Waterfalls and Fish Photos - Jan 2014

Taking advantage of the days before work begins, the six of us went to the A- waterfall. Parking off the road, we hiked ten minutes down a steep muddy trail covered with leaves and enough human debris to show that it's a local favorite. Today we had the waterfall to ourselves, swimming and chasing small fish with snorkel masks, bouldering up the short rock face and cannon balling back down to the swimming hole below. The water is tropical stream water, clear to about twelve feet, quick running and cool.

We stayed a few hours before hunger and thoughts of lunch set in. Driving in to town to the open air produce market, we met up with LA, who sells us most of our fresh produce. He's jovial and funny, quick to rib and joke. In the space of a few minutes he shared advice, recipes, cooking tips, and a jingle to go with the
sign tacked to the tree behind his stand which reads "The Comfort Zone - Stress Free." He laughed about finding the comfort zone in life, and how either "you're stress-free or the stress is free."

We arrived home starving - it was three thirty and no one had eaten since breakfast! We threw together a salad with fruits and citrus gathered on the hike and at the market, and started prepping a coconut curry. After lunch we laid about reading a while. As night drew darker the boys went out to pick up A-, who was rejoining the project. J- and I set up the projector, casting a movie against the wall.

Work starts in earnest tomorrow. We straightened up the lab, the guys who are continuing from last month prepped the compounds we'll use to medicate the fish in the field, and J- and I trained on guppy photography. The fish are placed to swim in an anesthetic solution. The unconscious guppy is scooped up with a white plastic spoon and laid out on a small white board. Their fins are splayed with a fine paintbrush for a digital mug shot, the guppy lying between a ruler and an ID tag. These were practice fish, unlucky guppies fated to feed the lab's carnivorous piscine residents. J- and I learned to photograph quickly and easily, not a single fish going belly up in the reviving tank. Tomorrow at 630am the truck leaves the Guppy House for our first full day of fishing.

It is a tropical paradise here. The company is grand, the bananas we macheted are hanging on the back door ripening, and life is good.