Frogs, frogs, frogs

We got back to work on Monday morning. Our plan was to drive into Cajas and hike up to 4200 meters in order to collect tadpoles from pools there. This is basically the upper limit of the range of the frogs that Chelsea is studying. Everything went well until we got almost to the top of the trail, where a thunderstorm was producing marble-sized hail. So after our 1 hour walk up to the top, we immediately turned around and headed back down. We found a few tadpoles in a pool at 4000 meters, but our hands were barely working due to the cold at that point. We went back to Mazan in the afternoon and Fausto taught us how to make aquariums for one of Chelsea’s projects with raising tadpoles.

After packing our clothes for a couple days, we headed down to Cuenca to stay at Jose’s apartment. We arrived to find that Jose’s apartment had flooded due to a burst pipe. His parents kindly invited us to stay at their house which is located just around the corner. When we got to their house with items from Jose’s apartment, his Mom remarked: “Now you see that children never really leave their parents” (or something kind of like that). We enjoyed probably the best showers we’ve had in Ecuador that evening, and Jose’s dad made us delicious orange juice in the morning.

After departing the Caceres’ house, we met Amanda and Ernesto at the mechanic. Ernesto’s truck apparently has been working right since he got it washed last week, but the mechanic had too many cars to be able to work on it. By the way, we were just there on Saturday because a rock or something on the mountain road bent something underneath our car (it’s fine now). So we then drove over to Amanda’s parent’s house so Ernesto could leave his truck there for the day. A sweet old lady ran a stop sign and almost t-boned us on the way, but really it was an uneventful trip.

Then we all set out in the Lead Bullet (I’m pushing this nickname for the car because the Spanish name for the color translates to mean “lead”) for the southern road of Cajas. The point of the trip was for Ernesto to show us more places where we can find frogs and tadpoles. Ernesto was able to find a species he’s never seen before while using the bathroom along the side of the road (this guy has the golden touch). After searching a bit more, Chelsea found a beautiful gastrotheca female full of eggs. We took plenty of pictures and then continued on our reconnaissance mission. We were able to find tadpoles at another point along the road, which was great.

On the way back, we stopped at some hot springs that have frogs and used to have snakes that Ernesto studied. Just as we got out of our car, we heard an animal calling. Ernesto asked us if we knew what it was, and of course we didn’t. He then told us that it was a species of poison dart frog that used to be very common in Cuenca. We hopped down in the marsh next to the river and were able to find four individuals. We also recorded their call with our cameras. Then we met the owner of the hot springs, and he invited us to come back some time. We plan to use this place to combine work and relaxation.

On another note, our house at Mazan has been without power since Thursday. Hopefully the park agency will fix it soon. It is very dark at 6:30 up there, and we’re running out of hot chocolate!