Today we said goodbye to half of the Herp Team as Juanito and Mario were headed three hours away to Altotambo in search of other exciting finds. We didn’t know it at the time, but this was, unfortunately, the last we would see of Mario before we left Ecuador. Though Callie, Natalia, and Javier had left early that morning to go inspect a potential new property to add to Dracula Reserve, the rest of the expedition team lined the dirt road in front of the campsite and waved goodbye.

What do clothes and chocolate have to do with each other? Well, for one thing, the color of the water in which our clothes from the first week in the field had soaked overnight could really only be described as that of dark chocolate. In warp speed, as to not outlast our held breaths, Javier and I transferred over these “chocolate” soaked clothes to the washing machine at Casa Dracula.