A serious miscalculation on Ecuadorean swamps

A March 2014 post on the Ecography blog.

"Walking down from the upland forest and into a swamp felt like crossing over into a cooler season – partly because the understory was spacious and open, with a breeze that rippled the palm fronds around you, and partly because you were up to your knees in water. The whiny cloud of mosquitoes that followed you everywhere in the upland forests was gone too – without them it felt like you could stand up straighter and see things more clearly. And while at first it was hard to wade through the murky water and not think about giant watersnakes, we never saw any. Once, in a swamp plot in Yasuní, I almost grabbed a little yellow and black snake coiled up at the base of a palm because I thought it was a roll of string I had dropped. When I realized my mistake and pulled my hand back, a shiver ran from head to boots and my friend gave me that significant look they give the bomb expert who almost cut the wrong wire. But that was the only snake I remember seeing in the swamps...."

Read the full post here.

Photo by Tomás Delinks