Animal Cam

I had a fairly eventful morning. Brandon let me borrow one of his wildlife cameras so I can see what kind of wildlife lives in this area. My landlady was really excited about the idea of setting up a camera and sent me seven emails about animals that I might see. Her apartments are surrounded by wooded areas, so that all seemed perfect.

When I got here, I discovered that she has a concrete wall behind her house and there is no way to get around it. She suggested that we rig up some ladders so I could climb over. That would have worked, and I was willing to do it, but there are no trails or even clearings behind her house. I wouldn’t mind clearing my own path, but I only brought tennis shoes, shorts and tank tops to wear here. In most of the US, you can walk through the woods relatively safely. Here, a significant portion of the wildlife is venomous. There are fer de lance pit vipers, eyelash pit vipers, poison dart frogs, scorpions, and a whole range of biting insects. After surveying the situation, I decided to look for another option.

As it turns out, there is a seasonal creek down the road a little ways. I asked my landlady if it was safe to go there and she said she sometimes walks there with her four chickens. I have no idea how she gets the chickens there. You have to walk down a very busy road with no bike path to get there. It seems like a dangerous place for chickens, but they’re still alive so I guess it worked out. She also told me to watch out for crocodiles. During the rainy season, it sometimes has crocodiles, but this is the dry season and there isn’t enough water for crocodiles. Otherwise, she thought it would be a great option.

A small path goes down into the creek bed and it’s mostly dry right now. After exploring a bit, I ran to the store and bought some cat food then retrieved my water shoes from my apartment. I waded up the stream a ways, installed the camera on a tree near a dry spot and made a little clearing for the cat food that I’m hoping will attract animals to the camera. I don’t know if anyone ever visits this creek. Hopefully the camera won’t get stolen and I’ll have some interesting pictures to post tomorrow when I wade back in and retrieve the memory card. I’m expecting a bunch of raccoons and coatis, but maybe there will be other things too. I might add some fruit with the cat food next time.

Samara was without water for part of the day because the city was working on the water lines. I wasn’t sure how long I wouldn’t have water, so I didn’t go swim since I wasn’t sure I’d be able to shower when I got back. That worked out okay because I needed to write a letter of recommendation for a student. I got some useful work done while I was waiting for the water to come back on. My landlady knows someone who grows strawberries so she ordered a carton of strawberries for me. They were delicious once the water came back on and I could wash them.

After I finished my work, I went for a long walk on the beach. Lots of people bring their dogs in all different sizes. They seem to have a wonderful time playing in the water. There are also lots of people here with small children. The kids, even the babies, play in the water and build sand castles. It’s really cute. There are bazillions of tiny snails in different sizes with different kinds of shells. This afternoon, there was also a big flock of brown pelicans and some sea gulls fishing. It’s fun to watch them dive into the water. I don’t know how they see the fish.

Rather than cook my own supper tonight, I decided to go across the street to an Italian restaurant. I got an arugula pizza with pancetta, goat cheese and mozzarella then a lava cake and vanilla gelato. It was good and I have leftovers supper tomorrow.

I’ll post a few pictures of my meal and the creek where I put the camera. Nothing too exciting.