The magical world of Puerto Rico's fungi

5/1/2018 Comments

The magical world of Puerto Rico's fungi

One night, while I was in my volunteer work with leatherback sea turtles, I talked to a friend who was making trips for tourists and people interested in mycology, to look for mushrooms in Puerto Rico. That night we decided to meet in a small urban forest located in Bayamon, called Parque Julio Enrique Monagas, where they usually take the tourists. I was looking for a different photography theme, and this was an interesting one. To be honest, I thought that what I was going to see in that trip was the same kind of mushrooms I found in my backyard, the white one that never last more than two days. But for my surprise, we were able to find more than 20 different species of fungi in a short trail of the forest. All kind of sizes, forms, colors, and textures.

This was an incredible experience for me, not only because of what I learned about fungi, but also because photographing this part of the natural world is like entering to another realm where you look things differently. Very difficult some times to achieve that perfect picture. Trying to capture the colors, light, and details was a challenging task, specially in those occasions where the mushrooms were in the ground and quite hidden.

Before I present this photo series, I want to give special thanks to Kurt Miller and Yaritza Rivera who were my guides in this trip. They have an extensive knowledge about fungi, and the ability to find the mushrooms every where they looked. Also for their patience because of the time I took shooting this pictures. If you are interested in this trip you can look for it in this link: Forage for mushrooms with biologists
https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/184247?locale=en
There are some species that doesn't have ID yet.

Enjoy!