well i've been here 3 weeks now and it feels like aaaaaaaaaages!! we are well into the swing of doing 'proper work' now, and i'm loving it.
as you can probably have guessed, there is no such thing as an 'average day' so i will describe a few sorts of days.
Day 1.
get up at 4.00am and eat breakfast, ready to go on the beach by 5.00am, to do nest checking. this invovles walking about 5 miles, noting down all the turtle nests that have been laid the previous night. this is usually somewhere in the region of 100. we also note down when turtles come onto the beach but don't nest. you can clearly see their tracks so it's easy enough... so long as the weather stays cool.
back to camp for lunch, then a lazy hour to lie in a hammock or do some laundry or have a cold shower. then at 2pm, off on Incidentals walk for 3 hours. this invovlers walking through the forest and writing down any vertebrate species you see... this generally invovles snakes (4 speices seen so far) some lizards / skinks / anoles, monkeys (howler monkeys; capuchins; spider monkeys) and if you are lucky maybe something out of the ordinary like a sloth or tapir - i haven't seen them yet though. well i saw a sloth but it just looked like a black blob and you coulndt tell what it was. i'm getting some amazing phots woith my big camera.
back to camp for tea, then in the evening, play cards and chat with people in the kitchen till they turn off the lights at 8pm,. then we go to bed.
Day 2
get up at 3.00am, eat breakfast and be out by 4.00am, ready to do bird surveys along the canal. this invovles canoeing in a gourp of 6 of us, along the canals (which are amazingly beautiful and NOTHING like the ugly waterways in England. they're about 30m wide, and are overhanging with plants and trees. we note down all the bird species we see.
back to camp for lunch, then spend an hour doing some launrdy (in cold water, by hand). having the afternoon off, then having tea and having a meeting where we all share stories of exciting things we've seen in the past couple of days. then going to bed for a nap at about 8pm when they turn off the lights, and waking up at 11pm, to get ready for midnight to go on a turtle walk till 4.00am. this invovles wearing all black clothes, trousers and long sleeves, and going along the beach to find turtles who've come ashore to nest. as they dig their holes, we wait, and then we count the eggs, record / measure where the nest is, then tag the turtle.
back to camp at 4.30am, and say goodnight / good morning to the people who've just got up for an early task.
Day 3
have a lie in till lunch, as we only went to bed around 4.30. then after lunch, going off on a nest excavation. where you use the measurements that another group did a coupel of months ago, and you dig down to see if the eggs have hatched or not.
back to camp for dinner, then spend a couple of hours writing my journal, and playing cards in the kitchen, till they turn out the lights at 8.00pm and we all go to bed, ready for another 4am start the next day.
so that's the sorts of things we are doing, and there have been some amazing experiences so far. for example, seeing jaguar prints on the beach, in the footprints you made only a couple of hours before is both exciting and unnerving! and Edouard stepped on a venomous snake - eek!! something else which was great was seeing a hatchling on the beach, and wathicng its epic journey (we can't interfere though) as it goes the 20m down to the sea. we were all standing round, cheering it on, videoing it, etc. we have also become accustomed to seeing dead turtles on the beach too - i don't mind seeing it, as they have been killed by jaguars, so it seems reasonable. we have , however, had a couple of our nests taken by poachers, which is upsetting and sad and makes me angry. the turtles are endangered, and they take the eggs and sell them in bars, because they are supposedly an aphrodisiac, even though there is no documented proof whatsover that that's true. >:o(
the people i'm here were are generally a really good buch. most of them are students, but age does not seem to matter - i'm the 3rd oldest. some of them are here for just 5 weeks, and i'm really going to miss them when they go.... loads of people... i like everyone, and we have had loads of fun together.
I was doing a nest excavation with Sarah and Kyle, and the nest hole was so deep that Kyle was head and shoulders deep into it, and me and Sarah had to hold his legs so he didn't fall in!! it was so funny.... and another time, the same 3 of us again (the dream team! plkus Molly) were caught in a tropical storm, and could not see for the rivers of water in our eyes, so we sheltered under a tree and sand drinking songs and had zombie face-pulling contests.
generally speaking, it's all brilliant stuff, and i feel like i'm doing something useful, fun interesting etc. My only real gripes are the mosquitoes; they didn't seem to bother me at first, but now they're really getting a taste for me - and the insect repellant i'm using! honestly, my legs look like i have chicken pox!
at the moment we are in a nearby town as we have a 'long weekend' (wed-thu-fri) off work, and we are all doing a 2-day white water rafting trip, and we're sleeping out by the riverside. it should be cool!!
well that's it for now....
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Friday, 9 July 2010
Week one in the Jungle
well it´s the end of week one in the jungle and it´s been crazy - feel like i´ve been here aaages already!
the weather here is fairly hot (around 30´C) but ridiculously humid - i did some laundry (and washing only) and hung it out, and after 2 days in the sun all day, they were till damp and i finally gave up trying to get things dry. things are always dripping with sweat within an hour of you putting them on anyway, so it doesn´t really seem to make much difference!
i am staying at a camp in the middle of nowhere - there are no roads leading to the camp, and the only way to reach it is by a 45 minute motorised canoe ride, then a 20minute walk through the rainforest. the camp is about a third of an acre, mainly a little grassy oasis in the middle of a coconut ... (can´t find a slash key) rainforest plantation. the only buildings on the camp are little wooden huts, which have corrugated iron roofs, holes in the sides, and bunk beds with our mosquito nets on them, i tell you climbing in and out of a top bunk and then quickly shoving the mozzie bet underneath again is a real feat of gymnastics.: there are 4 dorm rooms, 2 staff bedrooms, a kitchen and a dining room. the only electricity is from a generator which is tuned on once a day. there are 2 flushing toilets but you can´t put toilet paper in them, and the showers are cold. it can be quite nice to be cold though, but getting dry is impossible. these are definitely the most rustic conditions i have stayed in - most of you would hate it!
life here is good as long as you accept a few things:
- you and your clothes will never be dry - whether from sweat, seawater, showers, humidity, or whatever, you will always be wet
- you will always have sand on your bed, on your skin, and in your clothes
we spend our days (at the moment) in ´lessons´ (they would never pass an ofsted inspection!) and learning loads of stuff. so far we have done basic first aid, loads about turtles, how to locate their nests, what to do when they are laying eggs, how to age a dead turtle, how to excavate unhatched nests, how to recognise nests that have been predated and by what animal... we´ve also learned about birds and been on a canal bird survey. Guess what? we DID NOT have to learn all those bird calls! But I figure, no knowledge is wasted, and i can be sat there among the coconut trees, listening to the sound of the ocean waves in the background, and hear a bird call and i think to myself "that´s a great kiskadee" or "oh, the clay-coloured robin is back" or "will that montezumas oropendola ever shut up?!" which is far more satisfying than just hearing random birds. there are a couple of staff members (Jon, plus Andres) here who are also into birds so i can talk birding with them. it´s really sad, and we can discuss our favourite bird calls, and whether we´ve heard the barred woodcreeper today, etc. there is also a list of birds on the wall, and we mark on it each day if we happen to hear a bird, and where it was, and each day someone transfers the information into a book which goes towarads national data on bird prevalence in different national parks, so whilst my bird knowledge was not necessary, it is certainly useful and i´m glad i know what i know. we DO however need to know what the birds look like, and its quite good that while we were going along in the canoe, i was able to say "look - a male belted kingfisher" instead of just "look, there´s a bird!" as we need to keep written records of all the birds we see on the canoe trips, again for national data. that is a requirement, and part of our ´job´.
something else we have been training to do is work with turtles. the turtles come on land to nest at night, and we are waiting in the shadows, wearing all black, and it is one person´s job to count the turtles eggs as they are laid, while the other two triangulate the position of the next. this means to measure and mark where it is, so that in 2 and a half months time when the nest hatches, the turtle teams know which nest it is, when it was laid, etc. and moreover, if it doesn´t hatch, we excavate it to see why the eggs haven´t hatched. so far we have only measured and buried a coconut, then a few days later, another team has to use our measurements to find and dig u our coconut, to see if we and they can do it properly (we can, so that ´s good because in 2 night´s time, we are being let loose on real turtles!) we have seen turtles in the sea so far, but quite a way out (just a blob really) and the only turtle we´ve seen up close was dead.
we have seen lots of other cool stuff though - three types of monkeys - capuchin monkeys which are often kept as pets, spider monkeys which are gibbon-like, and howler monkeys who are larger and howl a sound like a heavy metal rock bad howl. óne of the guys in our group (Kyle) can imitate them really well, and the howler monkeys will answers him! the spider and capuchin monkeys will throw branches at you and throw faeces at you, or wee on you as a warning. so far we have only seen one throw a few twigs, but i think it would be good if someone could get shit thrown at them - ha ha!
we´ve also seen lots of birds, which are great, and i know almost all the ones i have seen, so i am definitely one of the bird enthusiasts, and i have at times not been able to let a bird call past without nudging someone and saying "hear that? that´s a great tinamou" and they nod and probably think ´saddo´. we have also seen 3 or 4 eyelash vipers, which are small but deadly snakes which have long scales above their eyes which look like eyelashes. one of those was in the camp, within 10 metres of our open-roor dorms. but the snakes keep themselves to themselves, so it´s not too much of a problem. unless you leave stuff all over the floor, as they like to climb into crevices such as bags or clothes. this is the ultimate incentive to be tidy, and everything must be hung up on the walls. however, that won´t stop spiders or biting ants or giant wasps crawling into your stuff... my god, i have seen some scary spiders, and so far almost each one we´ve seen has been a different species! they are amazing and i´ve got some great photos. there are also loads of lizards such as baselisks (dunno how to spell it) scuttling round. they are called jesus christ lizards because they run on their back legs and can walk on water. we saw one do it and it was DEAD GOOD!
everyone else on the programme seems cool - most are from the US, but there are also volunteers from Canada, Sweden, France, Australia, Scotland, England and New Zealand. there are 5 guys and 13 girls, and most of them are likeable and fun to be with.
the days are weird, as they are skewed towards the early hours. we get up at 4.30am or 5.am, and begin work, learning etc. by 6am every day. ´lunch´ is at about 11am, and tea is at about 5pm, after which is free time. we stay up till half past eight or so, and anything approaching 10pm is a late night! so during the day, we learn about snakes, birds, turtles or whatever , and do practical exercises on the beach, or written tests, and in the evenings we play cards, write journals, talk etc. there are some games in the kitchen, and the other day, we decided to play monopoly, but it was full of cockroaches; Taboo was the game of choice for the ants, while it was cockroaches again who were munching on jenga pieces. we stuck to just cards after that.
we haven´t yet begun to do the work we´ve come here to do, and this week has been mainly lectures, but next week the real work begins. then we are actually going to be marking turtle nests, identifying birds, etc. it´s going to be great!
the weather here is fairly hot (around 30´C) but ridiculously humid - i did some laundry (and washing only) and hung it out, and after 2 days in the sun all day, they were till damp and i finally gave up trying to get things dry. things are always dripping with sweat within an hour of you putting them on anyway, so it doesn´t really seem to make much difference!
i am staying at a camp in the middle of nowhere - there are no roads leading to the camp, and the only way to reach it is by a 45 minute motorised canoe ride, then a 20minute walk through the rainforest. the camp is about a third of an acre, mainly a little grassy oasis in the middle of a coconut ... (can´t find a slash key) rainforest plantation. the only buildings on the camp are little wooden huts, which have corrugated iron roofs, holes in the sides, and bunk beds with our mosquito nets on them, i tell you climbing in and out of a top bunk and then quickly shoving the mozzie bet underneath again is a real feat of gymnastics.: there are 4 dorm rooms, 2 staff bedrooms, a kitchen and a dining room. the only electricity is from a generator which is tuned on once a day. there are 2 flushing toilets but you can´t put toilet paper in them, and the showers are cold. it can be quite nice to be cold though, but getting dry is impossible. these are definitely the most rustic conditions i have stayed in - most of you would hate it!
life here is good as long as you accept a few things:
- you and your clothes will never be dry - whether from sweat, seawater, showers, humidity, or whatever, you will always be wet
- you will always have sand on your bed, on your skin, and in your clothes
we spend our days (at the moment) in ´lessons´ (they would never pass an ofsted inspection!) and learning loads of stuff. so far we have done basic first aid, loads about turtles, how to locate their nests, what to do when they are laying eggs, how to age a dead turtle, how to excavate unhatched nests, how to recognise nests that have been predated and by what animal... we´ve also learned about birds and been on a canal bird survey. Guess what? we DID NOT have to learn all those bird calls! But I figure, no knowledge is wasted, and i can be sat there among the coconut trees, listening to the sound of the ocean waves in the background, and hear a bird call and i think to myself "that´s a great kiskadee" or "oh, the clay-coloured robin is back" or "will that montezumas oropendola ever shut up?!" which is far more satisfying than just hearing random birds. there are a couple of staff members (Jon, plus Andres) here who are also into birds so i can talk birding with them. it´s really sad, and we can discuss our favourite bird calls, and whether we´ve heard the barred woodcreeper today, etc. there is also a list of birds on the wall, and we mark on it each day if we happen to hear a bird, and where it was, and each day someone transfers the information into a book which goes towarads national data on bird prevalence in different national parks, so whilst my bird knowledge was not necessary, it is certainly useful and i´m glad i know what i know. we DO however need to know what the birds look like, and its quite good that while we were going along in the canoe, i was able to say "look - a male belted kingfisher" instead of just "look, there´s a bird!" as we need to keep written records of all the birds we see on the canoe trips, again for national data. that is a requirement, and part of our ´job´.
something else we have been training to do is work with turtles. the turtles come on land to nest at night, and we are waiting in the shadows, wearing all black, and it is one person´s job to count the turtles eggs as they are laid, while the other two triangulate the position of the next. this means to measure and mark where it is, so that in 2 and a half months time when the nest hatches, the turtle teams know which nest it is, when it was laid, etc. and moreover, if it doesn´t hatch, we excavate it to see why the eggs haven´t hatched. so far we have only measured and buried a coconut, then a few days later, another team has to use our measurements to find and dig u our coconut, to see if we and they can do it properly (we can, so that ´s good because in 2 night´s time, we are being let loose on real turtles!) we have seen turtles in the sea so far, but quite a way out (just a blob really) and the only turtle we´ve seen up close was dead.
we have seen lots of other cool stuff though - three types of monkeys - capuchin monkeys which are often kept as pets, spider monkeys which are gibbon-like, and howler monkeys who are larger and howl a sound like a heavy metal rock bad howl. óne of the guys in our group (Kyle) can imitate them really well, and the howler monkeys will answers him! the spider and capuchin monkeys will throw branches at you and throw faeces at you, or wee on you as a warning. so far we have only seen one throw a few twigs, but i think it would be good if someone could get shit thrown at them - ha ha!
we´ve also seen lots of birds, which are great, and i know almost all the ones i have seen, so i am definitely one of the bird enthusiasts, and i have at times not been able to let a bird call past without nudging someone and saying "hear that? that´s a great tinamou" and they nod and probably think ´saddo´. we have also seen 3 or 4 eyelash vipers, which are small but deadly snakes which have long scales above their eyes which look like eyelashes. one of those was in the camp, within 10 metres of our open-roor dorms. but the snakes keep themselves to themselves, so it´s not too much of a problem. unless you leave stuff all over the floor, as they like to climb into crevices such as bags or clothes. this is the ultimate incentive to be tidy, and everything must be hung up on the walls. however, that won´t stop spiders or biting ants or giant wasps crawling into your stuff... my god, i have seen some scary spiders, and so far almost each one we´ve seen has been a different species! they are amazing and i´ve got some great photos. there are also loads of lizards such as baselisks (dunno how to spell it) scuttling round. they are called jesus christ lizards because they run on their back legs and can walk on water. we saw one do it and it was DEAD GOOD!
everyone else on the programme seems cool - most are from the US, but there are also volunteers from Canada, Sweden, France, Australia, Scotland, England and New Zealand. there are 5 guys and 13 girls, and most of them are likeable and fun to be with.
the days are weird, as they are skewed towards the early hours. we get up at 4.30am or 5.am, and begin work, learning etc. by 6am every day. ´lunch´ is at about 11am, and tea is at about 5pm, after which is free time. we stay up till half past eight or so, and anything approaching 10pm is a late night! so during the day, we learn about snakes, birds, turtles or whatever , and do practical exercises on the beach, or written tests, and in the evenings we play cards, write journals, talk etc. there are some games in the kitchen, and the other day, we decided to play monopoly, but it was full of cockroaches; Taboo was the game of choice for the ants, while it was cockroaches again who were munching on jenga pieces. we stuck to just cards after that.
we haven´t yet begun to do the work we´ve come here to do, and this week has been mainly lectures, but next week the real work begins. then we are actually going to be marking turtle nests, identifying birds, etc. it´s going to be great!
Friday, 2 July 2010
Dry as a bone... in a lake
i have finally arrived in Costa Rica, a mere 20 hours later than planned! phew - an epic struggle.... the plan was fly to JFK, then change planes and fly to Costa Rica. there was 1 hour 45 mins between flights. but alas, a delay on my first flight scuppered the plans thereafter. i missed the second plane by 10 minutes, and there were no other planes till the next morning, so i was put on a plane to miami... that was also delayed because a previous passenger had puked on MY seat and the cleaners took 2 hours to clean it, while everyone else sat on the plane and i stood up in the aisle. i felt famous after that and had the feeling that people followed ME to baggage reclaims, customs etc as i am wearing my England hat so probably quite memorable even if they hadn't spent 2 hours looking at me in the aisle of the plane!
so i got to miami at 11pm local time (4am for me) and the airport was closing down, and although i'd been told in JFK that i could get a free hotel voucher, every official i went to in miami said they were clocking off for the night and i had to go and speak to someone else! anyway i finally got the voucher and got the shuttle bus to the hotel (lap of luxury, king size bed, giant plasma tv, ... probably a really bad idea just before i am about to go and live in a wooden hut in the jungle!) so i went to bed about midnight and slept till about 6.30 am, when i had the biggest (free) breakfast ever of pancakes, waffles, fruit, spicy potatoes, and scrambled eggs (not all on the same plate!) then back to the airport to get the plane to Costa Rica. That plane was ALSO delayed by about 2 and a half hours, because someone had checked a bag onto the plane, and then not got onto the plane. jeesus... the other passengers and i were like "who cares? let's go without them!" but the cabin crew said you know things like that could be a problem as we don't know what is in their bag, or why they've chosen to put a bag on a plane but not to get on the plane, but let's not go into details or think about the worst... i think he was hinting at bombs or something, which doesn't really fill me with confidence about the level of airport security!
i've now made it to costa rica though, and GVI have been in touch and said they'll pick me up tomorrow instead of today (phew!) then the adventure really begins.
anyhow that's it for now. the weather in JFK (New York) was 25'C, hot and sunny; the weather in miami was 29'C hot (even at midnight); the weather here in costa rica is about 18'C, grey skies, pissing it down with rain. the taxi driver said it's like this every day! ah well, if you will come to the rainforest you can't very well complain about the rain (but i still might!) It has literally been chucking it down with rain for the past 5 hours in Costa Rica, and when i went to the supermarket, i was wearing a cagoul and using an umbrella. Upper body: dry. Legs: piss wet through. however, i imagine that that is about to become normality, so it may not even be worthy of comment in the future. Hey, just assume i'm soaked to the skin, unless otherwise stated! :P
so i got to miami at 11pm local time (4am for me) and the airport was closing down, and although i'd been told in JFK that i could get a free hotel voucher, every official i went to in miami said they were clocking off for the night and i had to go and speak to someone else! anyway i finally got the voucher and got the shuttle bus to the hotel (lap of luxury, king size bed, giant plasma tv, ... probably a really bad idea just before i am about to go and live in a wooden hut in the jungle!) so i went to bed about midnight and slept till about 6.30 am, when i had the biggest (free) breakfast ever of pancakes, waffles, fruit, spicy potatoes, and scrambled eggs (not all on the same plate!) then back to the airport to get the plane to Costa Rica. That plane was ALSO delayed by about 2 and a half hours, because someone had checked a bag onto the plane, and then not got onto the plane. jeesus... the other passengers and i were like "who cares? let's go without them!" but the cabin crew said you know things like that could be a problem as we don't know what is in their bag, or why they've chosen to put a bag on a plane but not to get on the plane, but let's not go into details or think about the worst... i think he was hinting at bombs or something, which doesn't really fill me with confidence about the level of airport security!
i've now made it to costa rica though, and GVI have been in touch and said they'll pick me up tomorrow instead of today (phew!) then the adventure really begins.
anyhow that's it for now. the weather in JFK (New York) was 25'C, hot and sunny; the weather in miami was 29'C hot (even at midnight); the weather here in costa rica is about 18'C, grey skies, pissing it down with rain. the taxi driver said it's like this every day! ah well, if you will come to the rainforest you can't very well complain about the rain (but i still might!) It has literally been chucking it down with rain for the past 5 hours in Costa Rica, and when i went to the supermarket, i was wearing a cagoul and using an umbrella. Upper body: dry. Legs: piss wet through. however, i imagine that that is about to become normality, so it may not even be worthy of comment in the future. Hey, just assume i'm soaked to the skin, unless otherwise stated! :P
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