Frog Recordings and the End of Pseudacris Season

The last few weeks of the field season were a whirlwind, to say the least. After an extended stint in Tallahassee the crew hit the road once more, and this time the trailer was left behind. FOR GOOD. Seriously though. Our time spent doing the mate choice preference testing in Auburn turned out to be our very last. The remainder of the field season ended up being designated time for work on "landscape genetics" endeavors. Last year our crew did some of that up in Virginia, but only for a week or so. This type of work involves collecting frogs (still Pseudacris feriarum) in a bunch of locations so that genetic samples can be acquired and compared over the broad geographic range of our focal species. This year, in addition to collecting frogs and genetic samples, we were tasked with recording the mating calls of several of the male frogs we encountered.

The process of recording a single male frog's call can be a long one. It is . You must A) hear calling frogs; B) locate a single frog, which can be really tough; C) sneak up and stick a microphone in front of its face; D) wait for it to call 20 times in a row, which requires lots of patience; and E) catch and bag the little dude. With two sets of recording equipment between three people we knocked out a lot of recordings on the good nights (20 recordings). When a frog or a group of frogs got quiet we utilized a couple methods for getting them going again. First, one of us would don this big frog suit, hop around on all fours and... just kidding. We had recordings of frog choruses on our phones, which we played on loop for several minutes, or until the frogs in front of us felt compelled to join in. When that failed to work we pulled out the big guns: We sang our own calls. Yes, you read that correctly. I spent an upwards of 20 minutes straight attempting to make frog vocalizations. And it worked, sometimes! My frogging ego hit an all-time high the first time I fooled a frog into thinking I was its buddy. So anyway, that is what I was up to most recently. Weird, right?

We did this work at a ton of localities throughout northern Mississippi, northeastern Tennessee, and southeastern/central Kentucky. It was a marathon of driving, camping, and frog recording! Similarly, writing about it in much detail would be a time-consuming activity, and I honestly lack the motivation to throw such a tome together. With that in mind, here is a bulleted summary of our travels in March:

- Tallahassee to Oxford, Mississippi
- It snowed
- Slept at a farm full of dogs, goats, turkeys, and peacocks. Turkeys and peacocks do not get along.

Battle scene

- Shipped frogs in the mail
- Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, and FINALLY saw the Mississippi River in all its muddy glory

The Big Muddy (Arkansas is on the left)

- Oxford to Jellico, Tennessee (it's in the Johnny Cash song "I've Been Everywhere")
- Appalachian stuff (salamanders, topography, food desert, etc.)
- Around 4PM most men answered the front door shirtless, but they didn't mind people catching frogs in the ditch out front. In fact, they had a nice big pond out back by the abandoned school bus, if we're game for an adventure. Maybe next time.

I will stick to the ditch. #notinyourbackyard

- Tons of driving in and around Knoxville
- American Toads do a lot of wrestling when they are frisky
- Named an American Toad Cheddar Bo' to honor the sandwich served at Bojangles

They loved us too

- Forgotten supplies replaced/shipped to us
- Dissecting frogs outside is awful
- Hardee's (East Coast Carl's Jr) in Williamsburg, Kentucky was our Wifi haven
- I ate at a White Castle for the first time
- Terrifying truck problems happened, then magically disappeared
- Tons of driving but no frogs
- Streamside Salamanders!!!

So fat and great!

- More driving
- Mammoth Cave National Park, woot woot!

This cave cricket is the best picture I got at Mammoth Cave, sorry!

- Final frogs recorded, after a tremendous amount of waiting
- Drove back to Tallahassee after another successful field season :)

As you can see, we covered a LOT of ground. The primary goal in Tennessee and Kentucky was to find sites where both Pseudacris feriarum and Pseudacris brachyphona (Mountain Chorus Frog) were present. The hope is to understand how P. brachyphona is affecting our P. feriarum friends in areas of sympatry (co-occurrence). P. brachyphona has a short and rapid mating call when compared to P. feriarum. My boss, Dr. Lemmon, hypothesizes that the P. feriarum in such areas have slowed down their call as an evolutionary response. Fewer hybrids (hybrids are usually maladaptive) will occur if they differentiate their calls in this way. Out in the field we managed to record quite a few frogs, including a few hybrids! Their calls sounded intermediate between the two species, which made them stand out, even in a larger choruses. Recording and catching them was difficult, but very rewarding!

With the field season finally over it is difficult to even remember all the events that transpired. We did not take very many days off in the month of March (frogs do not take days off). When I was not driving, recording, catching, or dissecting frogs I was looking up places to stay, staring at maps, tracking the budget, and backing up all of the frog calls we recorded to DropBox. It was crazy, but I can look back on it with a great sense of accomplishment. We got so much done! I could not be more proud of my hardworking crewmates, Alyssa and John! They maintained sanity and humor during some tiring times. And even better, they worked really hard, often doing things without me asking. Job well done, guys!

John is now back in New York to finish up his Master's degree at Hofstra, shoot some birds at the airport, and prepare for his PhD research on striped skunks at the University of Southern Illinois in Carbondale. Alyssa is back in Tallahassee to continue her work as a lab technician for the Lemmon Lab, along with some volunteering for the Rokyta Lab, which does lots of research on snake venom!

As for me, I am back in Tallahassee twiddling my thumbs. Okay, not really. I actually have a lot going on, from post-field season checklists to learning new lab skills. I am also in the process of applying for a work visa... for ECUADOR! I will be working as a field assistant for Dr. Santiago Ron of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE). My tentative start date is early May! I will talk about this some more in a different post, but obviously this is an exciting opportunity for me. Hopefully I can get the work visa stuff settled next week. I need to buy my plane ticket soon!

As it is the end of the field season I want to express my gratitude to those that contributed to our success. First, a huge thank you to Dr. Emily Lemmon for taking me back for another go-around with the Pseudacris project! I also want to thank the many members of the Lemmon Lab for being a good group to come home to every so often. Finally, another huge thank you to my two field crew buddies. You guys were awesome this winter!

Thank you for taking a glance at my blog. I apologize if the quality of my writing has gone down. I am way too busy playing basketball and thinking about Ecuador to write well.

Special thanks to all the Pseudacris out there too!

Alabammer, Salamander

There were cats

As the title of this one suggests, I was recently in Alabama. The crew headed up to the Tuskegee National Forest near Auburn to catch one of those rain/breeding events I mentioned in my last post (which was awesome). This Alabama expedition was brief, but not without some cool experiences. We camped out in the yard of Roger Birkhead and Chelsea Ward, a cool couple with three awesome kids, two cats, and an amazing property. They fed us delicious home-cooked meals and allowed us to use their house for our bathroom and laundry needs. Their generosity was incredible.

The frogs in the area were not as kind to us, at least at first. We found a small number of pairs in the beginning, which gave us a few nights to test. Then some rain passed through. In a bizarre turn of events the frogs (still Pseudacris feriarum) did not immediately respond to that particular rainstorm. They do not always play by the rules. Or maybe there are no rules. Nobody really knows.

On a calm evening, along the dusty roads of Tuskegee National Forest we listened for chorusing activity, which tends to signify breeding. All was silent. I began saying something about the forest being pathetically small and dead. On cue we heard a substantial Pseudacris feriarum chorus just off the road. We quickly got out and collected a few pairs, then rushed back to the trailer to begin what looked like a short night of testing. I then elected to check our original breeding sites on my own, just to make sure this was not an isolated pocket of mating frogs. WHABBAM! More pairs. I was jogging along the roadside ditches and scooping them up one by one. I think I caught 59 that evening: my new record. On a night with almost no chorusing the three of us were overwhelmed with frogs to test. We stayed up until 8AM that night/morning, and 4AM the next one doing our tests on the female frogs.

Each container has a female frog inside

During our tests we had a miracle frog. She was insanely gravid (tremendously egg-filled), which theoretically indicates higher responsiveness to the tests. We only needed one more data point to call it a night (and finish the state of Alabama). Naturally, we were excited and hopeful. When Alyssa started the test, speakers alternating calls, this frog showed promise. She swam to a speaker rapidly. YES. But then she changed course. NO. The front of a speaker must be touched for it to count. She just missed her target, as it appeared. I lost my cool. So many of the previous tests had gone this way! We had other frogs acclimating to our testing temperatures, but they required at least another hour. That meant we would have to wait a full hour before testing the next one! And that meant one more hour of being awake! We had been up and working for AT LEAST 36 of the previous 48 hours. In addition, we had been working all week.

After missing the speaker by an inch the aggravating frog started to climb up the wall of the testing pool. That normally results in disqualification, which ends the test. I opened the door to our soundproof chamber and yelled at the little "waste of life" that was our frog. Then I shut the door and closed my eyes, mentally preparing myself for at least another hour of wakefulness. How many energy drinks had I consumed? Three or four, I think. During my moment of contemplation, with the calls still playing in the chamber, the frog jumped down and swam to a speaker. She touched it! Night OVER. Done with work in Alabama. The three of us started laughing in a sleep-deprived, energy drink-fueled state of joy and confusion. Did that really happen?! SLEEP?! It was a miracle. A couple days later we headed back to Tallahassee, after releasing our many many froggy friends back to their comfy ditch homes. Good work ladies.

Besides unexpected frog luck we also found a lot of salamanders in Alabama! In case you were not already aware, I am a big lover of that group of amphibians. I studied the Roughskin Newt (Taricha granulosa) for my undergraduate thesis at Willamette University. Newts are salamanders, by the way. All salamanders are super cool. We found them in ditches, under logs, and in a pond on the property where we were camping.

Three-lined Salamander (Eurycea guttolineata)

Chamberlain's Dwarf Salamander (Eurycea chamberlaini)

Central Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens)

Speaking of salamanders, I have one quick tale about a salamander. After our week in Alabama we returned to Tallahassee. There was rain and a possibility of more frogs to test in the area. Thankfully things did not happen that way. We were in desperate need of a break after working so many long days and nights! Additionaly, we were fortunate to be around when Dr. Bruce Means, a legend in herpetology, was taking a group of students from FSU on a field trip. With the day off we excitedly signed up.

The field trip took us into the familiar Apalachicola National Forest, to a cool area known as a "steephead" habitat. Basically, it is ravine-like awesomeness. Dr. Means showed us a critically endangered species of yew tree, and then took us to a small stream. The goal was to find salamanders: Apalachicola Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus apalachicolae), Southern Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera), and the grand prize, Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber). I joined in on the fun with students that were digging through the vast leaf litter. Everyone was uncovering salamanders. A couple juvenile Red Salamanders were found, but no adults of that species. I got tired of bumping elbows with fellow sally searchers, so I moved downstream near a rotting log. Dr. Means announced that we still needed an adult Red Salamander. He explained that this species tends to spend its time in little burrows in the soil, occasionally poking its head out, probably for food.

Apalachicola Dusky Salamander

I was determined to find one. I tried and failed lifting up my rotting log. I was sure it concealed some sort of herpetological prize. No way to know. I resorted back to digging in the leaf litter. My body was low to the ground, and I carefully sifted through leaves. There were little Apalachicola Dusky Salamanders squirming around. Meh. Then something caught my eye. A tiny hole in the mud! And... wait what!? A little head poked out for a second. I got much closer. The head poked out once more. It must be a Red Salamander! GREAT SUCCESS. I watched it repeat this behavior for a while longer, and showed it to a few people. This would be a completely new salamander for me to catch. I felt bad to dig it out, but it was for Dr. Means, the class, and science, as well as my own curiosity and pride. I clawed in the mud for a few minutes until the poor critter was in my hand, unharmed but probably terrified. I brought it to Dr. Means, who announced his approval and had it passed around to the members of the class. It became the subject of numerous pictures.

RED SALAMANDER

My pals Alyssa, John, and Hannah getting their pictures too

I tried to avoid taking too many snapshots of the little dude. I tried. It was so fun to get a close look at it, especially after witnessing its behavior in the burrow. I hope it was able to make a new one!

The rest of the field trip was also great! Dr. Means led us along a stream, sharing his knowledge of every plant and animal we encountered. It concluded with a hike in a part of the Apalachicola River floodplain where fog was rising from the ground. Someone found a turtle and a cool fungus. I would have loved this class in college! Better late than never.

The forest was beautifully haunted

The Nexus of Amplexus

When the weather gets warm and the rain starts falling, usually that is a sign of what is to come: a chorus frog breeding event. The day will feel a little muggy, depending on your standards for mugginess it might border on gross, and then the clouds will darken. In the southeastern United States you get powerful storms, storms where all the rain you could imagine shoots out of the clouds in a violent burst. It is like someone tore the bottom right out the clouds themselves, allowing their innards to fall freely to the Earth, only in a continuous manner. And maybe with a little more force. Seriously. For an arid climate native the first real storm experience out here is eye-opening. To me it was some flash flood level storm action that first time in South Carolina. Now, on my third tour of duty in this part of the country, I am sort of adapted to it. So are the chorus frogs.

The species I am working with, Pseudacris feriarum, seems to rely on the warm weather/heavy rain combination in order to continue their lineage. They come out to their roadside ditch breeding ponds in droves during such weather events. Thus, a huge part of my job is to follow the weather and take advantage of what can be a rather small window of opportunity to locate breeding frogs. They do not generally hang around for long to mate. Eggs must be laid so tadpoles may develop and metamorphose before the newly filled ditches dry up.

But enough of the science behind it! I have a story!

Near Tallahassee, deep in the Apalachicola National Forest, somewhere north of Sumatra (pronounce the first "a" like the start of the word "apple" and you will know how to properly say that dumpy little town's name), there is a place called "Plague Puddle." It is so named due to a reported plague of frogs a few years ago when Dr. Lemmon and her husband, also a Dr. Lemmon, went out looking for mating pairs of frogs. Anyway, upon my arrival this winter I was told to visit this place when the next local storm hit.

Well, as you already guessed, that next storm did hit. I was just getting back into the swing of things as the crew leader, and my first meaningful decision was to have us split up into two vehicles for the night ahead. John and Alyssa were in one car, and myself and lab member/honorary crew member of the night Sarah took the work truck. John's car would scour the long ditches along the highway heading toward my destination, which was of course Plague Puddle. The multi-car approach would be advantageous for hitting more breeding sites at once, improving our odds of catching many frogs in amplexus (remember, that means mating).

It is a long drive to Plague Puddle from Tallahassee. Maybe an hour and a half. The turn off the highway is marked by a sign stating "WATCH CHILDREN." Not too much farther. As we approached the normal Plague Puddle parking spot I totally screwed up and drove past it. I am a crew leader, not a super hero. I found a convenient spot to turn around that was not too close to the creepy stilt-house community of hunting shacks down the road. Windows down, we lulled to a halt next to our destination from the other direction. And that is when it began. SO MUCH CHORUSING. The frogs were going wild! Even from the road they were impressively loud. It was impossible to distinguish the individuals calling within the chorus. Were there 30? 40? 50? More? Who knows.

(The video below is a daytime chorus of about 20 male Pseudacris feriarum in Alabama. Just double or triple it and you will begin to understand Plague Puddle.)

Safety comes in numbers

We quickly exited the truck, equipping boots and headlamps, and stuffing our pockets with our Ziploc holding cells for the frog pairs. As Sarah and I crested a small hill we saw the first pond, a crater-like wasteland with almost zero emergent vegetation. Basically crappy habitat if you ask me. In that little cesspool we found a fair few pairs of frogs in amplexus. Some were floating lazily in the middle, forcing me to sacrifice my comfortably dry feet for the sake of science. Other pairs were more kind, clinging to the few little stems poking out near the water's edge. We cleared the place of all its happily joined lovers in minutes. Then it was decided, almost without words, that we must go a few more yards into the woods to tackle the booming chorus at Plague Puddle.

The hubbub was about as close to deafening as a frog chorus can be. It goes beyond description. When there are that many male frogs calling so loudly they will completely ignore intruders, even those that stomp into the water with bright lights on their heads. My best explanation for this behavior is that they figure their odds of being the one harmed is quite low, so why quiet down? Besides, there is mating to be done! There might not be another chance. I crept off the shore into the shallow water with my eyes peeled. Immediately: "PAIR! Another pair! Holy @#$% another pair! This is crazy! Are you seeing this? Can you even hear me?!" It was a true frenzy. Pairs of frogs seemed to show up out of nowhere. One stick could have 2 or 3 of them, just biding their time, being all amplectic and whatnot. Some pairs would emerge from the depths without warning, sometimes right in front of me. I used up all of my bags before taking 10 steps. As I scrambled back to the truck for more Sarah continued collecting pair after pair of the hyped up little frogs. Fortunately I had some random extra bags (from Ecuador) that were giant and vacuum sealed; the type you must fiddle with incessantly to get open, and then tie up in order to close. It can be a 30-second process for each bag, if it behaves. Perfect... At one point I was frantically ripping at a bag to get it open as I saw 1, wait no 2, uh oh 3, really? 4, 5, and finally 6 pairs sitting in the open in front of me! I did my best not to completely lose my mind. Remember, this is all time-sensitive, and each pair goes in a separate bag. Once we catch a bunch of these frogs we must go back to our trailer, set up the testing chambers, and do a lot of preparation work before even beginning our testing that very same night! Oh the energy drinks that were to ensue!

Pair in the making?

I hurried. Of course I had to watch events unfold in front of me as I struggled. There might be another pair ready to surface from the piney deep (lots of pine needles in the pond), and I would need to catch them all after the other 6 already plain in view. That was when I saw something new and exciting. I might even call it tremendously fascinating for my best David Attenborough impression. It was something I did not see all of last field season. I bore witness to the formation of a mating pair! It might not sound that exciting, but I swear it was. Here is the scene: I was mumbling something about "all these stupid frogs" and their needing to shut up. I saw a jubilant little male calling from a floating stick in the water no more than 2 feet from my right boot. He called and called, his vocal sac inflating and deflating rapidly. The surrounding chorus was so loud that I could hardly make out his song distinctly. He was far from alone out here. Apparently a nearby female did not have as much difficulty picking him out from the bunch. I saw the bloated, egg-filled female frog bumble along in the water in his direction. She met him on his floating debris, facing him with her head turned, aiming her right tympanum (frog ear) in his direction to make sure he was the one. I watched with anticipation. Nothing. It felt like several seconds had gone by, and he still had not made his move. Come on frog! She wants you to jump on her and get it started! Still nothing. Then out of nowhere Miss Feriarum pile-drived her head into him two quick times. It was as if she was saying, "Okay, I made up my mind. We should mate." He responded by jumping on her back and clasping around her body instantly. PAIR! I tried to explain to Sarah what just happened. The chorus was too loud for an eloquent description.

I triple frog dare you!

Events like the one I just described are what make this job worthwhile to me. The timing of all the elements is so crucial that it is rare to enjoy such an up-close display of froggy courtship. I am often in too much of a hurry collecting frogs to enjoy the unique time and place I am occupying. It is not every day that you see this stuff. A booming chorus of frog love must be properly appreciated. On that night I got it right.

An interesting side note: Sarah found herself a silly little trifecta of frogs that same night. It was an awkward stack of male-male-female amplexus. This happens in loud choruses, probably because the males get confused and are too amped up to think twice about who they are jumping on and clasping. The cause could also be that the topmost male was trying to steal or reclaim a mate. Either way it was a really cool find, of which Sarah was proud. If I had a frogging ego I would be jealous of her find... I swear I got over it.

Alright, I would like to thank you for reading this account of my first experience at Plague Puddle. I have done a lot more in the field since, and I will try to put together my next story while I have the time. Writing a blog is tough when one oscillates between the diurnal and nocturnal lifestyle. I hope to crank another one out soon!

Working With Ditch Frogs

Finally! I have made the decision to write another blog post. First, to clarify - NO, I am not in South America now. I apologize for the confusion, since my blog's title is still "Andes, Amazon, and Herpetology." I did not want to create a whole new blog just to put a post or two up. And besides, my life is currently focused on herpetology, making this post 1/3 relevant. In case you have forgotten, herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians.

So here is the scoop...

What: Same job as last winter
Where: Lots of places. So far: Tallahassee, Auburn (AL), Tallahassee again. Coming up: Wherever rain and warm weather happen.
Who: Me, Alyssa (also returning from last year), John, and Dr. Emily Lemmon and her lab
Why: FWOGS

Okay, now to elaborate a bit. I am currently working as the field crew leader for a big research project led by Dr. Emily Lemmon of Florida State University. I had the same position last winter. It is a temporary job (10 weeks or something), and it involves lots of travel, frog-catching, and insane working hours. I will do my best to explain what the greater project is, as well as my role.

Range map, courtesy of SREL

Here is an important term: reproductive character displacement. What the devil does that mean? Here is an example that just so happens to be directly related to Dr. Lemmon's research. So there is this frog called the Upland Chorus Frog (Pseudacris feriarum). They live throughout a very large portion of the United States, from New Jersey down through Appalachia and across the Bible Belt into eastern Texas. All over its range, these guys have different "contact zones" with other trilling chorus frogs (frogs that sound sort of similar to them). In each of those contact zones the male frogs have slightly altered their call, making them stand out more from their trilling chorus frog brethren. And that, my friends, is an example of reproductive character displacement. Cool, eh? The answer is a resounding yeah, with a Southern accent.

Now then, we can talk about what this job of mine is all about. For her research Dr. Lemmon is interested in this reproductive character displacement business I mentioned a second ago. But for this portion of her research she is not investigating the changes in mating calls of male frogs. Instead, she is studying the selectiveness displayed by Upland Chorus Frog females! Can they detect the minor differences between their local males in Tuskegee National Forest and those guys with that special North Carolina twang out in Uwharrie National Forest? That is where I come in. I am in charge of leading a small field crew (myself, Alyssa, and John) in finding female frogs and performing cruel tests to see which mating calls they are most receptive to. The aforementioned tests most often take place in soundproof chambers within a trailer that we (I) haul across the Earth and back.

"Are y'all part of a traveling circus?" Yes, this thing is full of clowns and elephants.

Male Pseudacris feriarum thinking it knows how to hide

Inside the testing chambers we have a plastic kiddie pool filled partially with water. Also in the pool, on opposite sides, are two speakers. For the tests we place a female frog in the middle and play different mating calls from each speaker in an alternating fashion. Then we watch in agony as the frog sits, waits, turns its head, jumps, swims, climbs up the edge of the pool, and escapes. Not all frogs respond in this way, but a lot do. Others fail to get past the "sits" part before 5 or 10 minutes go by. They get disqualified, and the next frog is then tested. Performing these tests requires patience, and caffeine. Did I mention this all happens at night? No I did not... Well it does. We usually start our testing in the late evening and continue on until anywhere between midnight and 8AM. And I thought I was done with all-nighters after completing that awesome sketchbook I made for art class in college... Okay, and I know I already mentioned caffeine. But I am mentioning it again. It is vital.

Female (bottom), male (top) in amplexus

Now you are probably wondering, "Where on Earth do these poor frogs come from to end up in a soundproof catcall center?" The answer is, we go out in the evening and catch the suckers in beautiful wetlands, usually in the form of dirty roadside ditches. The way we do it is by driving around somewhat aimlessly (if in an unfamiliar area) in the hopes of hearing our frogs chorusing (hence the name "chorus frog"). The frogs are most likely to chorus and mate when there has been recent rain and the temperatures are between tolerably frigid and warm. When we hear a substantial chorus I pull the big old work truck off the shoulder, put on the flashers, and we suit up in rubber boots and headlamps. We wear other clothes too. Even a tight-knit field crew has boundaries. With headlamps equipped the crew scours the flooded ditches for our frogs. Single males are usually pretty easy to find because they are numerous make so much noise. We pay them no mind. Not only do we need females; we need frogs in amplexus, also called mating pairs. We must capture the lovers in the midst of procreation, separate them out, and test the females back at the trailer. The reason we go for mating pairs is that those females have already proven they are gravid ("in the mood") and are more likely to succumb to the allure of a speaker that sounds like a frog.

The workplace. Remember what I said about caffeine?

We have a series of 7 tests we conduct on female frogs. Once we get 20 or so total responses we check that test off the list. Once all 7 tests have an adequate number of results we move on to a new location to do it all again. This field season we tried to finish up testing frogs in the Apalachicola National Forest near Tallahassee, Florida before giving up and heading to Tuskegee National Forest near Auburn, Alabama. We finished up our work in Alabama in only a week, which means we are giving Tally's frogs another shot. Once we complete our work here there are a couple options, which I will not talk about just yet. I am not one for spoilers. Last year we spent time in the Carolinas, as illustrated on my awesome map.

The Carolinas are SO last year

There is a LOT more detail I could go into about my job, from the caffeine-filled IVs I rely upon to the frogs themselves. Instead, you can just ask me stuff. As a warning, I am horrible at finding time to talk on the phone with people from other time zones, and I often refuse to spend my free time doing anything other than sleeping or playing basketball. What I am getting at is, you might not get an answer from me right away, and I am sorry. This blog post is simply meant to be an overview. My next blog post will have cool stories and pictures and such, I promise!

Looking Back

Well, as I said, a recap is in order. And this is it. Before I go into real detail I want to sincerely thank everyone that contributed to making my trip possible. First, my family and friends for their unwavering support and understanding of my desire to go really far away. Second, all of the individuals that organized and led the different volunteer gigs I participated in. That means Dr. Emily Lemmon, Dr. Santiago Ron, Dr. Andrew Crawford, Kelsey Reider, Patrick Campbell, Roy Santa Cruz, Heidi van Hoof, Jefry Moncada, and Faidith Bracho Altamiranda. I also want to thank all of my many fellow volunteers for making each experience worthwhile. There are too many of you to list. Finally, thank you to the hostels, their owners, and all my fellow travelers for keeping me company on what otherwise would have been a very lonely 5 months.

BLAM! A map of the trip (below). I think it is always good to understand world geography, especially if you plan to travel, or have already done some traveling. For me, this map shows me that despite making a concerted effort to see as much of each country as possible, I still missed many places. A return to South America is unavoidable, and I hope to fill in some of those gaps, as well as the other countries. Anyway, I like making maps and looking at them. I hope you do too.

In case you did not already know, I started in Lima and finished in Bogotá

Okay, now that I have that done I think I figured out a good way to wrap things up: some top 5 lists. To start it off, here is my list of top 5 pleasant surprises:

1. Capurganá - The pristine beaches, jungle, etc. and supreme solitude here were unmatched. Guide books hardly mention it, and if it stays that way this place will continue to be perfect.
2. Bogotá - Way more fun than dangerous. Our perception of Colombia as a whole is mostly wrong.
3. Machu Picchu - It lived up to what I thought would be over-hype. I went in expecting to be disappointed by the real thing. I was not.
4. Glass Frogs - They somehow managed to be a hundred times cooler than I could have ever imagined an animal being.
5. The People - Seriously, the people of all three countries are so friendly and interesting. The diversity of cultures I saw was amazing. I believe we have a lot to learn from their approach to daily life. I could say so much more here.

My favorite, the top 5 foods:
1. Cronuts - These are not South American, but Cusco has them and they make me very happy.
2. Sweet Arepas - A semi-sweet version of a thick tortilla-like Colombian mainstay. All arepas are good, but I consumed the sweet ones like an addict in Bogotá.
3. Fried Plantains - After so many years of banana-hating these made me decide I like bananas and all their relatives. So good!
4. Tuna (Prickly Pear Cactus fruit, not fish) - Cheap, colorful, full of hard seeds, and a great snack in a dry place. They may have affected my digestion negatively... Whatever, they are delicious.
5. Anything with Maracuyá (Passion Fruit) - Natural juices, donut fillings, alpaca steak sauce, whatever you encounter that features some form of this fruit deserves a try!

And yes, my top 7 animals, because 5 was not enough:
1. Vizcacha - Rock monkeys, monk rockies, chinchillas, whatever you want to call them. I think of them as high elevation rabbit-squirrels.
2. All Glass Frogs - Their massive eyes, the transparent underside... They might be aliens.
3. Bushmaster - The longest viper species in the world, known as "shushupe" by many. This thing was absolutely ridiculous beyond description, and a lucky thing for me to see.
4. Toucans - You think you have seen one after watching a Froot Loops commercial. Turns out they are tough to find, and infinitely more impressive in the wild. I had to put a bird on this list.
5. Vicuña - These relatives of the llama and alpaca just glide across the most perilous cliff faces and make funny noises to top it off.

6. Basilisks - Seeing lizards sprint across water was cool, and very deserving of an extra spot on my favorite animals list.

7. Monkeys - This trip was my first time seeing wild primates. From capuchins to howlers to spider monkeys, all were so clever and fun to watch high up in the trees.

Of course the animal list had 7 instead of 5. We all saw that one coming. To complete the top 5 lists, here are my top 5 tips for people interested in doing a similar trip in South America or elsewhere:
1. Make friends at hostels - The people you meet make your trip. This is especially important if you travel alone as I did. If an introvert like me can do this then so can you!
2. Be adventurous - Being in another country is all about seeing it for what it really is. Do things that are interesting and off the beaten path as much as you can. Gift shops and tours have their place, but finding the true essence of a place means breaking free of them. The times that I did this are my fondest memories.
3. Volunteer - Volunteer work was what brought me to South America in the first place. There are so many avenues you can take to get involved in something meaningful. The best part was that it kept me in one place long enough to really get to know where I was and who I was with.
4. EAT - Yes, you can save some money by cooking for yourself instead of going out to eat. But sometimes you must sacrifice a little cash and eat the food at the marketplace or the local restaurant. Food was a remarkably enjoyable aspect of my trip. I recommend trying everything at least once, maybe twice.
5. Learn the language - I am guilty of not studying Spanish enough during my trip. Sometimes I felt too busy to put time into it. I regret this, so learn from my mistake. The better you can communicate with locals the better your understanding of the community will be. Practice on your own time and then apply what you are learning with native speakers. Being in another country is your best chance for improving your foreign language skills!

So there you have it; some surprises, foods, animals, and advice. I hope those of you that have followed this blog have enjoyed reading what I had to say. I have had a great time writing. This blog provided me a place to share my experiences with many people without having to send tons of separate emails. That was nice. Additionally, my perfectionism forced me to put in a lot of time and thought into my writing, which I think was a valuable mental exercise. I am thankful to everyone that has read this blog, looked at the pictures, or given me feedback. For people that did not read my blog or were turned off by it, I completely understand and do not hold it against you. Sometimes I felt a little weird for talking about myself so damn much. I may or may not do a blog like this again in the future. Only time will tell. I can say for certain that the travel bug has caught on, and I have a feeling it will be a lifelong affliction! For now I am back in northern California, with a cell phone, constant internet, good beer, and warm showers once more. The readjustment is underway. Thanks again for reading!

Guinea Pigs, or cuy in Spanish

Bogotá and a Few More Frogs

This could easily have been divided into two posts. Instead I chose to combine my final two adventures to conclude my travel blog for this trip in South America.

Because it sits first in the title, I will tackle Bogotá before the frogs. I spent more than a week in Bogotá, spread out over two separate visits, the first being 7 days and the second being just one full day. Despite me being more of a small town person and Bogotá being an absolutely massive city of more than 7 million people, I found it to be lots of fun - possibly the most fun of any city I went to on my entire trip. The city is cold, sometimes rainy, and located high up in the Andes, much like Quito. It features a bustling historic area known as La Candelaria, which is where I chose to stay. I spent a fair amount of time doing indoor sightseeing in places such as the famous Museo del Oro (Gold Museum), Museo Botero (art by Botero and others), and the Septimazo and Ciclovía street gatherings. The Museo del Oro had a fantastic collection of sacred gold objects from many virtually unknown yet important Colombian civilizations. The collection of solid gold frogs was easily my favorite, followed by a golden musical instrument that somewhat resembled a clarinet. The Botero art collection was surprisingly fun for me as well. I did not necessarily love all the pieces by Botero (I get it dude, you make every living thing look fat), but the additional pieces by Monet, Picasso, and a great many others really caught my eye. As good as those museums were, the Septimazo and Ciclovía street festivals were probably my favorite experiences in the big city overall. Both occurred on Calle 7 (7th Street) and had all kinds of fanfare, from live vallenato music to delicious snacks. Ciclovía was especially cool because it featured a game where a guy lines up guinea pigs in the street. Maybe 5 meters (sorry, I do not think in feet anymore) from the fuzzballs there are 20 overturned bowls, each with a portion cut out so a guinea pig can sneak in to hide. The point of the game is to guess where a guinea pig will go by placing a wager in the form of a stack of coins on that particular bowl. Only one guinea pig goes at a time, making it pretty tough to guess right. After watching a few times I gave it a shot. I technically lost because the stupid animal only went halfway under my bowl before freezing in place and eventually being disqualified. In my mind I won, and that is all that matters, right? The other neat thing about Ciclovía is that it occurs every Sunday, and a huge stretch of the street is closed to vehicles and opened to bicycles for much of the day, partly as a fitness initiative. Bogotá impressed me with that.

My other main activity in Bogotá was to wander around the streets of La Candelaria whilst eating whatever caught my eye. I saw plenty of nice old churches and other historic buildings while enjoying more than my fair share of cocadas (sugary coconut sweets), cakes, arepas (like tortillas except thicker and better), natural fruit juices, and empanadas. It was the perfect way to enjoy myself for a day or two without spending too much money or getting stressed about travel plans. At my hostel I made some awesome friends, whom I went out with for some fun evenings. Fredy, a costeño from Valledupar now working at Hostel Sue, was especially welcoming and became a good friend of mine.

After that first week in Bogotá I joined another pair of costeños (people from the Caribbean coast) for my last volunteer experience in the field. Myself and José of the Universidad de Cordoba came along to help graduate student Faidith on her final trip to collect frogs for her Master's research at the Universidad de los Andes. We went by bus to the nearby Tolima department first. The three of us stayed in a hotel in the quaint little town of Coello. Our work was split between processing specimens by day and catching more by night at a nearby "tropical dry forest" area. We really did not find that much, yet it was still a great time. There were some toads as well as one of my favorite frogs, Dendrobates truncatus. The habitat was exactly as it sounds: a dry forest. It was especially dry when we were there, which explains why we found so little.

In our off time the three of us spent a lot of time getting to know one another and sharing silly Spanish and English slang. They were very patient with me, and looking back I think I improved my Spanish a lot in our 6 days together. I learned that policía muerta is their name for speed bump, and it literally translates to "dead police" for reasons that are unbeknownst to me. We also became regulars at a local restaurant run by Doña Chela, who always had something great for us to chow down on with an accompanying fruit juice. Coello was incredibly hot at most hours, which made us extra grateful for the pool and air conditioning at our hotel. Not a shabby place to stay during fieldwork!

From Coello we headed down to the city of Neiva, in the Huila department. Much like Coello, Neiva was very hot. I only got one night out in Neiva, but I am glad I did because I found a fat little frog called Elachistocles pearsi, of the family Microhylidae, for you nerds out there. Unfortunately I have no picture to show. It was cool though, I promise. It looked like a stout, stony-colored arrowhead with stubby legs, the back two being splattered with yellow. Not much else to say about Neiva, for lack of time spent there. The following day I had to leave the other two, and that was sad. Faidith and José were hilarious, knowledgeable, and extremely easy to work with. We became good friends in our brief time together. I will definitely make an effort to see them again in the future!

I came back to Bogotá with just one full day to spare on my entire trip in South America. That is when I finally elected to hike up to the viewpoint at Monserrate with Fredy and Andrea, another traveler. You can see from the photo that we got a pretty good view of the big city, surrounded on all sides by green mountains. For my final night I went out and enjoyed some of Colombia's anise-flavored aguardiente while dancing salsa with friends at a fun Cuban salsa bar. Even though my dancing skills are still incredibly limited I had a great time in the friendly atmosphere. A particularly hilarious additive to the night was an old man that kept yelling out "LA SEMANA!!" (the week) at the top of his lungs while doing goofy dance moves. It was a great way to finish up my trip.

I think I alluded to this being my final blog entry earlier in this post. Well, I actually plan to do a recap in a few days, mostly because I have been working on a cool map that shows my travel route. I also plan to create a list of my favorite places to visit, and some general thoughts I have about traveling in South America. Stay tuned.

Ancient Colombians liked frogs too

The fact that this was done by hand is ridiculous

A musical instrument made of gold

A Botero piece with a man in his typical style: round

One of a couple cool Picasso paintings

The guinea pig that almost won me some money

Family band playing vallenato music

Fruit pyramids

A sweet church

Poison dart frog cluster

Peaceful little Coello

Metamorph of a frog (it has a tail)

Happy little toads

Not my favorite frog, but pretty neat

José and Faidith being goofy as always

Bogotá from above