit of new information but I got some great lesson ideas that I'm excited to try out. 

We learned about using star maps to identify multiple constellations, but there were so many stars that came out later in the evening that several of the constellations became hard to find because there were too many other stars! We also got to use the telescopes to view various star clusters, nebulas, and galaxies.

Not a bad night sky...!

FORT DAVIS NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

At the base of the Davis Mountains is Fort Davis, an Indian War frontier military post that protected transportation routes across the Chihuahua Trail from El Paso to San Antonio. It was in operation from 1854 -1891, and was particularly interesting because several all-black regiments were stationed there. These groups became known as the "Buffalo Soldiers."

There is a fun junior ranger program that takes you on a guided walk through most of the fort, as well as a few short trails that wander up into the mountains and give a great view of the surrounding area. Plus, the film in the visitor center stars Kareem Abdul Jabbar, dressed up in his cowboy gear! I actually stopped by the site three times, since I had limited time before needing to drive up the mountain to get to the observatory each day. Breaking up the visit was nice though, since it did get hot and there isn't much shade.

View of Officer's Row from the Scenic Overlook on the North Ridge

CHAMIZAL NATIONAL MEMORIAL

Some NPS sites are cool because they exist for historical reasons, and are important ways to remember parts of history that would otherwise be forgotten. I had no idea that Chamizal National Memorial even existed, and never knew about the controversy between the US and Mexico over the boundary dispute that led to its existence. So it was nice to be able to spend some time and learn a little about our history.

The park basically commemorates the 1963 Chamizal Treaty that peacefully resolved the 100-year old border dispute between the US and Mexico caused by the shifting Rio Grande River. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago defined the border as the deepest part of the Rio Grande, but a huge flood in 1864 (and subsequent floods) shifted the river into a horseshoe bend, causing around 600 acres to move into US territory. The land - called Chamizal - was settled and incorporated into El Paso, but both the US and Mexico claimed it as their territory. To prevent further flooding, channels were dug at the base of the horseshoe, but since man-made alterations didn't change the border, an 'island' of Mexico called Cordova Island was created that jutted into the US.

After decades of negotiations, the two countries settled their dispute by signing the Chamizal Treaty. Mexico and the United States shared the cost of a man-made channel to prevent the Rio Grande from shifting in the future. 

The memorial is now an urban park and cultural center (although most activities and performances have been suspended because of COVID). I got there about 40 minutes before the visitor center opened, so I had time to meander around almost the entire park. It's interesting to walk along the outer loop at the edge of the park, since you walk right by the border and the crossing station. There is also a robust Jr Ranger book and a nice museum, plus the rangers are really friendly and chock full of information!

This isn't an area of the country that I'd normally find myself, so I'm glad I had an excuse to visit. As always, the parks were totally fascinating, each with a very distinct feel and all with interesting information. If you ever find yourself in the neighborhood, I highly recommend taking the time to visit them all!

Amazonia, pt 5: The Heart of the Rainforest

After four days at Refugio Amazonas, we moved deeper into the jungle into the heart of the Tambopata National Reserve. Our next five days would be spent at the Tambopata Research Center, one of the most remote lodges in the Amazon. 

It's actually a lot easier to get to these days since a new road was built to access a boat dock at Filadelphia, between Refugio and the TRC, near the fork of the Malinowski River. So we actually had to backtrack from Refugio to get to the TRC.) What was once an 8-hour trip from Puerto Maldonado is now a three and half hour boat ride from Refugio Amazonas. 

Along the way, we passed a makeshift wooden platform
with a slanted sieve and diesel engine.
Illegal gold mining, which is prevalent in the area.

Two hours into our journey, we stopped at a half-sunk canoe next to a rickety set of stairs. It's the Malinowski control point, where we have to register to get inside the National Preserve. As we motor along for another hour and a half, it's feeling more remote and the forest more dense - we no longer see the (albeit sparse) lodges dotting the riverbank, and there's a heady sense of wildness as we scan the thick vegetation passing by.

Ahead, a dark shape on an overhanging branch catches our eye. It's a Great Black Hawk, standing with an almost military-straight posture.

Did you know? Capybara supposedly taste like fish!

Further ahead on the riverbank, we strain to spot a group of capybara - looking just like the muddy boulders they are lounging on. More and more appear as our eyes adjust.

Once upon a time, the Catholic Church decided that, since capybara spend so much time in the water, that they were considered fish! So they are allowed to be eaten during the meatless Lenten season.

All too quickly we pull up to the shore - we've arrived at the port for the TRC and we disembark for the ten minute hike to the lodge. Perhaps it's just my imagination, but this trail seems narrower and darker than the one at Refugio. The group ahead stops to stare into the trees - it's a group of saddleback tamarins - and after just a few more steps, the path opens up to the lodge.

The TRC was originally built as a research center, but about six years ago they expanded and built luxurious (albeit 3-walled) rooms to accommodate more guests. I went fully expecting a "roughing it" experience, but this was NOT it. It was a five-star eco-lodge, with all-day electricity and wifi even in our rooms.  Immediately upon arriving in our rooms, we noticed movement in the trees behind our open wall.

Not a bad view...

Howler monkeys, howling

 A huge fig tree was in fruit, and on various occasions, groups of spider monkeys and howler monkeys entertained us with their antics. From the missing back wall of our room, we could easily watch them as they foraged for fruit and jumped from tree to tree.

Spider monkey, spider-ing

We were excited to venture out into this part of the rainforest since, being more isolated, there was a greater chance of seeing a greater quantity and variety of species. We hiked our first afternoon to an overlook for a stunning view.

Seriously... that hair. Jealous much, Elvis?

During our stay, we spotted several strange and interesting birds, including the razor-billed curassow, Spix's guan, red-throated caracara, and several of these blue-throated piping guans: 

I also loved this pretty little Bluish-fronted jacamar:

I particularly liked the hike through the Bamboo Trail - who knew there was a species of bamboo (known as Guadua) that grew in the Amazon?? They particularly thrive on the poorly-draining upland soil found in this area, and they are home to a number of frogs, birds, and monkeys.  From one overlook, we spotted four separate species of monkeys - dusky titi, brown capuchin, spider, and squirrel! And on our hike back, a huge troop of what felt like at least 100 squirrel monkeys surrounded us, chittering away.

Tiny squirrel monkeys are constantly in motion!

Brown capuchins, who hung out in harmony with the squirrel monkeys

🐍 Sssnaaaaakes! 🐍

Perhaps the most famous of the Amazonian snakes is the anaconda - no, we didn't see one, but we tried our hardest!! The largest anaconda species can grow up to almost 30 feet in length, and weigh a monstrous 500 lbs. But anaconda, whose scientific name means 'good swimmer', are hard to find since they generally spend most of their time submerged underwater, with just their eyes and noses (which are higher up on their heads than most snakes) poking out. But that didn't mean we didn't see any other snakes.

Another common rainforest snake is the Amazon tree boa - which, although non-venomous, can be aggressive. Tree boas are predators that eat frogs, bats, lizards, and rodents, and spend most of their time traveling in the treetops. So it was amazing to me that on one evening walk, Anil spotted one in the branches overhead!

During the wet season it floods much more here than it does at Refugio, and we noticed that all the boardwalks were built considerably higher from the ground. 

 They were also much, much longer, so walking to and from our rooms felt like miniature expeditions into the forest. And we encountered plenty of wildlife on those boardwalks, to be sure! On our very first day, I walked by myself to the lounge to meet up with the group. Now keep in mind, the boardwalk is L-O-N-G, a solid and steady five-minute walk, and it basically goes through the forest. The vegetation is cut back from the walkway, but the trees are tall and branches stretch overhead and provide a canopy. 

Halfway to the lounge, I spot movement up ahead - a snake! I quickly look behind me and ahead of me, but I'm all alone. As I get closer, I realize 1) I have no idea what kind it is (or if it is venomous, aggressive, or fast...), 2) it's thin, but really really long (maybe 10 ft), and 3) there's nowhere for it to go but along the boardwalk - either in the same direction that I'm going, or towards me.

I freeze. I look front and back and see that I'm totally alone. I'm torn, wanting to call for someone to share this experience with me, but knowing I probably can't run fast enough to get my friends. So I just wait and watch, enjoying my encounter. It must have dropped down from some overhead tree, and there were no nearby branches where it might have come from, and the boardwalk was perhaps 15-20 feet above the forest floor. The snake hasn't seen me (or just doesn't care), and starts moving away from me, searching for a way off the boardwalk. I slowly followed it (from afar!), until it got to a branch that hung about a foot from the boardwalk, and it tentatively stretched its neck, testing to find a part that was strong enough to hold its weight (there wasn't one). It took a little leap, but the branch gave away and the poor snake plummeted down onto the forest floor, where it quickly disappeared into the underbrush.

It was, I think, Chironius multiventris - commonly called a long-tailed machete savane. Our guide Paul says that they aren't venomous, but their method of defense is to use their long tail like a whip. (I'll admit it - I kinda want to be whipped by a snake. Dang... lost opportunities...) 

We later encountered a smaller one in the forest, who moved surprisingly fast to get away from us. 

I spy, with my little eye, something slithering in the forest!

Come back little snake! I just want a hug*!

*and by hug, I mean just a wee little slap.

Tambopata does not disappoint!

🪲Amazonia🪰, pt 4: 🪳Bugs, 🐞bugs, 🦗bugs🦟

These little jewels are like glittering gemstones... it's a treasure hunt all over the rainforest!

Holy bugs*, batman. 

    *ok, ok, i know spiders and millipedes aren't technically bugs, but "arthropod, arthropod, arthropod" is kind of a mouthful. 
       So just take the term 'bug' in this post as the colloquial, m'kay?  

More than 90% of the animal species in the Amazon are insects, and in Tambopata alone there are over 1200 species of butterflies. The Amazon rainforest may have as many as 2.5 million different species of insects, but only a tiny fraction of species are known to scientists. And there may be millions of individuals within each species - some scientists estimate that 30% of the animal biomass of Amazonia is made up of ants alone!!

The sheer diversity of bug life here in the rainforest is mind-boggling. We encountered so many types - and some were absolutely stunning in their shapes, patterns, and colors - like these amazing guys:

Some of the most intriguing ones were found just on the handrails of the lodge - probably because they were so easy to spot. Others did their best to hide themselves through camouflage - it was astounding how closely some of them resembled leaves!!! 

The praying mantis was particularly interesting, since it swayed and bobbed as it walked, mimicking a leaf blowing in the wind. It was absolutely mesmerizing to watch.

🦋 🦋 🦋 🦋 🦋

Almost all differences between butterflies and moths are generalizations, and we definitely saw outliers to many of the butterfly vs moth 'rules'. Things like diurnal vs nocturnal? Colorful vs dull? Open vs closed wings while resting? Nope.

Clockwise from upper left:
Ceramidia moth, Tersa sphinx moth,
Leafy sphinx moth, Tiger moth 

 We found plenty of exceptions to the rules... While normally people think of butterflies as brilliantly colorful and moths as dull and boring, that was hardly the case.

The gorgeous Green-banded urania is the only diurnal moth found here, and is much more colorful than the crethon daggerwing butterfly next to it:

How breathtaking are these caterpillars??? 

The one top was huge - about the size of a hot dog, with menacingly spiky spines coated in venom. 

The bottom one I originally thought was just a tiny bit of fluff... until it started moving! Think of a teensy tiny mop atop the world's smallest roomba...

This was one of my favorite butterflies - the glasswing, with its see-through wings. Plus, it liked to play dead - it flopped over when I put it on my palm, but then Paul picked it up and started to drop it, and in the middle of its free-fall, it flew away. 

Amongst all the cool things I saw in the Amazon, this one made my jaw drop!! It's the pupa of a false burnet moth, contained in a mesh cocoon.

Closeup of the cocoon

🕷 🕷 🕷 🕷 🕷

The Amazon is NOT for the arachnophobic - not only are there thousands of spiders, but some of them are H-U-G-E. They all seemed to come out during our night walks (or maybe we just noticed them more). Along with the fluorescent scorpions and spiders, literally thousands of other arachnids appear at night. 

Every step would send large jumping spiders skittering away. Flashlights on the trees lit up tail-less whip spiders and enormous water spiders. We also found a ton of orb weavers in the shine of our flashlights, probably because their bodies were the size of ping-pong balls.

There is definitely something undeniably creepy about seeing so many spiders, but it was hard not to be fascinated as well. I didn't necessarily want to get my face too close to them, but c'mon! How cool is this?!

Nobody really knows why the spider decorates its web with a cross, but some theorize it's to make the spider look bigger... or it's a warning for birds not to fly into the web.

You can easily see the sexual dimorphism of the golden silk orb-weaver here - the gorgeous female is in the center of the web, and the smaller male can be seen above her.

She's so pretty!

We encountered this beauty of a banana spider, or Brazilian wandering spider, in the middle of the trail on one of our night walks. But I've got to be honest... it was kinda scary since they are one of the most aggressive and venomous spiders known to man:

Banana spiders are an invasive
species in Madre de Dios, brought
in with the non-native banana plants.

We saw a few tarantulas as well - the chicken tarantula, that Paul said was named so because it takes care of its young like a chicken (and yes, when it startled back into its hole, several smaller babies ran in after it). But my favorite was the huge pink-toed tarantula that showed up on the boardwalk - you could easily see her pink toes!

Social spiders live in colonies of up to 50,000 individuals, and they capture prey together and share in the spoils. I would NOT want to accidentally walk into a social spider nest!

Their metropolis can be 25 ft long!

And in the mid afternoon when the sun was hottest, so many different little jumping spiders would appear on the handrails! So pretty!

🐛 🐛 🐛 🐛 🐛

The many many many many many many legs of the rainforest millipedes

Did you know? The difference between a millipede and a centipede isn't the number of legs (and they rarely have a thousand, or even a hundred legs). 

Millipedes have two sets of legs per body segment, while centipedes only have one. And generally speaking, their behaviors are different too - millipedes will roll up into a ball when startled, while centipedes will run away. And millipedes for the most part eat decaying plant matter, while centipedes are predators. But both can be harmful to humans - centipedes are venomous and will bite; millipedes are poisonous and secrete toxins.

 

🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜

Good lord, the ants.

We saw little ants. Big ants. Solitary ants. Swarms of ants. Trails of ants. They crawled up our pants. We ate ants. We* purposely let ourselves get stung by ants. 

*and by 'we' I mean the boys** in our group.
     **and by 'boys' I mean the two Cambridge professors.   NOT the 13-year old.

But it was for science!

The tarangara, or 'devil' tree has a symbiotic relationship with colonies of Pseudomyrmex triplarinus, a tiny but highly aggressive fire ant. The tarangara is used by the local indigenous people as a punishment tree - depending on the crime, perpetrators are tied to the tree for hours or days and allowed to be bitten by the ants who are guardians and protectors of the tree. Each individual bite "feels like a cigarette burn," claimed Paul, and in three days a criminal kept tied to the tree would be dead from the bites, suffering in agony the entire time. Of course Anil and David had to see what the fuss was about, and allowed themselves to be bitten by a single ant... (sigh... 🙄)

The bite, two days later.

Luckily, when we were invited to try being stung by a bullet ant, everyone wisely opted out.

So many ants marched through this path that they dug their own trench into the dirt!

Another intriguing ant was the Army ant, which is used by indigenous people to close up wounds. Yes, some of us had been attacked by them on our first night in the forest and we feared them as a menace, but they could be useful as well. Paul showed us how to find just the soldier ants, who have huge mandibles and large yellow heads. After grabbing the body and maneuvering the bite in just the right place, you can twist off the body and the jaw continues its hold - creating an effective suture.

It was interesting what was helpful and what was deadly in the rainforest. There were plants we couldn't even touch, but ants and termites that we could eat. 

Anil, having a mid-morning snack

And so we did... (yes, I did try them... the ants had kind of an earthy, nutty flavor. I did NOT enjoy the popping of the exoskeleton though...) Additionally, Paul taught us how to find edible termite nests, where we could find a snack if we got lost in the forest. They were smaller than the ants, which meant they were a bit more palatable - but I still thought they tasted a bit like dirt. 

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

Speaking of nests, look at the cool forms of these bee/wasp nests! I was particularly intrigued by the entrance to the Yellow bee hive - it looked just like a flower!! Yellow bees don't sting, but they will get into your hair and chew on it, giving you the most elegant and stylish haircut.

Overall, despite how many bugs we saw, I actually expected to be bothered a lot more than I was. Not sure if it was the dousing of bug spray that helped, or the head-to-toe covering, or the mosquito nets, but the handful of bug bites that I got each day were nowhere close to what I had anticipated. And it was the rare bug that found its way inside my mosquito net that freaked me out - but otherwise, I felt like as a visitor into their world, I could appreciate their richness and diversity.