JORDAN CADIOT
FRENCH GUIANA
Three weeks, it will go fast but still, the wait is quite long! Three weeks and i fly away for a new adventure, in French Guiana this time for ten days and with my good friend Damien!
It's about time to go back! With Damien we talked about going somewhere on a trip both of us and it didn't take much time to organize it.
We bought our tickets in october, almost everything is ready at this time, january 12th. The car is rented, the circuit is planned day by day, which area we should search on to find particular species (thanks to the people who kindly gave me advices and some spots!), and where we'll sleep. By the way, i'm impatient about that because we'll spent our night in hammock, it will be the first time!
Now i only have to check the material to be sure i have everything i need. Then patience, before beeing in the rainforest, the amazonian rainforest this time, ten months after the rainforest of Madagascar.
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For this trip i will also try to report it day by day, i like it and it could be useful to bring back good memories one day, later!
So there will be the story of the trip right here on this page, and an other page with the pictures only, as i did for the trip to Madagascar!
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- JANUARY 20, 2020
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Still 16 days. I a patient person usually, but i have to admit that i'm a bit impatient right now! Plus my bags are already out and filled up! Yes i filled them up two weeks before the departure, it's a bit early, but i wasn't sure if i would have been able to put all my things in it, so i needed to be sure. I will emptied and filled them up again to check one more time all the material and the stuff to be certain to bring everything i need, i don't want to forget anything!
I am so impatient that i'm already thinking of the next trip... I still have a week. But a week is too short so i'll probably take and other one to go on an other trip. Nothing is planned yet, i'm waiting to come back from French Guiana first, then we'll see for the next trip, but i may have an idea about where it will be!
For now i'm testing and testing again my material, my light system with the flashs mostly.
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- FEBRUARY 4, 2020
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Up at 3h30am to go pick up Damien and then go to the airport. The control of the bag is always boring, everything is well placed inside and we have to hurry to empty it, and then hurry to put it back in, but that's how it is. Once at Paris we only have 1h30 to wait, it goes fast. The plane takes off at 11am, couldn't fall asleep at all. We arrive at 8pm, 4pm here in French Guiana. We get the car we rented but while we were checking the condition of the car before driving with it we see that what's noted on the paper doesn't correspond at all, then we figure that the guy of the rental car company gave us the wrong key. We called him and he came to gave us the right one, now we can leave!
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We are going to Cayenne to find a grocery and buy some food and other stuff, but we can't find any gaz bottle for the stove. The Carrefour doesn't have any eather, we try Sport 2000 but that's the same and plus they are closing the store. I ask to the boss if he knows where we can find some and he tells us to go check "the chinese", without more informations. Whatever, we'll do without it for now and we decide to go at Kourou as we planned, at 1h by car, it's already night. But at half the road we see two/three small shop at the edge of the road, "the chinese"! And indeed they do have gaz bottle! Then we arrive in a carbet at Kourou, the owner welcomes us and explain how it works.
It doesn't take much time to see the first animals! A pretty matoutou is here on a pipe, the first one, wonderful! We see three others in the area, awesome!
We set up our hammock, a bit scepticals, it's the first time for both us, but it's fine. A small snake shows up in the middle of the carbet, the owner tells us it is a young grage, i have a doubt about that but i trust him. I take pictures carefully because it's a venomous snake. He tells us to kill him because if there is a baby here, the mother can't be far and he will come back if we put it away. I take some pics and sadly i kill him, he would have been killed anyway. I check later (we couldn't at the moment) and i was right, it wasn't a grage at all but a harmless Leptodeira annulata, as i thought.
We take some pics of the tarantulas mostly, a frog, some leaf cutter ants. Then we eat and we try our freeze-dried meals, it's not bad at all! A shower (cold, i'll have to be used to it... ps : even after few days it was quiet complicated, i will never get used to a cold shower!) and we gonna try to spend the first night in the hammock but it's still warm, around 27°C.
- FEBRUARY 5, 2020
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I woke up 4 or 5 times in the night, but except that, the first night in hammock wasn't bad! The carbet is near a road where there is many vehicles, and there was a lot of wind tonight so it was a bit loud. These two things must have been the causes of why i woke up multiple times. But the hammock itself is pretty confortable, will i say the same after few nights, we'll see!
We arrive at 9h30am at "La montagne des singes", a hiking path. Theoretically, this path is done in three and a half hour, we made it in five hours... That's what happen when we look for animals and we take pictures! This path made me think of Madagascar while we were in the Ranomafana rainforest. We saw toads (Rhinella margaritifera), small lizards, a teju (Tupinambis teguixin), a scorpion (Tityus obscurus), spiders (Trichonephila clavipes), a wonderful caterpillar and a hummingbird too (but too fast and dark at the moment to take any pics sadly!).
Then we came back to the carbet, to rest a bit and eat, it's already 3h30pm! We are chilling and tonight we'll go find some animals, by night, it should be easier!
Well... No! We found nothing but a small iguana on its leaf, we searched on the Guatamala road but i think the lack of rain is the main reason about why we don't see anything. We are going back and i decide to go check on the mangroves that Jean Pierre, the owner of the carbet, showed us earlier. I probably should have done like Damien and go to sleep too, once again i saw nothing!
- FEBRUARY 6, 2020
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I woke up many times during the night again but i slept well anyway. I'm listening music for about 30 minutes in my hammock, to wait for the day to raise at 6h30am, then i stand up too. I'm going to shave, i put my stuff away, and my hammock. At 8am i start to prepare the tea and eat some biscuits then Damien wakes up. We eat together and we put our stuff in the car. We're going to say goodbye to Jean Pierre and then we heading to Montsinery where we'll make the hiking path "Bagne des annamites". It took us four hours instead of two and a half in theory, looking for animals and photograph them takes time! It's a beautiful path where we saw army ants (Eciton burchellii), impressive! And a beautiful spider, Micrathena schreibersi. We had our first rain too, feels good!
We're back at the car at 2pm and we heading to town of Montsinery to eat a little bit, then at 3pm we planned a flight on a seaplane! The boat comes to take us and bring us to their small base from where we take off, a bit further at the edge of the forest. Damien goes first and after fifteen minutes it's my turn!
And this is reall cool! Seeing the forest from above and inside a small plane is awesome!
We are now back on earth and we be go back to the car to go to Cacao, one hour away. Well... Theoretically! There is an accident on the road, a truck has fallen on the road and there is many people on place. Many firefighter trucks, police vehicules, military, and two helicopteres. We learn later it was a military truck and there was twelve people injured including three badly injured. After 45 minutes we could continue on the road, this road reminded me of the one to go to Ranomafana by the way, with the forest on both sides and many turns!
Once arrived at Cacao we search for a camp we saw on internet but we can't find it, the night will fall soon and we are still searching... I'm asking to a restaurant if they know where we could sleep. The guy says me that he has bungalows but it's too expansive, and he gives me the name of an other carbet not far away. So we're going there and the lady tells us she just paint the wall and did other things, but she must have seen that we were a bit desesperate and took us, the paint was dry so it was ok! We have a pretty view from our hammocks. The meal is include tonight, we didn't have the choice but it was really good!
- FEBRUARY 7, 2020
But the night wasn't that good... We were not well in our hammocks and a mosquito pissed me off! The awakening with a beautiful view was great though. We take our time and we decide to not stay at Cacao as planned but directly go to Kaw. Before leaving i called Florian Reveillion to get informations about caves where we can find amblypygids. Precious informations and also contacts that could help us, thanks Florian! Among these contacts there is Philippe Soler who is a teacher at the school there, in Cacao, and the owner of the Planeur bleu, a small museum, where he expose different type of invertebrates. We waited two hours to meet him but unfortunately he was too busy, too bad, we should have called him before! We heading to Kaw, by Roura to take gasoline. The road to Kaw is surrounded by the forest, it's really beautiful, but it is in really bad condition, there is holes everywhere on the road! We stop at 1pm to eat a little bit, on the side of the road. The rain starts to fall a bit but we eat our pastas anyway, some fruits to end it and now we're good!
We arrive at camp caiman few minutes after but we see nobody there, so we're going further to camp Patawa, a guy is here but he tells us he doesn't accept people without reservation and that we have to go to camp caiman, there, they accept people all the time. So we tell him we come from this camp and we saw nobody but he's sure that there is someone, so we go back. And indeed the lady is here, great! She is very kind and shows us three carbet at the camp where we can sleep in, including one, isolated, in the middle of the forest and at the edge of a pond, it's amazing! It's taken tomorrow so we will have to go in an other on but tonight and the days after it's for us, awesome!
We are looking around the carbet, we setting up our stuff and we are still amazed by this place! Tonight we'll try to find animals around our camp. By the way! Thee lady told us there is dwarf caimans in this pond sometimes! And there is also agoutis that come close to the carbet and we don't have to chase them, well, it's not our kind! And right after beeing installed there is one agouti that came near us and let us take some pics.
Now i am enjoying the silence to write before eating and go look for some animals! Or actually look for animals first because i have a bit of time! I only see the pinchers of a scorpion in his burrow, a small mantis and some huge ants! While speaking with Damien after that i figure that these huge ants are Paraponera clavata, also known as bullet ant because of their very painful sting.
Freeze-dried meals tonight, it's really good!
We go back to look for animals and then we go to sleep, a better night incoming hopefully!
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We took pictures for about two hours! We saw a caterpillar, tarantulas, a mantis and other small animals.
Ectatomma tuberculatum
Derbidae
Metriomantis sp.
Liturgusa sp.
Limacodidae
- FEBRUARY 8, 2020
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Such a cool awakening in the hammock with this beautiful environment around us, the day is slowly raising, and the rain starts to fall strongly! Finally, because it's suppose to be the rainy season and it doesn't rain much yet, even the people here tell us it's very dry for the season... We eat and we move our stuff in an other carbet of the same camp, this one was booked for tonight but we'll go back in the following days.
We are going to try to find the cave Florian talked about. We stop on the road at the kilometer 30, the only place where there is connection for the phone. But we have a problem now, the car doesn't want to go back... It seems that the battery is the problem but don't understand how is it possible. Damien call his brother to get some help, but we can't do much, except push the car on the road ! Damien's brother confirm us that it can work, so let's try! I push the car and Damien is inside, fortunately it worked!
We go back to look for this cave but we can't find the path that lead to it, Florian told us it was barely visible from the road, indeed! I'm going to call Florian at the kilometer 30. We have more informations and we gonna try to find it, again. I see what could be a path, Damien is not very sure about it so he stays at the car and i decide to go alone see by myself. I take an emergency whistle, my hook, and i start walking into the forest. I am trying to walk as straight as possible so the way back should be easier. After 30 minutes i'm telling to myself that it wouldn't be serious to keep going and i should go back on my steps. But it didn't go as planned, as simple as i thought it would be... I only have to turn around and walk straight, but when we are in the tropical rainforest it's not that easy of course. After few minutes i'm starting to go around in circles but i stay calm, i have to because i start to panic it will be really complicated. I ear a car on the road which confirm me i'm in the right direction. But i can't go foreward anymore, it's too dense, i'm trying to but i end up on all fours, not great... I use my whistle to be sure i'm not far from Damien and i ear him honk after. Few minutes later i find back the road, dozens meters away from the car. A short but intense adventure!
Still no cave though...
We heading back to the camp to eat and rest a little, this walk got me tired, too emotional i guess!
We'll try to find the other cave at the end of Coq de roche trail. There is some people trying to photograph the birds, we are trying to and we see them well, wonderful! We take some pictures and we going down to see the cave, but i'm so disappointed... The cave is inaccessible!
Back to the car, pissed, tired, and again, very disappointed!
Coq-de-roche orange (Rupicola rupicola) mâle et femelle
At the camp we look for a pond not far, theoretically, but it's not close at all and it goes down a lot. We are tired, especially morally. Back at the camp we rest, i wash my clothes, i take a shower and we eat, it feels good despite this shitty day.
Quick nocturnal round tonight around the carbet!
Pseudophasma phtisicum
Ectatomma tuberculatum
Protambulyx strigilis
Venatorellus viridipedes
- FEBRUARY 9, 2020
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Wake up in the rain this morning. We will go to Roura to buy food and water and then go back to Cacao to meet Philippe, the entomologist who runs Le Planeur Bleu (his museum is open on Sunday and he organizes guided tours, it should be easier to talk with him!). The road is done well, in 1h30 we are there, a lot of people today in Cacao, it's the day of the weekly market. We go directly to the museum of Philippe and once his guided visit is over we talk to him, we talk a little and he gives us the exact position of the cave of Fourgassier, where we tried to go the day before without success. So we leave with good informations that should help us! We go around the market and we end up eating egg rolls and chicken wings.
Back to Kaw, on the road we stop at the supposed trail and after a few minutes we finally find it! Great! We have to go back to the camp to redeploy our hammocks to the carbet at the bottom to the edge of the pond, and we don’t wait to go back to find this famous cave! We’re crazy, we’re about to go into a cave in the Amazon forest in French Guiana, it’s so great! The information was very good since we found it directly, without any problem. There are quite a few bats, the smell is strong in the cave and even in front. Not even 5 minutes after our entrance I find remains of exuviae on the ground, then looking at the ceiling, there it is! My first amblypygi In situ, and it’s magical! I can’t believe it and I’m super happy! Finally! We see a dozen of them, including a juvenile and a large specimen, magnificent!
Now it’s time for the photos, for the occasion I handle the biggest specimen. It is peaceful and really big, impressive!
In some places on the ground of the cave we could see exuviae, more or less damaged, some still in very good condition, others in scattered pieces.
There was a lot, like A LOT of locusts like that, on the floor and on the walls and on the ceiling.
I assume they are the main source of food for amblypygids.
These locusts are called Ephippigera.
A large number of bats find refuge in the different rooms of the cave. The smell is quite strong even though we haven’t even put a foot inside, just at the entrance it goes up in the nose! And once inside it twirls in all directions, it grazes us, and their sounds are heard amplified because of the number of individuals present, several hundred certainly!
We spent a bit more than an hour in the cave, but we have to go back to avoid going home at night. We go back to the car in 10 minutes, I am so happy!
Back to camp, we rest, shower, eat, and go on a night out around our carbet. And we did well!
First I find a frog, a juvenile Phyllomedusa vaillanti I think.
Then we saw several animals: a small toad at the foot of the Phyllomedusa, a mantis, a millipede, spiders, another frog and a little further on a big trunk, an amblypygi! That is so good! I go gently to not make him run away but it is very tolerant and did not move an inch during the 20/30 minutes when I took the pictures. The mosquitoes had fun on me during that time...
Liturgusa sp.
Heterophrynus longicornis
Then i find a huge butterfly!
Caligo illioneus
Then a strange thing on the bottom of a stem, it looks like a caterpillar at first sight but I quickly see that it is a dead moth covered by a fungus, probably of the genus Cordyceps or approaching it, an entomopathogenic fungus. And now I’m crazy! These mushrooms fascinate me and I absolutely wanted to find a case of parasitism like this during this ten-day excursion in the Amazon rainforest! I am served because it is incredibly beautiful (yes, "beautiful"!)!
I photographed it from all angles and on different occasions, to be sure to have the images i wanted.
They are fungi that parasitize and "zombificate" their prey that are invertebrates.
This type of fungus is known as entomopathogen (entomo = insect/ pathogen = cause disease) because it parasitizes and uses insects and arachnids as hosts.
Once I got home I looked for similar cases in the hope of finding a corresponding identification because the best known, namely Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps did not seem to stick, the fructification looked too different. Then I found an image of another parasitized moth with the same types of growths, then a second, and a third, all moths. Thanks to these images and their descriptions I was able to find the sweet name of my first case of entomopathogenic fungus parasitism : Akanthomyces pistillariaeformis.
It's the one that seems to be the main parasite of moths. There are others that grow on spiders, others on ants, and this one on moths, I find it crazy!
Akanthomyces pistillariaeformis would not however be so different from Cordyceps since it's apparently the anamorph form (asexual form or stage of a fungus. Unlike "Teleomorph" which is the form or sexual stage of a fungus) of Cordyceps tuberculata.
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But how does it lead at such a case? How can a fungus "zombificate" an insect or an arachnid?
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When the fungus spores are released into the air they have only one goal: to reach a new prey, a new host. This host is systematically an insect or arachnid.
Once the spores of the entomopathogenic fungus have succeeded in contaminating an animal, it becomes a host in spite of itself. The spores will develop and penetrate inside the host’s body and gradually take control of it, but without killing it. During its development the fungus breaks the connections between the brain of the host and its muscles to take control of the motor functions of the animal -while keeping the brain in good condition, thus keeping the host alive, hence the term "zombification"- and thus force the host to go up on a branch, for example, and then hold on to this support to finish his life. Then the fungus will continue its development until fruiting and its new spores can be released into the air for the purpose of re-contaminating other prey.
I take a picture of a little salticidae (jumping spider) right next to me, and I keep searching a little. I find a beautiful Micrathena schreibersii with her cocoon and an opilion nearby. Damien has meanwhile found two tiger beetles, beautiful subjects to photograph!
It's already 11:30 pm, time to go to sleep with a big smile and the head full of images and the memory card too after this incredible day!
Micrathena schreibersii
- FEBRUARY 10, 2020
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Wake up in the rain again, we’re a little tired but it’s okay. We’re gonna go see the pond near the camp, there’s supposed to be something called explosives out there, it’s a big gathering of frogs for breeding. But there is nothing and the level of the pond is quite low, too bad! So we will directly make the path of the Trésor reserve. It is really a great trail, fast to make and very beautiful. In addition it started to rain and then the atmosphere was incredible!
We are ecstatic in front of this beautiful nature, before beeing ecstatic in front of a beautiful frog, Dendrobates tinctorius, wonderful! We’re struggling to photograph it, but it’s worth taking the time.
Then 45 minutes later I see a burrow and a hairy leg moving inside, FINALLY!! We found our Theraphosa! This is the third thing I absolutely wanted to see here in French Guiana. There were of course amblypygids first, a case of entomopathogenic fungus parasitism, and the impressive tarantula Goliath bird eater (Theraphosa blondi), the world’s biggest tarantula.
I take her out with a stick so we can admire her and photograph her properly. It is impressive and super beautiful, once again I am all crazy! I absolutely wanted to see one!
This one is a male, so not as big as a female could be!
We stay about one hour with this tarantula and we meet two people on the trail, we talk and the woman informs us about species to see and paths to do. Back to the car and camp to eat. Then we went to a waterfall not very far, advised by the woman we talked to this morning, rather than go to the Fourgassier Falls which she strongly advised against. Too touristy and degraded apparently. It takes an hour to go and come back, in a good rain. The place is very nice it’s cool. We go back up quickly, Damien drops me at the camp and go call at kilometer 30. Meanwhile I take other pictures of the parasitic fungus.
Tomorrow we’ll spend the day in the cave normally so I check that I have all my equipment. Then as I have nothing else to do I return wandering in the forest around the carbet, and it's again a good rain! I do not see much but I still find an amblypygi on a large hollow tree at the base. Rain, mosquitoes, no problem, I have to take pictures!
Heterophrynus alces
We were supposed to chill tonight so I went to take a shower, but on the way back as I can’t help looking for animals I look at the front along the way that leads to the carbet and I see another frog (Phyllomedusa vaillanti) like the one yesterday but bigger, then a very big spider that had to do size of my hands (and I have big hands) without exaggerating, then an amblypygi with a spider between its pedipalps, and just after that I see something quite big and hairy at the base of a tree, a sloth! Amazing! I run as fast as I can with my wet tap shoes and slippery path. I call Damien and tell him to take his photo equipment while I prepare mine, while explaining what I saw! We hasten to go up to see it but impossible to find, I don't see it anymore!
I have a hard time understanding and I even wonder if I did not hallucinate, but still, my mental health is going well (I think!). We barely took five minutes to get back and the sloth is gone, yet it’s a slow animal that’s why I don’t understand why it could have disappeared so quickly. But too bad, that’s how it is! In the meantime there is a great predation scene with an amblypygi waiting for me! I take pictures with the wide angle lens since in the precipitation is the only one I took, but I need macro photos of the amblypygi and its prey so I quickly go down to the carbet and get my other lens. Returning a large leaf grasshopper flies in front of me and lands on the ground, I take three pictures in ten seconds and leave it to Damien. I go to see my beloved amblypygi and I see that there are also two young one in the hole that they use as shelters. The photos of the bigger with his prey look good and I’m really happy!
Cycloptera speculata
Heterophrynus alces
For an evening where we were supposed to chill, it was missed and it was even pretty intense, but great once again! A crazy day! Between yesterday and today we are served and it’s awesome!
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- FEBRUARY 11, 2020
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Today we go back to the cave, for the all day! There are a lot of animals to see: bats, amblypygids, frogs, lizards, spiders, opilions, ephippigera (grasshoppers); there is a lot to do and the atmosphere is really cool, we are in a cave alone, in the middle of the rainforest taking pictures, quiet. We arrive at 9:30am and we eat at 1:00pm in front of the cave, we stay there until 4:30pm, that was great!
Neusticurus rudis
Heterophrynus longicornis
Ephippigères
Rhinella marina
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Blaberus giganteus
Heterophrynus longicornis
Cupiennius sp.
Ancylometes rufus
Heterophrynus longicornis femelle gravide
Back to camp to take a good shower, cold always, as from the first day. It feels good to shower but I will never get used to the cold showers!
I’m cleaning up some of my equipment, which has taken up quite a bit of dust today.
We transfer the photos to a hard drive and we rest, we eat with the sound of the forest and the rain, tomorrow is the last day here.
Short outing tonight, only a crab spider and his prey and two Phyllomedusa vaillanti.
Phyllomedusa vaillantii
- FEBRUARY 12, 2020
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We are going to do the path of the Trésor reserve, after few minutes we find a big caterpillar.
Shortly after I find a burrow with a Theraphosa blondi inside, I try to get it out but I see that I have a few ticks on my hands, so I remove them then I realize that I don’t just have "a few" ticks but rather several tens, literally, which were going up on my pants and arms. There are not many animals that I don't like but ticks, it's infernal! I try so hard to remove them. We return to the entrance of the trail and Damien takes the car to go to the camp to get a clamp and anti mosquito/ tick spray, while I undress to shake my clothes and to be able to remove all the ticks that I can remove. What a great outing! I end up in my underwear in the parking lot watching me to remove the ticks... Great.
Before returning to the camp I handle a beautiful matoutou (Avicularia sp.) that lodges in a bromeliacae right next door.
We go home and I go straight to the shower, my clothes to soak and my pants that I had drilled two days before finished in the trash, so no more ticks!
We returned to the trail in the afternoon and made a nice observation of a rapace, a yellow-headed urubu (Cathartes burrovianus). He had probably just eaten a sloth or another mammal since two piles of hair were found on the ground, then the bird was constantly rubbing the beak on the branches and it smelled strong the carrion next to his perch.
We saw nothing else and at 5pm we return to the cave to make observations and photos of amblypygids among others. There are about thirty individuals of all sizes, from the very young to the large adult male. Several exuviae on the ground also, some old, some more recent and two others dated from today. A specimen had just emerged from its exuviae and was still white, and another was bluish. We left at 7pm and returned to camp.
​A buffalo toad (Rhinella marina) was in the cave too, nice one!
- FEBRUARY 13, 2020
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Departure from the camp and we were going to do the Rorota trail but when we arrived there was already a lot of car, it was hot, and we were tired, so we didn’t even get out of the car and we went to the Mirande trail a few kilometers away. The access was a little complicated with our little car and we’re just really tired. We are looking for where to sleep for the last night but we find nothing in the area so we call to Roura, they can house us, and plus it's a nice full carbet, and with hot water! It feels so good!
Tomorrow we leave then we take advantage of doing nothing to store our bags and be ready for the return.
A pretty Matoutou (Avicularia sp.) that was living under where we slept.
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- FEBRUARY 14, 2020
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The day of the return! After a very bad and short night that I ended up sitting on a chair in front of the big river Oyak, headphones on the ears, waiting for the day to rise.
For the return I had the right to a small customs check at the airport of Cayenne, with search of bags and interrogation. And all because of what? A computer problem... They didn’t see our luggage on the flight, so it’s as if we came with nothing in French Guiana, and we left with 30kg each! They probably thought they were about to do a HUGE arrest but when they realized that they would find nothing in my luggage they did not look for more and did not bother to search Damien’s bags! At least now I know how a customs check goes!
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Thank you Damien for these ten days! And thank you for keeping your legendary bad luck (I took a risk anyway:D)!
