We went to La Hesperia for the entire weekend! It's a hacienda east of Quito that has a large adjoining section of protected cloud forest. We stayed in a farmhouse on the property and explored the farm's grounds and surrounding forest. They fed us really well (lots of vegetables!!!), which is always important.
Amazing spider web
The inflourescence of Heliconiace. These bracts hold flowers (i.e. those green grass-like things sticking out of the pink canoe-like things...)
The common name of this plant is mother in law's tongue. They have sharp, tough leaves...
Ali with friend and local celebrity Araceae monsterra. These plants have numbing factor in their sap.
Palm trees have horizontal leaf scars, and check out that foliose (flaky, leafy) lichen!
Jack-in-the-pulpit...a member of the Araceae family.
I love hydrangeas!
Cute, skinny horses at the farm
There were 4 of these dogs at the farm (they all look exactly the same). They are cute, but are fairly vicious and attack without warning. I was on the main road and one attacked me (it jumped on me, bit my ankles and shoelaces, and played tug-of-war with my pants). I had to throw sticks and rocks and yell at it to pretend like I was playing catch get it away from me. I miss well behaved dogs.
Alison and Eushavia walking toward the main house.
Huge bromeliad (Bromeliaceae) in a tree. Bromeliads tend to be epiphytic and cover trees. This adds another dimension to the tree's canopy.
Araña
The fuzzy stem on this Araceae helps the plant collect water when the roots are inadequate.
Algae!
The bracts of a different member of the Heliconiaceae family.
Walking through the river...very refreshing after a long hike
Mariposa!
Batty Time with Jaime
We set up 3 mist nets right before dusk to catch some bats. We were very successful! After picking the bats out of the nets, we put them in canvas bags, and took them to the house. There, we examined each bat one-by-one and took various measurements etc. In case you were wondering, bats are very cute! The ones we caught were pretty small--we might see some bigger species in the Amazon.
We caught about 12 individuals, and 6 species total--pretty good numbers for the area. Three of the bats were not released and were collected in the name of science. One of those three had been injured in the net, and would not have survived anyway. I'm not sure why the other two were collected...
Check out those pearly whites
More updates later this week when I have less on my plate...
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