This break I got the chance to spend the week in Cartagena, Colombia. It was an incredible place to be looking at phenology and the natural world. a
Colombia is an incredibly biodiverse country. We were surrounded by so many different types of flora and fauna at the resort we were staying in. We had many encounters with iguanas. There were so many iguanas, we even saw ten in one tree. My mother, an avid birder saw over ten different species of birds including cuckoos, peacocks, two types of hummingbirds, and many others. We were also able to swim with a bunch of fish and feed them. There were also many wild cats, possum-like animals and some frogs.
The place where I was staying in Colombia was very different from my phenology spot at UVM. There were a lot of deciduous trees like in Vermont but they were all made for warmer climates. The weather in Cartagena was about 90 degrees every day and constantly sunny. This is very different from the weather that we have in Vermont. There were some birds that were similar to the ones back in Vermont but overall it was very different.
One of the opportunities I got was to go swimming with bioluminescent plankton. We went on a boat after dark and were driven out to the middle of a lagoon near where we were staying. As we approached, we were able to see the plankton due to the movement of the boat in the water. When we jumped in there were so many plankton and the originally dark water would turn this beautiful shade of aqua blue. My family and I spent the entire hour, just wading and moving our arms in every direction. It was one of the most awesome and unique experiences I’ve had.
