Collecting in South America

It's a wonderful place, but not for tourist, it's a very poor part of the country, but the people is happy and friendly, at least they have been that toward me and my travel companions. In my articles I will try to give you all the information I have from my trips, like where we did stay, how we got there, where we did collect and what kind of fish we did collect. And of course the information of the collecting spot and water.

So let's go to Choco:

Map of part of Choco (You can click on all the photos to enlarge them.)

CHOCO:

One of several miltary checkpoints on our way to Choco.

As soon as you have passed the Rio Cauca and start climbing up in the mountains toward the small city Bolivar, you will found out, that the jeep was the right car. We used three days to get out to Quibdo in Choco. But, we did not go straight out there, there was to many rivers we wanted to look into, before we got that far. But, Bolivar had a rather nice Hotel and we stayed the night there.

The name of the Hotel was Hosteria Parque El Centenario and we paid 2500 peso for a double room, its about dollar 3,50. From Bolivar to Quibdo it's around 120 kilometer, and it's a day drive, so fill up the tank and again you will bless the jeep, because the road is a stone/dust road and you wont be able to drive faster than about 10 to 15 kilometer pr. hour.

And I will recommend to drive in the daytime, so start early from Bolivar. You will probably drive into at least, three or four, military checkpoints, be happy and smile, and if you can speak Spanish, no problemas.

In a small town you have to drive through, called El Siete, there was a place to stay at night, but last time I drove through, it has burned down. But it might have been rebuild again. When you are driving through, there is a small bakery on your right side, just after passing the military check point. I think it's still there. Then there is nothing before you come to a small place where its a "Restaurant", and the owner has also a small shop. If you have had nothing to eat since morning in Bolivar, this is the place. The buses going from Quibdo to Medellin usually make a stop here.

My favorite position in a small stream before Tutunendo.

Then there is nothing before you reach a small town called Tutunendo, again a military check point. Just say that you are a tourist if you don't won't to explain that you are going to study the small fish in the rivers.But, if you already have collect fish in some of the small rivers you have past, then try to explain why you have small living fish in small plasticbag. Okay, after this last check point there is nothing before Quibdo, and then you will be looking for a Hotel.One Hotel is Cristo Rey, and if they are finish redecorate (they was not in 1993) then this Hotel Citara is best. On Hotel Cristo Rey I thought they had sand in the mattress, but if you like to sleep on a mattress like this, you are welcome, I did.

After a night sleep, we wanted to drive down to Istmina, there is not more than one road so just keep straight, and you will after about four hours drive end up in Istmina. But, you don't drive straight down, there are rivers and streams that need to be checked out, before you get there. The first river you will cross is Rio Tanando, we did not stop there, if I recall right the river were very muddy when we past it.I have no name on the next river and we did not stop there either, and then we came to the town Yuto which is laying at the bank of Rio Atrato. We had to take the ferry to cross the river. When we was on the ferry we decide to stop at the first river/ stream we came to. Not very far after the ferry crossing we came to a small river, this might be Rio Yuto and we decide to make a stop. The rivers was not big but had clear water. We collect Pseudopoecilia nigroventralis ? Aequidens latifrons, Nematobrycon palmeri Emperor tera named after Mr. Palmer who had collected the fish and Eigenmann described it in 1911.There was also some unknown Tetra there, and a Rivulus, maybe Rivulus paseficus.

A newly caught Aequidens latifrons. (If you like to look at a adult female Aequidens latifrons, in aquarium with egg.)

The watertemperature was 26,5*C., pH 6,5, dH 0, kH 2, Nitrit 0, microsiemens was 16 and the airtemperature was 28*C. We did not drive very far before we made a stop again, this time it was avery small pond filled with leaves. I looked into it, and it was filled with Emperor tetra. I just had to get into that water. Oh, what a sight. I did collect a couple of Aequidens latifrons and ofcourse Emperor tetra.

Then we continue to Las Animas where there was a road going out to Tado, then we was about 57 kilometer from Quibdo.We turned left and got into a military checkpoint and we got through that one without delays. Tado is laying at the bank of Rio San Juan, and this was the place mention as the collecting place for Geophagus pellegrini.The Rio San Juan was rather muddy at that time and the current was strong, so we did not go into the river. We turned the car and started on the road back to Tado. There we turned left and did not stop before we came to Istmina just in the sunset.We found the Hotel Orsan which is the best place in town to stay.

Let me tell you this right away, Istmina is not a place for tourist, it's slum. It's one of the places in Colombia where there are many poor people, most of them are black.But, most of the people is very friendly and helpful despite poorness. There is also in Hotel Orsan a "restaurant" where you can buy your meal.

Photo taken of the houses laying in the "mainstreet" in Istmina taking from the back.

Well the day after we decided to go south of the city, crossing the bridge over Rio San Juan and headed toward the small town Condoto at the bank of Rio Condoto.

After breakfast we was ready to go south of Istmina. But, we did not get that far the first day. I'm not quite sure how far it was south of Istmina,but it was between 6-7 km. but it was a stream with clear water, and the road cross the stream.It was here in this stream I caught my very first "Geophagus" pellegrini, and guess who was very pride then ??

A male of "Geophagus" pellegrini

In this very small stream outlet, leading to the bigger one, I collect "Aequidens" biseriatus. In the main stream we did also collect Psedeudopoecilia nigroventralis, Ancistrus sp., Emperor tetra, Rhineloricaria sp., Lebiasina sp., Rivulus sp., Pimelodella gracilis ?,"Cichlasoma" atromaculatum, Eigenmannia sp., Hoplias malabaricus ?, I'll give you the measuring of the water sample taken in 1991 and 1993, the first taken in the beginning of March and in middle of February,1993. Watertemperature 1991 -28,5*C. in 1993 it was 24,2*C. Air temperature in the mornig was 29*C. and at 3 PM it was 37*C.

pH 7 in '91 and pH 6 in'93.
dH 1 in '91 and dH 0 in '93
kH 2 in '91 and kH 0 in '93
Nitrite in 1991 was 0 and was not taken in 1993.

Even when there is slightly differences in the measurement taken from 1991 till 1993 I don't think the differences is big if you take the measurement through a whole year. Choco has heavy rain the year round and if my information is right, Choco comes on second place after Hawaii. But, the good thing was that most of the rain comes in the afternoon and the sun was shining all day long.

"C." atromaculatum later in aquarium, male in front, female in the back.

The day after we wanted to go further south out to Condoto and Rio Condoto. Rio Condoto was very muddy and for us wanted to dive, we could not see anything. So we went further pass the small "airport" there and about 300 meter further we came to a biotop that I also visit in 1991. The water in 1991 was not very clear, so we went back to Istmina, but in 1993 the water was rather clear and we decided to jump into the water.

We collected Aequidens latifrons, a tetra that remind me about Moenkhausia sancta-filomenae and the Yellow tetra. But, the most exciting thing with this biotop was, there was aquarium plants there. It was Red Cabomba "piuahyensis"? and Echornia diversifolia.

Water temperature was 25,7*C. Airtemperature was 31*C. pH was 5,5 - dH 0 - kH 0 and it was 190 meter above sea level.

So when the day was over we drove back to Istmina, to have dinner with a few beer to discuss the day, and to decide where to go next day. And Colombia have several good beer.

We decided that we wanted to go more west of Istmina (see map) , we was passing a place called Pie de Pepe and Rio Pepe, but wanted to go further west. It took us about one hour ride to get to a place called Curundo, the road is not very good so it was not necessary so very far from Pie de Pepe. It was a very small place but I wanted to look into the stream. This stream was not so goodlooking as Rio Pepe, it smells pigs from the water because they was bathing a little higher up. But, a true aquarist goes through fire and water to seek new fishes, and the only fish I manage to collect in this muddy water was a livebearer, Pseudopoecilia chocoensis.

Well we turned the car around, because if we wanted to go out to Rio Baudo it would takes us another two hours and then the day would be gone, and we wanted to catch more fish.When we came back to Pie de Pepe we carried all our collecting gear down to the riverbank.

And Rio Pepe was one of the best biotops out in Choco, the water was clear, it was many different fish there, so what more could we demand. We collected Sturisoma sp., probably two different Ancistrus sp., Pimelodella sp., "Geophagus" pellegrini, "Cichlasoma" atromaculatum, "Aequidens" biseriatus, Eigenmannia sp., Pseudopoecilia chocoensis, Hoplias malabaricus ? and Rhineloricaria sp.? There was also several unknown Tetras there.

Watertemperature was 25*C. Airtemperature was 29*C. pH 6,5 - dH 0 - kH 0 and it was 140 meter above sea level.

Another day another place, and this moring we wanted to go back on the "main road" to Quibdo to a place called Panamericana, it's a little further than Las Animas (see the map) the road going west is called Pan American High Way ( I wonder why theycall it High Way). It will take many, many years before this road will be finished,and much, much longer before it will be "a High WAY" and we drove the road as far as we could, and we ended up in a bulldozer and had to turne around.

The reason to that was that this road is made up in the hills and there was no rivers there, so we did not stop before we came down to Rio Tirado (I think), see the map again. We decided to use the large net and block the river and then start splashing in the water toward the net.(Last page)

Here we are splashing the water to scare the fish into the net.

Well it works, we collect "Geophagus" pellegrini and three different unknown Tetras, Emperor tetra, Rhineloricaris sp., and I also saw a cichlid that I could not tell what it was, it might have been "Chiclasoma" atromaculatum.

Watertemperature in Rio Tirado was 24,9*C. and Airtemperature was 28,3*C. pH was 5- 5,2 - dH 0 - kH 0 and Nitrite 0,1.

We continue on our way back to the "main road" to the crossing in the small town Panamericana. But, we made several stop over at small clearwater rivers/streams, before we came that far. The last place we stop by had clear water and a very nice pond below the bridge, we went into the water to check and I saw the largest "Geophagus" pellegrini I ever had seen. So we decide to use the net.

A large male "Geophagus" pellegrini.

By using the net we manage to collect the largest male there and he is now in the collection at Natural Historic Museeum in Stockhom, Sweden. There was ofcourse Emperor tetra, "Aequidens" biseriatus and several unknown tetra, but our consentration was direct on "Geophagus" pellegrini.

Watertemperature was 25,5*C. and the airtemperature was 31,7*C. ph 7 - dH 0 - kH 0 and 170 meter above sea level.

Now the time had come to think on our return back from Choco and the day after we drove back to Quibdo and Hotel Christo Rey. We should stay a couple of days before we should go back to Bogota and then a new place. The small biotop I wanted to visit was a place I found in 1991, but no one of the others (a couple of the guys was with in 1991 too) thought I would be able to find the place again. But, I belived I could and I did.

The place is on the road to Guayabal about 5 km north/northwest of Quibdo. See the map, it's on the short road north of Quibdo. The biotop is only a very small stream on the right side of the road when you are driving from Quibdo (about 5 km.).We are passing Rio Uvata (not on the map) and about 500 meter more. Then we stop and on the right side of the road, we followed a small track about 50-60 meter and then climbed down the hill from the right side of the track, and down in the bushes was the very small stream. So the boys loose the bet, they had to pay for the beer in the evening. We collect Rivulus paseficus, Emperor tetra, Lebiasina sp., Pseudopoecilia nigroventralis and some freshwatercrabs.

The watertemperature was 24,1*C. and airtemperature was 28,1*C. pH 6 - dH 0 - kH 0 , Nitrite 0,1 mg/l and it was 110 meter above sea level.

Well this was the end of Choco for now, but I have plans to go out there again, so I hope you enjoy this article and please send me a mail and tell me what you think. If you liked it, I might write more.