The little vegetation that is left in the wetland at Palo Verde is being punished by cattle. The patch on the left is primarily water hyacinth, some of which is actually living (although cattle do a good job of taking care of that). On the right… nothing but sparce patches of some spiny plant.
When I arrived at my current field site today, I started chopping a branch with my machete and found this larva with a gigantic head, presumibly housing huge muscles for chomping through bark/wood. My guess is a beetle larva.
While at the station in San Ramon, we decided to hike the 12 km down the mountian to buy some beer at Soda Los Lagos, a small restuarant at the bottom. On the way down, I took some pictures of ornamental plants being grown in the foreground, with mountainous rainforest in the background…. kind of sad but cool at the same time. The other picture shows Erin and Mike reaching Los Lagos with a team time of 2:23… which won me 2 free beers.
More cascades from Rio San Lorencito. We pseudo-repelled down the larger waterfall. 
