June 15- Barbour Point

My most common hiking route is Thomas Barbour trail, a path through an area of mostly secondary-growth forest where Azteca nests are common.  If you remember the picture of the refuse collection bucket from last week, I have four of those set up along the trail at different nests.  I check them all and collect the refuse every 3-4 days, so I spend plenty of time on the trail.  My normal walk takes me about two kilometers away from the dorms (the first kilometer or so of which is up a very steep hill) but today the other intern and I went all the way to the end of the trail (about 3 k each way) to look for army ants for a project and to see the view of the canal at the end of the trail.  It was a beautifully clear morning after a day of rain yesterday, and the views were fantastic.  The clay 'beach' that we were on is normally underwater; however, due to construction in the canal and a severe drought caused by last year's El Nino, it's currently well above water level.  We had a great time taking pictures- the only concern is crocodiles, which are fairly common in the area.  We tried to have one person keeping an eye out at all times ("I'm about to turn my back to the water to take this picture, so shout if you see a crocodile coming")