In the early morning the expedition headed for Kuspin Bay where the research vessel was protected from the ocean swell and strong winds. It had finally stopped raining after three days of continuous downpour. Upon arrival in this secluded bay, the team immediately went up into one of the many estuaries through the dense mangroves to explore the Kusapin peninsula.

Once past the mangroves, the tropical rain forest takes over, and the river meanders through a cathedral-like forest with bromeliads covered trees draped with lianas and leafy vines. After a few kilometres upstream, it became impossible to navigate the small boat any further and the team disembarked along a small side stream to explore the area further on foot. By the lack of paths, the stream was followed through the water uphill to a waterfall with a sloped dense forest on both sides. Once the noise of the waterfall faded in the distance the calls of Oophaga pumilio could be heard throughout the forest. In the meantime it started raining again, the sound of the rain falling on the leaves and the many male frogs calling was the only sound that could be heard. Many frogs emerged and could be found communicating on top of the leaf litter around and between the buttresses of the suicide trees in the forest. This morph on the mainland is very similar to the one found on Isla Escudo de Veraguas, although the skin was much more granular than the population on the island. After a refreshing dive in the stream near the waterfall, theteam headed back to the basecamp research vessel late in the afternoon. Although it didn’t stop raining, there was finally a chance to secure all data, footage and images on the hard drives to make space on the memory cards for the next field trip.