Hello all! So there is a lot that I want to say...but I'm not sure exactly how to relay everything that went on these last two weeks...so I apologize if it is a little hard to follow!
So the expedition officially started on January 9th, which we woke up at 3:30 and headed to UNGE to meet those students by 4:00. Once everyone was there we departed for Luba, which is a tiny town...actually the second biggest on the island, but only about 1,000 people live there, if that...Southwest of Malabo. I would say the drive took about an hour and once we unloaded all of the other gear that hadn't been taken down to the southern beaches the day before, we got into cayucos and were on our way!! Heading down the coast was really breathtaking. It reminded me of parts of California's coast actually...at points it was just cliffs that went off into the ocean. Occasionally there was an abandoned cocoa plantation building that you could see...when the Spaniards originally colonized the island, their main source of income was from cocoa, but now it is oil. There were even some waterfalls and caves...just beautiful. Also in the background...partly covered by clouds...you could see the Caldera. At first, it was hard to believe that we would be climbing up the walls of that old volcano and going down into that cauldron like area. The rainforest just looked so dense and I was very excited at this point!
After about three and a half hours, we could see Moraka Playa with all of its orange tents amidst a little bunch of palm trees and black sand. Reed actually got a really amazing shot of the sunset one night that shows Moraka Playa camp...I will try and post it on here then. It was nice being on the second day of people heading out because a lot of the things needed were already set up!! But anyhow, all of the volunteers were already there and so were all of the porters and guides who were predominantly from Ureka, the southernmost village on the island. Since everyone else had started censusing that day, we kind of had time to just explore and relax...well after we set up our tents of course.
I have never been to a black sand beach before and wow is it amazing. The best way I can describe it is that I was walking down the black sand and the way the sun hit it it looked like it had specks of gold and then on one side it is just so serene with deep blue waves crashing and the random lava rocks just protruding from the depths of the ocean, while on the other side it is just this wall of jungle waiting to be explored. It's actually funny because it kind of reminded me of Jurassic Park the way all of the trees looked...or Land of the Lost...either way it was just magnificent.
Once everyone got back from census we headed to the lagoon..aka our bathtub. It was kind of hard to accept the idea of just stripping down and bathing completely naked with a bunch of other women in a lagoon right off of a beach...but after a few days we were all used to it. It was kind of cool because if we had some extra time before it was men's bathing hour, we got to swim back into the lagoon and see all of the different fish that were there. I can;t even describe how cool it is to know that your temporary bathtub is a great snorkel spot. After dinner, we all pretty much went to bed right away...which was great falling asleep to waves crashing...but it was ungodly hot with my sleeping bag.
So that next day is when we started census and rather than explain out everyday of census that I completed on the four different trails at the beach, I am just going to kind of bunch it all together. So census was basically carried out in two parts, an AM that started around 7:00 and ended around 10:00-11:00..a lunch break until about 2:00 and then a PM census. The groups consisted of a guide, who have all been walking on these trails for years now and working for BBPP, and then however many people were assigned to that trail. You can't talk and you have to try and be as quiet as possible...which is very hard to do while walking on all of the fallen leaves, branches and balancing on wet rocks...but it was pretty successful!! I saw all species of the primates, except for Drills...which I was disappointed about...including Red Colobus, Black Colobus, Nictitans, Pogonias, Erythrotis and Preuss. It was just the coolest thing seeing monkeys in the wild!!!! I had only ever seen them in zoos or in pictures and what not. We also took count of all of the duikers (small antelopes), squirrels and picathartes (type of bird) that we encountered. Each trail was about 3 km long, give or take a few 100 meters and the goal was to census at a rate of 1 km/hr...but enough with all of the logistics!! If anyone is interested in the protection program and all of the goals and such of BBPP, you should check out their website!
So the trails on the beach included Etepo, Tope Tomo, Moraka Norte and Badja Sur. My favorite trail at this camp was Etepo because for this trail, you were out all day long and got to sit at this gorgeous lunch spot. It was these three little waterfalls that made several tide pools and eventually led off of this cliff into the ocean. And occasionally when a wave would crash a certain way on the side of the cliff, it would spray up in the air and it would look like a geyser...I mean everything about this spot was picturesque.
Some other things about the beach that were cool is that about 20 minutes up the beach on the other side of camp from the lagoon, there are these really awesome lava rocks that have been eroded into these rectangular and octagonal shapes over time. Some are like perfect rectangles...it's hard to believe that something like this could just occur by nature. Within these rocks there were some awesome tide pools with corals and some fish just swimming around. Right off of the actual camp there were all of these lava rocks. But aside from all of the aesthetics...I'm sure one of the questions is where did we go to the bathroom. Well, there actually was a latrine at every camp and I think that in each you had the fear of falling into the shit hole, literally. Plus at each camp there was some type of pest that was always around...at Moraka Playa it was crabs, Hormigas camp was bees and ants, and at North camp it was huge millipedes.
So anyways, at each camp there was a set of cooks and guides that led the censuses...my favorite cooks were at Moraka Playa and North, though. At the beach the cook's name was Bosco and he spoke the best English out of all of the workers there. He actually used to be a cook for the student house and boy was he a trip. He just would say the funniest things and somehow there would always be a time of the day where he just wasn't wearing any pants...and then I realized that that was a trend with all of the porters and guides...just walking around camp in boxer briefs and crocs. It definitely lightened the mood after a long day of hiking though!! My second favorite cook was one that was at North, Romeo. He spoke some English too and I think it was his goal to make us laugh as much as possible. All of the workers up there would say two phrases that translate to harmless words, but meant different things to them...which I won't say what they mean...but use your imagination...they were "leche" and "mi pina." It kind of got annoying when they would yell them at 4:00 AM starting breakfast, but overall did lighten the mood and make me laugh.
The DSA students were the last ones to head up the trail to the Caldera. After about seven days down at the beach, Drew sent us up to Hormigas camp. But before I talk about that, on the 6th day instead of afternoon census, Drew made up a little geocaching game for us as apart of our field methods course. So what he did was he placed 5 different camp items in different places around camp and on the trails and gave us GPS points so we could find them...I thought it was so fun!! I had never used a GPS before, but I managed to finish first and won some cookies. Let me tell you, after only having rice, beans, the occasional spaghetti meal and some Maria cookies, these chocolate filled ones were amazing!!! One thing I should have done was made my Clif bars and gummies last way longer than half of the trip...
So back to the trek up to Hormigas camp....all in all it was about 12 km and I would say it took a total of about six to six and a half hours including the breaks we took. In order to get to the beginning of the trail, you have to walk about 2 km down the beach and cross this river. I had gotten myself a nice walking stick and I was determined to not have wet, soggy boots the whole way up. Well, all of these rocks are already slippery that we are crossing and so when I propped my stick in the water, it snapped in half and I went down...hard. So not only were my boots soaked through, but I am pretty sure I broke my tailbone a little...and still had 10 km uphill to go. Now, I don't think I am in that bad of shape, but after this...phew I need to hit the gym more!! Then again, the whole trail is a gradual incline until about halfway up where it turns into about four or five steep inclines with a plunging decline behind it...and the last huge incline lasted for about 94 meters and it was literally almost just straight up and then straight down the same distance in order to get over the wall and into the Caldera. There were points where I was clinging to roots of trees and climbing up to the next little ledge to prop my foot up. I give props to Dr. Hearn, who is probably around 70 now, for still doing that. After it was done, I could ring my clothes out like they had just been washed...except it was purely sweat...now if that description doesn't paint the picture of how exhausting that hike was, then I don't know what will!
But at the camp, it was so cute! The bathing spot for this one was the last river we had to cross right at the bottom of the inside of the wall. This one was AMAZING!! It was just this string of rapids with these big boulders that created these tide pools..aka perfect little tubs! And the last rock that the water poured off of made this absolutely beautiful waterfall and you could go to the edge...but it made my feet a little tingly. This one other volunteer went out to the edge and I thought she was crazy...but she was a trip, too. You need some wahoos to add energy!!
Now in spanish hormiga means ant...so yes, there were a ton of ants at this camp. When I say the expression there were ants in my pants, I mean literally that. And in my sports bra and just everywhere. It wasn't bad once you learned to tuck everything in so they couldn't crawl up you pants or back of your shirt or sleeves!!
We spent one night here and then headed up to North camp, which was about another 6 km up, but it was much easier terrain to handle...it was a gradual incline the whole time. This camp was the smallest, but on the way up you really could tell that you were just in a different forest type. There was actual grasses up here!! This bathing I would say was the worst because it was very, very cold and it was close quarters. The river was so shallow that instead of standing under the freezing waterfall like a shower, I opted for the cup method and just realized I wasn't going to be that clean. However, I think that out of all three camps...minus the two other trails at Hormigas since I never had time to census on those...the Santo Antonio trail was the most beautiful. It had the most open canopy and areas were it was just grass and ferns...reminding me again of Jurassic Park...that you could see the Caldera wall all around you. I know that by now I think I have used all of these adjectives way too much and I apologize, but it really was picturesque to the degree that my pictures can't do it enough justice that it deserves. One thing to note is these red flowers that hung down from the trees on thick, red vines. The flowers were still in buds at this time of the year, but I did take one picture. They were just so cool!! While on census there I had started to notice just how much I was picking up on the different noises each sex and species makes...not to mention just how much you can tell by their tails!! I also loved the temperature at night up here...for once I wasn't sweating and was actually a little bit cold!!
We spent two nights up at North camp, broke down the camp on the morning of the 19th and then headed back down to Hormigas camp. We could have gone a whole 18 km from North camp to the beach, but we decided to spend another night at Hormigas with Pat, another Drexel TA and the camp manager for Hormigas, and do some frog work as apart of our FRTE course. He showed us what his project was about and how he tracks them by the spooling method and then he showed us the proper way to catch them so that we don't hurt them. And then, on the slippery rocks which might have been dangerous, he told us to catch them. Now these frogs are fairly tiny, but we managed to do it!! It was so cool! It was a great way to kind of end the field work in the caldera.
Then that next morning we broke down Hormigas and were mentally preparing for that hike back down....good thing about going back to the beach though is that it was mainly downhill, which my lungs definitely appreciated!! Except, the first thing is the 94 meter uphill, clinging to roots battle...aka there was no easing into it. But after the second uphill of three, Pat shared his Powerbar with all of us and said we had to get the best time. There were some parts of it where we were doing a slight jog...I don't know if my body just loved the different contents in the Powerbar than in rice or what...but I was ready to go!! We managed to get back to the beach in 3 hrs and 15 minutes!!!
We ended our last night on the beach with a game of baseball with a makeshift ball...made out of hello kitty duct tape and a bat of driftwood. However, I was bummed they started it after women's bathing time and I just really didn't want to get all sweaty and sandy again!! Before the lagoon time I did manage to swim in the ocean for a bit and played some soccer. It was really relaxing. I even got to walk around and saw some of the turtle nests that they mark with sticks and some really distinct turtle tracks! Sarah one morning got to see some really great footage of a Leatherback making a nest and then heading back into the ocean...it is so slow, but so amazing.
The next morning we had our rice and Maria cookies and caught the boat at 8:00 back to Luba. Although I was sad to go, I was getting sick of most of the aspects of this expedition. I mean, we had to wake up at 6:00 AM everyday, be ready to go hike 8-10 km a day...on average...on only rice and beans and the occasional spaghetti meal if we were lucky, we barely had clean or dry clothes, the bugs were a mess, the bathroom situation was not fun at all, the whole constant tossing and turning because nothing about sleeping on the ground for 13 nights is comfortable, and not to mention the near death experiences I had getting into the Caldera. But even with all of the negative aspects of this trip, I can honestly say that the beauty of the landscape and seeing all of the animals outweighs all of them. I would do this again in a heartbeat to just be able to see these things again! Not to mention I have met some really awesome people with great stories. I'd say this is a pretty awesome first camping experience for me..not many people can say they camped on a volcanic tropical rainforest!! And this counts as school for me!!!
In the cayuco back to Luba, the views of the Caldera were seriously amazing...way better than when we were coming into the beach. You could actually see the whole wall and where the opening is that we hiked up into. It was almost hard to believe that we all had done that...it is so high up!!! David had his camera out, so I think he got a really good picture of this...I will post it if that is the case!!
Speaking of pictures, I actually got a really good one of an Erythrotis and you can see its red tail and everything, but I will have to put that up later. It is such a cute little guy!! Another thing that was one of my favorites was that they always had hot water out and you could make tea, instant coffee or cola coa...which was my favorite!! It basically is like hot chocolate, but I would dip my Maria cookies in it and it would be so good after only having rice since I don't really like spam or sardines. One morning I saw Drew put a few scoops of it over his white rice and at first I thought ew that can't be good, but then I tried it a few mornings later and I wouldn't say that I necessarily liked it, but I must say that it was an option for a different taste!
This makes me very excited to then experience Moka, which is in the Northern part of the Caldera, for the second field course of my study abroad. I am sure that although this is a very long post, I have forgotten something...which I will just add in another post if need be...so keep your eyes out!!
I think it is more than safe to say that I had a pretty amazing experience in the Gran Caldera de Luba. Although I also must say that it was very, very nice coming back to the student house earlier today and having non-iodine tasting water and being able to shave my armpits!!
Pictures to come!! I unfortunately am having iphoto problems, but as soon as I figure out what's wrong, I will post them!
Hasta luego,
Lindsey
