The cloud forest itself was less photographically interesting to me. Though I was fascinated by the fill-me-ferns and the… shoot… I think it was a kind of bamboo. No. Shoot, I’ve forgotten but it has orange and black fruit the size of cranberries, the orange being unripe, but used to attract birds, while the black were edible.
The thing about fill-me-ferns was how they retained water. There were just these huge droplets of water held in place, not evaporating, not falling. I must have wasted two rolls. I even tried the flash, just to see if I got some extra light play.
I went back in the afternoon yesterday, too, but didn’t see anything of interest. I had one hell of a hike, racing against the light with my damned tripod over my shoulder. Didn’t want to get lost in the pitch black. No road like the first night.
Today, I went on a canopy tour with zip lines. It was a good deal of fun. I went early, so the group was small, just four others–newlyweds from Manhattan and a mom with her teenage son. They were pleasant. I mainly kept to myself, but the disingenuousness of the new wife was cute, the son was pleased with himself, and since his mom was being dragged along against her wishes, he didn’t seem embarrased, even when they took the last zip line together. It was sweet, actually.
I stuck around for the canopy walk, which was a little disappointing. I got, I hope, some decent shots of a dung beetle with little yellow antennae, three-pronged like a pitch-fork.
Just as I reached the last and longest suspension bridge of the walk, I heard the rumble of a howler, just ahead. I started to move cautiously across the bridge, eyes peeled at the canopy below and beside me. Nothing. Then I heard that low-throated rumble again, even closer ahead of me. I kept moving, prowling the trees with my binoculars. Nothing. And I wasn’t close enough to the source to traingulate. So I waited, staring into the canopy, probing, wishing. This was my only shot at getting a photo of a howler. I waited at the far end of the bridge so I could triangulate. I waited. And waited. Over an hour. In the sun. At noon. Without sunscreen. I got a burn, surprise, surprise. And never heard the howler again, let alone spot the critter. What a waste.