I was gathering some firewood after dark one evening behind our campsite and I stumbled into a patch of poison ivy (a member of the plant family Anacardiaceae). A few days later I had a terrible reaction that consisted of a rash on my lower legs that was pretty itchy and really nasty to look at. As that started to heal, (about a week later,) I broke out with hives all over my upper body that were so itchy I couldn't sleep. A trip to the doctor provided me with a course of predisone. As I arrived in Costa Rica at the start of August, both the rash and the hives were going away and everything was fine.
That is until the other day when I went mango hunting near an old fallen down ranch house here in the park. These are mango trees.
Well it turns out that the mango tree is also in the plant family Anacardiaceae. The skin of mangoes as well as leaves and branches of the tree have the chemical urushiol which is what causes a reaction to poison ivy. You don't usually get a reaction from brushing against mango tree leaves. You have to crush them or break a branch or something. So what did I do? I climbed a bunch of mango trees, broke branches, tore leaves, and ate mangoes off the tree without washing them. All of these activities are likely to put one in contact with urushiol. That was a few days ago and today I noticed a little rash on my forearms that looks like poison ivy rash. Worse still, I think it's starting to break out around my mouth. After noticing the rash I thought about what it could be from and made the connection. Now I feel like an idiot. No more mangoes for me!
In other news it rained a lot yesterday. I guess it's the end of the canicula (see below). That did not however stop this frog from hanging out in the shower. Why doesn't he go outside and play in the mud puddles with the other frogs?
I saw this pretty butterfly on these pretty flowers the other day.
I've been in the forest a lot lately measuring my dendrometers. Dendrometers are steel bands I put around the trunks of trees that expand as the trunk grows and allow me to precisely measure the tree's growth. I find a lot of funny insects on my dendrometers and today I found this tiny frog.
That's all for now. If you are someone that prays, please pray that my mango rash doesn't get as bad as my poison ivy rash.
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