Back to Cuatro Bocas on the eastern side of the Magdalena River delta, our aim was to get a long core from the mangrove forest. Yolys Ayo, the physics teacher from Colegio San Jose, joined us. She was very keen on getting her immaculate white sneakers muddy, but not so keen on the narrow and wobbly boat.
Chino brought us to the mangrove forest close to the coring spot from Day 2. Here getting off the boat and on land was much easier. The forest had been struck with lightning and was being logged, so it was much more open. Chino explained how the mangrove forest can catch on fire during thunderstorms.
Coring went well, we recovered other 4 meters of mud with peat layers. The day started out sunny but quickly turned into a… thunderstorm! Luckily we had no fires and were able to finish before the 4-meter metal rods acted as a connection to earth. Then we got the cores safely onto to the boat and left the site.
Tomorrow we will be posting on our lab work and sampling marathon. The idea is to get small pieces of all cores into small plastic bags to take them back to Europe.
Fruit of the day – Guanabana
This is one of our favourite fruits in Colombia. The inside is a white nicely-scented pulp with black seeds. It can be eaten like that, but it is mostly used to make nice fruit juices with milk. A real winner!!