Tracking Down Brachyrhaphis At Several Sites

Today we did our last collection of Brachyrhaphis, at Quebrada Sardinilla in an easily accessible part of Soberania National Park. This site, Sendero El Charco, is described as a picnic area, which is true, but it's also an "Introduction to the Rain Forest" with an annotated loop trail. This crosses the creek at several points, with the picnic area at a small waterfall. We went to the furthest point of the loop trail where it crosses the creek with a suspended bridge. As usual, most of the Brachys I caught were in a small tributary in shallow, leafy water. Below is a picture of me basking in the relative ease of capturing fish at this site.

Yesterday we went to El Valle de Anton, in the floor of a drop-dead beautiful ancient volcano caldera about two hours west of Panama City. We collected fish at one site above a waterfall in Rio Guaybo to the northwest of town at about 650 meters elevation, and at a site to the northeast of town at 705 meters elevation. I mention the elevation because both are as high or higher than anywhere in Alabama... The first site is a tourist attraction with hiking on the grounds, and a zipline allowing people to roll down a suspended rope at the height of the forest canopy. That would be fun, but we didn't hang around to do it. The photo below is of me at the second site, Rio Mata Ahogado, chasing Brachys in the shallow sandy stream. The local people were politely bemused; rural Panamanians, especially, are very polite and tolerant, so crazy gringos showing up in the stream by the road netting fish wasn't a big deal.