Reciprocity…

Reciprocity…

We got through the second recap pretty smoothly. Being a second month-er is very nice because you get into the routine and you know what’s coming. There is still enough new and exciting things to keep it interesting but nothing is too surprising.

Pierson came through the ever-revolving door of our house. He is a PhD student from Florida State who loves snakes and hates Trinidad. He works here for his advisor on the project but is more into reptiles than fish and does not like the way the country is run (a little disorganized) or the people (a little distracted). He hunts for snakes constantly and when he sees one he goes into a wild animal frenzy sprinting at the movement in the brush and lunging in to grab it before he has any idea of what kind of snake it is.

Later came Brad, his partner for their section of the project. They are looking at the populations of fish that live with the guppies and compete with them called Rivulus. We call them the Brothers Riv. Brad it super level headed and really cool. He is older than all of us, in his late 30’s, but manages to put up with our early twenty antics with much grace. He also went to Pomona, which I was very excited about, but he has been gone long enough that it was less interesting to him. Regardless I brought up references all the time but he never really came around to it.

My favorite moment with these two was out fishing in a stream when Pierson takes off running through a deep pool and up the bank coming up with a Huge black snake with a yellow belly. It was a Chironies, a fast snake closely related to the coach-whip of Arizona (ask my dad about it, he is relatively familiar with this species). It shares some characterists with this snake including launching for the face. I stood back as Pierson walks back towards us with a big smile on his face, holding it by the tail as it flails around, doubling back to bite him. He is a very successful nature photographer and proceeds to coil it up and place it on the bank where it site for a hot second before lunging at his face and off through the stream, at which point he takes of after it again, and brings it back for another try for the perfect photo.

As this back and forth dance continues I hear something behind me. We are at the beginning of the trail still near some houses. As I look up the road I see a huge group of kids coming down for a swim in their favorite swimming hole (the one that Pierson just traipsed through to pull out the snake). They come up behind me and one by one their eyes expand as they realize what Pierson has. The local fear of all snakes regardless of danger is pervasive and intense. They ask me if he is killing it with his cutlass and I said no, that it was not a mean snake (in the back ground it lunges for his face) and he was just taking pictures then letting it go. They looked at me like I was crazy.

They start into the water playing on the bank a bit weary of us down the way with the snake. When he finishes he carries the snake to the far bank and encourages it up and away from the pool containing now happy kids playing. The snake had other plans and plunges back into its pool swimming around a bit to the sounds of screams and ducks under the bank into a hole. The fleeing kids scramble on to the bank, sure now that we Are absolutely crazy. Pierson starts up back to the car content with his photos leaving the menace in the swimming pool the kids have probably been visiting daily for their whole lives. When I give him the look he rolls his eyes and trudges back in, reaching up in the mud and finally pulling the 5 foot snake out by the tail. He takes it down the river a way where it slithers off into the jungle.

We walked back to the trunk leaving the kids horrified on the bank staring at their pool as the ripples go away and it glassed over again. I tried to explain that it was ok but they where not going to be convinced.