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!