Today the GIS team went on a long hike all the way accross Carara National Park. the day started at about 4:30 in the morning and we were on the road to the trailhead by five. we started the roughly 9 mile hike with our hired local guide around 7. the purpose of the hike was to map the ¨trail¨ with GPS because it had never been done before. Antonio, the guide, who used to be a hunter in these parts before it became illigal in the park, estimated that there had only been about twenty people to have ever traveled this trail. when we started along our journey, i knew he wasn´t lying, because there was no trail. some portions of the trek were on small game trails at best, but the majority of it was spent hacking our way through the jungle carefully placing each step to ensure we didnt step on any snakes or other dangerouse animals. we saw some monkeys, tucans, wild pigs, macaws, among other jungle creatures. it took us 5 hours to complete the trail, which was a pretty fast pace.....the fastest done so far Antonio says. our GPS data turned out well and we were all pretty tired and glad to get back to the research station at the end.
I hope everyone following this blog is doing well back home and i wish you could be down here with us.

-Jon Skelton