Friday, January 18, 2008

Bagaces Week 2

The continued ramblings of a "crazy girl field biologist" ...


Day 8:
Head to field with Joe. Spend lots of time looking for very small, non-swimming fish. Joe finds them and is the very first to see them in the field!! Move them and videotape as the mother picks them up and moves them back to the nest! Very first time recorded in the field!! Justification of my entire dissertation and this field trip!!!!! Very Very Good field day!

While waiting for taxi, howler monkeys urinate on me. Joe does not believe it. Until he also gets a spray of urine.

Celebrate wonderful day (and Joe’s last night) with Bagaces’ very best (only) pizza and watch Transformers on Joe’s computer while the power is out! See another tailless scorpion.

Meet up with Meelo and take T (Professor B’s newly arrived student) out for drinks.

Day 9:
Sad day. Must so goodbye to Joe. He heads back to The Little Town for the start of classes and leaves me to fend for myself. Take nap. Do laundry in backyard. Go out for dinner on my own and survive. Look around town for international phone cards and survive, though with limited success.

Day 10:
Head to field with Prof B and T. Get LOTS of data points. Very successful field day. Loose sunglasses (luckily, still have 2 more pairs). See Arenal Volcano erupting at a (vary far) distance.

At home, find small “real” scorpion on the wall next to my bed. What is with the scorpions?

Day 11:
No field work because I insist on staying at the TicoPC to watch live webcast of Ry’s dissertation defense. It is amazing and I cry at the end when he says (in front of everyone in the department and the internet) that he loves me and misses me. I am so proud of my Dr. Boyfriend!!!! CONGRATULATIONS DR. RYGUY!!! (Can´t wait to visit you at your new postdoc!!)

Relax a little at mi casa, then head to pool with Professor B, T & the twins. Break out in complete body rash, perhaps due to the hundreds of bug bites, or stress, or dirty clothes, or chlorine, or fleas (that my roommate allegedly has). Book ticket to fly home early. Just 15 days left.

Day 12:
Field with T & Professor B. Get many more data points, but agitated all day because of body rash.

See an agouti, white-faced capuchins, coati and howler monkeys. Get more bug bites.




Meelo picks up T & I for some Gringo Poker. I only buy in twice this week! I think next week (my last) may be my night!

Day 13:
Another day of field work with T & Professor B. Very successful, collect 5 replicates of data!



See an amardillo (so cool), big spider, another Basalisk, and white faced capuchins very, very close. The troop of capuchins are habituated, so they had no fear of me!

Enter in data and try to get to bed early … though sleep is still difficult due to the howling dogs, the roosters (that crow at all hours), the cat fights, and, of course, the bugs.

Day 14:
Third field day in a row! Another excellent day of data collection. Somehow, more bug bites appear. Now have bug bites and/or rash completely covering body. Even between fingers and on toes.

Stop by the “farmacia” to get “hidrocortisona”. Takes a while, but finally get what I want! Should have bought more.

After entering data at Prof B’s, come home to find HUGE brown spider in my bedroom. What does a brown recluse look like? I did not get a photo, because I was too busy spraying it with 100% DEET.

End of week 2!!!!! Just 11 days left in CR!!!!

1 comment:

el Luke said...

brown recluse is a tiny spider