Our Adventure up the Marieanne River

Last week we got up nice an early, as always, to head up the top coast of Trinidad to Blanchisseuse Bay, which is past Las Cuevas, and is the last bay N.W. of the island that is accessible via car. Our aim was to head to the beach to explore, have lunch, and then begin our swim/walk up the Marieanne River, not far for from Blanchisseuse Bay. The sea at this bay, on a normal day, is somewhat too choppy and the day we visited the weather was quite bad, so we spent most of our time in the fresh water river close by, which is actually the end of Marieanne River, but not where we started our walk! The freshwater part of the bay was really weird because after about two or three paces in, the ground became slimy and warm! A bit too weird for some of the team members. Chloe and Emma decided to use Liam as a life craft. It had also been raining since we arrived at the beach which was a bit down heartening but we ignored it, and had a fun game of red rover.

We parked the cars, just before a rickety suspension bridge crossing, which looked rather daunting, and began our journey (our next adventure would entail crossing this bridge, eeeks). Leaving most things behind; taking only waterproof cameras and a small collection tub, for possible findings of cool and interesting creatures to show you guys! Chloe used this tub as a floating device, pushed up the back of her top. Sadly we did not find any cool creatures, or at least any we could catch ahahaha...But we did get lots of nice photos of nature (below).

There were 1-2 groups of others heading in the same direction, but we seemed to be the only ones that took the more ‘non-tourist like’ route, and jumped straight into the river, with others taking the trail alongside the river – it’s way more fun in the water!!! The water was very cool, and quite clear, and it is lots of fun alternating between walking, climbing and swimming... And the weather slowly perked up as we walked becoming a nice sunny day

At the start of the river, there was a little pile of rocks, about 40cm high; all stacked up on top of each other very nicely. So our team added their own little rock, for Chris then to knock the entire pile over, causing us all to believe he was now cursed ahahaha, which later turned out to be true, as he nearly lost his glasses after jumping off a huge rock.

It took us approx. 1-1.5 hours to walk up as much as the river as we could. As mentioned, on the way up the river, we alternated between walking and swimming as some parts were quite deep, there was one particular stretch which was really hard because of the strength of the current. We continued up before reaching a section, which for our team, was not accessible further than this point. However this point was beautiful, with lots of canopy cover, insects flying past, (e.g. dragonflies, damselflies, and beautiful Blue Morpho butterflies) water rushing down small waterfalls, which we all had a slide down (with a local advising us about a big hidden rock, beneath the water), and all the time the sun shining down from above. The little waterfall we reached, which the team last year had visited, had jumble of rocks on the right hand side to climb up so you could go down the waterfall which was worn by years of flow so it was as smooth as a slide. FUN!

We also found this amazing, very large, fallen tree hanging over the river. The minute we saw it, we knew it was a photo opportunity for the team. However, with Mhairi unable to get up onto the slippery log, she took the team photo (below). After the photo, one or two of us were a bit unsure about jumping from the log into the river, but with some encouragement, we all managed to jump off safely back into the water to continue onto our next fun bit; jumping from a really high rock, though not all of the team took part in this event ahahaha. The brave ones were Liam, Chloe, Martin and Chris (photos below).

Whilst in this little pool of water, and with team members jumping from every rock possible, we came across Trinidad’s largest tree-frog – The Gladiator tree-frog (Hyla boans). The frog was clinging onto the side of a rock, until we got too close, to which he swam off in the other direction (quite an impressive swimmer, as the river current was strong). Chris was happy to see this species, as he had not done so since being on the island. Last year, Gillian left the island with only managing to see some individuals from a distance, and her aim this year was to see more up close and personal, so from experience she didn’t want anyone leaving Trinidad without seeing this amazing frog (thankfully Gillian has now seen plenty of Hyla boans, due to her continuous excursions to Lopinot stream, to collect Cane toads for Becky’s project; Hyla boans are quite abundant in this area).

After a while liming (local word for hanging out), we decided to head back down the river, before the sun started going down (we didn’t want to be in the river when it was dark, due to water snakes and other creatures lurking, waiting for darkness to fall). On the way back, most of the team had fun skimming stones. Chris is confident he got the most skims, with an impressive 7, sadly for him, no one saw this and so we do question his skills ahahaha. Finally we reached the cars, soaked to our bones and extremely hungry = home time!!

As we drove back home, we passed Las Cuevas bay and so decided to stop for a dip in the sea and a small snack before diner. However, only 3 of us (Gillian, Chris and Marie) actually got in the sea, as the others were expressing that they were too cold for a swim in the warm sea - what, in this weather? Ahahaha, but I guess we had been in water for quite a while, and Trinidad can be windy at times...So after a short stop at Las Cuevas, we headed home for a well deserved rest. Sadly empty handed (last year we discovered some amazing caterpillars) but plenty of photos to remind us of our adventure (below).

The team at Blanchisseuse Bay - it was very rainy :(

The scary bridge :S

Team photo!!

Swimming up the river - so much fun!

We balanced the camera on a rock, after failing to balance it on a big stick :P

Gorgeous water level view of the river.

Continuing up the river...last one up is a rotten egg!

We love our team photos :D

Another gorgeous view of the river...

Little damselfly...so pretty!

Not the best photo, but this is the Gladiator tree-frog!

Chris having fun on the nature-made water slide :D

Gillian's head popping out the water...she took her glasses off 1st :)

The epic log shot...taken by Mhairi.

Chloe jumping from the big rock! Brave girl...

Liam jumping...

Then Martin, and Chris not long behind him!

Our Return Adventure to Simla

Simla, also known as the William Beebe Tropical Research Station, is located in the Arima Valley of the Northern Range of the island of Trinidad. In previous years, Glasgow Uni Expeditions have stayed at Simla, and used this area to carry out research and experiments.

Beautiful garden at Simla (photo taken on previous trip).

Last week the team headed up to Simla AT NIGHT, to see some beautiful wildlife. But we were very careful in watching were we stepped, as the venomous Fer de Lance snake can be found here. Luckily we didn't come across any, though in a way it is very exciting to come across such a snake...but at a distance of course.

I thought it would be cool to show you guys just some of the amazing creatures you find here in Trinidad. I've posted photos below...

Big hairy tarantula. This 'little' guy's leg span was about 8-10cm

COCKROACH! Now I know some people hate cockroaches, but I LOVE them! This one was about 10cm (!) from top to bottom!!!

Very cute! Only about 2cm long!

Leaf lizard (Anolis chrysolepis planiceps). We thought this little guy was very cute. Only about 8-9cm long (including tail).

This little moth's wingspan was only about 4cm.

Creepy crawlie...

This insect was incredible to see. It was about 10cm from top to bottom! It was HUGE!

Stunning moth, with a wingspan of about 10-12cm!

Millipede!!! My favourite :D ...10cm long!

Such a sweet little insect, on Becky's thumb. This little guy was Becky's favourite of the night!

This little guy was one of my favourites! About 4-5cm long!

Bat!! We walked down a trail, from the main house at Simla, to an abandoned building in the forest! It was something from a horror movie. We saw lots of things here, including bats flying about our heads! It was difficult to snap a shot, but this little guy stayed still long enough, yey!

We also saw this HUGE tarantula in the abandoned building. It had a leg span of about 17cm!! Some of the team didn't want to look, but generally tarantulas are harmless, and most bites are as painful as a bee sting!

Cool stick insect, that really looked like a stick hehehe. Good job buddy! This little guy was about 8-9cm long!

Hope you enjoyed the photos guys. Just think, we saw ALL of these creatures, including more (toads, frogs, geckos etc) in ONE NIGHT!! Trinidad has a high diversity, with such beautiful and interesting creatures.

What kind of creatures do you find in your garden at night?

Love all the way from Trinidad,

Gillian and the team x

The Adventure up El Tucuche...By Chris

El Tucuche is Trinidad’s second highest mountain at 936 meters above sea level, a mere 5 meters smaller than El Cerro del Aripo (Trinidad’s highest mountain). The mountain is deceptively small in appearance; after all it’s smaller than Ben Lomond but what it lacks in height it makes up for in shape. The initial ascent is to climb the ridge of the mountain chain making up the Northern Mountain Range, it is very steep, covered with thick rainforest, then the trail levels off a bit and becomes a series of switchbacks until the summit of the mountain.

We didn’t know this beforehand and so when we awoke on the morning we were in high spirits and quite excitable despite how early it was (6am is not a student’s normal wake up time). Our trusty guide up the mountain was none other than PhD student Stevland Charles, who had accompanied us on numerous occasions beforehand and is a close friend of the group here in Trinidad. The group reached the foot of the mountain by about 7am and we prepared as per Stevland’s instructions; plenty of mosquito repellent and a quick safety lecture about Fer de Lance (watch where you place your feet).

The hike started easily enough with a pleasant walk through old coco plantations and over small rivers but soon the slope of the mountain began to take its toll and within 30 minutes or so I was panting and sweating buckets (which washed off the liberal dose of mosquito repellent I had put on). For what seemed like the whole day but which was really only 2 hours, we climbed the initial ridge of the mountain and I personally was ready to quit just as we reached the top of it.

Chris, Martin and Mary on the way up...

Liam, Chloe and Martin for a bit wet from the rain...

CHEESE!

Once at the top, Stevland performed his role as guide admirably giving us short history lessons on the coco plantations which used to cover the lower slopes and giving us a ripe coco pod to try raw coco (the pulp around the seeds is nice with a sweet-sour flavour but don’t bite the seeds). Stevland also pointed out the call of a Bellbird, possibly the world’s loudest bird, which sounded fairly close but could have been anywhere up to half a mile away. You can watch a video of a recorded individual at Asa Wright Nature Reserve, Trinidad here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKgKe24-_G4

Eventually we reached the ridge of the mountain (much to the relief of my thighs) and had a short break before tackling the second part of the climb. After feasting on chocolate, cookies and heavy doses of water we started onto the switchbacks, the first few were very gentle almost rejuvenating walks allowing us to continue catching our breath and properly view the surrounding forest without impediment. The forest was very beautiful and occasionally we could see through a break in the canopy towards Las Cuevas, our favourite Trinidadian beach (and where the members of the expedition who could not climb the mountain were ‘liming’). The switchbacks were interspersed with waterfalls running across them ranging from small dribbles down a rock face to large cascades (although it hadn’t rained the day before so even the large ones weren’t in full flow), it was at one of these waterfalls that we took a picture of the group looking tired but pleased with themselves.

Eventually the switchbacks became rather monotonous (with the exception of the one with a Fer de Lance on it) and a feeling of drudgery came over me which was not helped by the 20 minute rain which managed to soak through our clothes and waterproofs (maybe I just ‘hit the wall’). Every new switchback I would look up the mountain to see a wall of trees and looked down to see the same, so I began to feel that the mountain was never-ending, luckily just as this feeling began to take hold we broke out of the thick forest into elfin woodland. This was a confirmation that the end was in sight and true enough after another 5 minutes of walking we had reached the summit where, overcome by exhaustion and relief, we collapsed. The summit was wreathed in clouds when we eventually reached it but after resting for a few minutes the sun literally burst through the clouds, and the skies cleared to provide an exceptionally view of the north coast (Las Cuevas) and the central plains.

Slowly I began to feel the achievement we had all just gone through, we climbed El Tucuche!! Everyone else must have felt similar as we all began to bubble with excitement and euphoria, so we sat to a hearty lunch (it was only 12pm!) of sandwiches (prepared the previous night by the delightful Emma Sergeant and Chloe Rossi). Overcome with our achievement we wanted to commemorate the event by making a human pyramid on top of El Tucuche (human pyramids are now a recurring feature in our group excursions).

The team having a well deserved rest at the top...

View of Las Cuevas, where Gillian, Marie, Mhairi, Tom and Kirsty were having an enjoyable beach day...After some lab work.

Human pyramid :D

Drunk on our success we happily opted for a shortcut down the mountain trusting ourselves to Stevland’s experience, then we found out that Stevland wasn’t terribly great with the side trails off of the main trail. Within half an hour we were thoroughly lost, much to the enjoyment of Veronica Sisson, the trail which we had took as a shortcut eventually degraded to a slope which we had to slide down. There were some points where we seriously thought we were so lost we were going to die in the jungle, ahahahaha, but we managed to enjoy ourselves despite the situation.

Sliding down a muddy hill certainly helped as it created a childish glee and Liam Templeton was comical to watch as he had picked up a large stick which he was semi-successfully using as a rudder. I was determined not to slide down on my rear but within an hour that promise to myself had been so thoroughly broken I wondered why I made it in the first place. Eventually after three hours of sliding or falling down this mountain we emerged from the tree line, covered in mud and leaves, right in front of someone having a relaxing sit in their back garden. Truly it must have looked almost cartoonish (and looking back on it, it was comical to say the least) to see eight university students and one Trinidadian coming out of the forest and looking around like tourists.

Sliding down on bums...

The shortcut ended up taking us down the wrong side of the mountain much to our dismay so Liam, Veronica and Stevland went to get a taxi to where we left our cars to come and take everyone home. Thankfully this process was simplified by a friendly elderly lady, who gave them a lift in her truck in what feels like a story like end to a very fictional sounding adventure. By the time we got back it was 6pm ish but we felt we had been gone a week, everyone was exhausted both physically and mentally, even now 4 days later I can feel a slight ache in my legs and smile at the thought of our adventures. El Tucuche was an experience unlike any other I’ve had so far, and most certainly is (for now) my highlight of the Trinidad Expedition.

Our Tamana Hill adventure...By Chris

I had heard of Tamana cave from last years’ expedition but none of the stories could fully prepare us for the actual experience. An almost two hour drive from St.Augustine down a road in mild disrepair (although worse nearer the end, leading to some screams of surprise when a hidden pothole would jolt the car) lead us to the bottom of Tamana Hill (mountain). The mountain itself is 308m above sea level and is the highest point in the central range mountains of Trinidad; it is also honeycombed with deep cave systems cut out of the limestone. The climb up (lead by the magnanimous Mike Rutherford) was pretty hard going, bordering on treacherous due to the mud, causing a few spills. The trail was covered in loose canopy for the entire length and the area felt so isolated that you could believe you were in the middle of a jungle. We saw many incredible animals on the way up but to name a few; orb weaver spiders (Roni decided to ignore us when we spotted one) in an array of colours and shapes; harvestmen with long gangly legs and tiny bodies; young stick insects, leaf cutter ants, a lizard and a tarantula. We heard more animals than we saw; from crickets chirping stoically amongst the ferns to cicadas adding their pervading but peaceful hum throughout the forest and even some frogs singing their chorus to attract a suitable mate.

Bats leaving the cave at dusk, Tamana Cave.

Inside Tamana Cave.

The entrance of the cave was not grand or cavernous but had a quiet mystery about it; a steep slope lead down to a dark mouth made darker by the canopy overhead. After an awkward descent down (a very big well done to Veronica who had to confront her Arachnophobia to do so!!) we were in the cave itself and after our eyes had adjusted to the gloom we were bombarded with the sight of thousands of bats swooping around our heads. Occasionally the bats would crash into us causing some of us to squeal in fright. The floor of the cave was deep in guano (bat poo) and crawling with cockroaches making walking a delicate affair. We were able to descend even deeper into the cave through a crawlspace not much bigger than ourselves which was nerve wracking but exhilarating.

Waiting for the bats to come out...

The crawlspace lead to a tunnel system which followed a small stream deeper into the cave leading to a clearing formed by an exit chimney. The stream continued further and deeper into the mountain but was inaccessible because of a deep drop into the cavernous darkness. The chimney clearing itself was full of small plants, millipedes and some stream frogs (a strangely reminder of our Manno the stream frog story), a veritable hotspot of activity amongst the ‘monoculture’ of the cave system. Getting out of the crawlspace was much more daunting than getting in; the hole sloped downwards making climbing up very slow and often cumbersome leading to some nerve testing moments. We made our way back out of the cave and waited for dusk to fall, and with it, the million and a half bats exiting the chimney to forage creating a small vortex of dark shapes spiralling up the chimneys and exploding into the surrounding forest.

Chloe high 5'ing a bat.

Chloe and Emma, Tamana Hill.

Some of the gang's muddy boots :D

The trip back down was just as treacherous, if not more than, the ascent (there must have been some rain whilst we were in the cave) with many of us making as much progress on our rears as we did on our feet. During the fall/climb down we finally saw our first Fer de Lance, one of Trinidad’s venomous snake species (just as Mike was saying the path was boring because you never see snakes on it) providing the expedition a rare treat to see a juvenile snake. Driving back was much quieter, probably because we were all exhausted from the trip but it was well worth the effort for the vast treasure of experience that we all found.

Juvenile Fer de Lance snake, Tamana Hill.