The weather here is very frustrating. Normally it doesn't rain at all this time of year, I am repeatedly told, but starting early yesterday afternoon it started raining again, with occasional interruptions of an hour or two, through the night and into the morning. I was caught in the rain on a bike on my way back from UC Berkeley's Gump Station yesterday afternoon, but I was able to go shopping today during a dry interval. There's a small store about 25 minutes away by foot, where I bought canned vegetables and sardines, a carton of locally produced mango juice, and the last two fresh baguettes of the day. Certain foods (Thai rice and fresh baguettes among them) are unusually cheap here because the government sets the prices low so that everyone will be able to afford basic foodstuffs. Most of the shelves in the store were empty, and I was the only one shopping. This may explain the relative lack of fresh food items. I was eternally grateful that the shop was open, because today was a public holiday (Fête de la Mère, or Mother's Day) here.

I had assumed that everyone at CRIOBE was going to be French, so I made a point of addressing everyone I met in French. After a number of conversations in French that switch into English once both I and the other person realize the other is not French, it turns out that about half the people here are from countries other than France. One person turned out to be German (but fluent in French and English), and she asked me what I thought about the fact that most people at the station are not French. I hesitated to express an opinion (I didn't want to be gushingly dishonest, nor did I want to live up to the worst American stereotypes), and when she noticed my hesitation, she exclaimed "Come on, admit it, it's better that not everyone here is French." I had a good chuckle.

We are across the road from a shrimp farm. In the canals along the road live a bunch of huge terrestrial crabs, with carapaces up to 15 cm across! They look like they could be fiddler crabs of some kind.

It looks as though the rain is going to be pretty much over by tomorrow morning. If that's the case, I'm going to hike up to the Belvédère and camp out overnight along the trail, since I've been told it's a safe place to do so, and the plants I'm looking for are supposed to be there. Other weather reports suggest that it will keep raining until Monday. I really really hope this will not be the case. I'm already sick of the Internet.