On one of the day hikes Hugo led, we stopped at a swimming hole on Rio San Lorencito. The water was about 8 ft deep and crystal clear. On the deepest side, there was a cliff we were able to jump off of… It was a much needed break from our trailless hike.
Hugo is in the background of the first picture.
Do you recognize this cascade?
We saw one poisonous snake at San Ramón, despite that we were promised hundreds. The coral snake not pictured here slide under the log before I could get my camera out.
Although it’s not the greatest photograph, I wanted to share an image of a skink we caught in San Ramón since the lizard’s coloration and patterning were pretty awesome. I picked it up shortly after taking this photograph and was promptly bitten… first skink bite for me.
Frozen, an appendage covered caterpillar attempts to hide from my camera.
It’s like the Microsoft Windows commercials that Microsoft put out in response to getting trashed by the “I’m a PC; I’m a Mac” advertising campaign by Apple.
Here’s a more close up picture for a cricket expert…
This is Rio Sue and Mike climbing up it. We sampled six, headwater streams feeding the Rio San Lorencito, each of which seemed to have a surprise waterfall around one of the bends. 
Anoles and crickets were abundant within the channel of the Río San Lorencito. The two pair here were commonly seen, and I watched one pair pictured for nearly an hour in hopes that the anole would pounce on the cricket. Unfortunately, the anole was too fearful of being prey itself to make a move. I believe the anole is Norops humilis, but since it´s a juvenile or female, I can´t be sure. As for the cricket, perhaps I can consult Pat Lorch…
Hugo is the head cook, handyman, and trail blazer at San Ramón. He’s been smoking for over 50 years (he said he started when he was seven), calls his cigarettes ‘mi agua’ on long hikes, and put us to shame whenever on such a hike. On top of displaying extreme elegance with a machete in the field (we referred to him as the ‘Manchete’ [Man + Machete]), Hugo is a phenomenal cook and naturalist. That said, I may have found a fault… he mis-identified the picture here as a pizote when looking at the picture through my camera’s LCD. I took his word for it, since I wasn’t aware that pesote is the Spanish name for Coati. After being laughed at in a lab at UCR, some student identified the mammal as a Martilla. Who knew a sixty-some year old man would have trouble looking at a picture on a 2″ camera screen…