Pavones Nights
On our first night with team members Yann and Marie at their house near Pavones we had many guests. There were some surfer friends, and lots of insects attracted to the porch light. There were also plenty of geckos around to eat the insects. One, as you can see below, was a pirate gecko with only one eye. We also made a jaunt through the night down muddy dirt roads where the calls of frogs and insects in the dark changed every few meters creating a continuous, but ever-changing chorus of science fiction sounds.
Aside from the pirate gecko, my favorite critter was the young praying mantis that lived on the trunk of a tree in their front yard. It actually stayed on the same section of tree trunk the whole time we were there, mostly hiding with its marvelous camouflage, but also scampering around the trunk with lightning speed if approached too closely.