I have been learning so much about these things and generally becoming much more comfortable with bugs in general. Amazing how it is once you understand a thing a bit more.
Tomorrow, I am going to shoot a bunch of the bug in "La machina," or the large garage they have set up to raise caterpillars into moths/butterflies.
One of my friends in Brooklyn had asked me, "what the hell arenyou doing? You live in an apartment! " seeming to wonder how I could want to go bug hunting down here. I often think 2 things when I am in a place : the first is that people live here, so I can certainly survive. The second is that if thus is what there us to do in a place I'm at, then that's what I'll do.
It has been a fascinating few days. Today was a full day, woke up after a fever ( which I welcomed, usually meaning the end of an illness like the one I had), went caterpillar hunting in the thick of the heavy rainforest and then climbed an incredibly tricky trail to find an elusive plant, one very common, but not at that altitude. Those knee-high boots were well used today. What a mess. And yet, there were some moments where I was off on my own, in the middle of nowhere, listening to nature. We went up very high on this trail, stomping overgrown trails and slipping in insane mud, but it was fun! This guy, named Guy, who is 60+, came with us and I knew I had to at least keep up.
But then I was alone for a while, I saw the woods by themselves, this quiet trail that I had spent 3 hours trying to identify plants on and them different birds started their calls. It must have been 5pm, it was as if someone told them all to get started. In the distance, mist clung to the mountains and it all seemed... normal.
I was very pleased that we even found one of the plants, but I got very lucky: I stopped looking for the pink color and started looking for other elements of the plant. it was literally looking for one small plant in a forest of plants like it. Amazing that we found one.
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