When it rains, it pours

Ola! This morning we awoke to the loudest clap of thunder any of us had ever heard! It was raining hard and lightning lit up the sky. Luckily the lightning and thunder stopped by the end of breakfast (7:00 a.m.). Everyone in my group put on her rain jacket and headed out to the field. Our job was to "put down" the amphibian/reptile traps that we set up the day after we arrived. This meant covering the buckets, dropping and rolling up the plastic wall, and then covering the whole thing up with palm branches. We were out in the field for about 3 1/2 hours - it rained the whole time. On the upside, I got to use a machete!
This afternoon, I did something else I never dreamed that I would do. I, along with Ellen, Michelle, Vanda, Chin-Loo and Mary walked in socks in a salt lake looking for turtles. We walked three-by-three around the circumference of the lake scouting the bottom for a glimpse of a turtle shell. Michelle and Mary not only saw a turtle, but they had quick enough reflexes to pick it up. After our mission was complete, we swam back across the river, with caiman lurking off in the distance. We then drove back in the truck with two turtles in the bed and with an occasional wild pig and caiman crossing in front of us. We also caught a view of some toucans in the trees.