Today Amanda and I decided to check out the most remote parts of the La Selva property. It's only 2-3 km to the back, and we picked the straight trail out and the windy trail back. We could tell from the map that this choice would lead us through a mix of virgin and successional forest at different stages, and figured that was our best bet for maximum floral diversity. The straight trail (LOC for those in the know) turns out to be straight over the most extreme topography in La Selva. We didn't think to check the topo map until we were already 3 hours out, ha ha!
The first 40% of the hike took 75% of the time. Hills as steep as it is possible to walk on two legs, one hill after another, hundreds of feet up and down, up and down. Add to that heat and humidity that made our skin constantly slick with sweat and fogged my glasses. And all this in the knee-high rubber boots that are considered standard to deal with the mud and snakes out here. Some of the most challenging hiking I've ever done. I came out with blisters on the bottoms of my heels and mud all over my clothes. While we were doing it, it was not so much fun, but as soon as we came out into the flatter part with the picturesque river crossings and the abundant Hot Lips (a plant in the genus Psychotria), all that angst was translated into pride and enjoyment. The trail back was absurdly easy, longer but faster because it goes AROUND the minimountains.
Tomorrow we're taking the day off field work to nurse our blistered selves and take stock of what we have found so far; hopefully we'll be able to select plant species to focus on and start collecting pollen samples on Saturday.
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