the first week

hola amigos!
como estan?
estoy aqui, sura la isla de ometepe!

WELL
where do i begin!?

it is NUTS here. awesome and hilarious and difficult and uncomfrodable and wonderful and trying. i cannot explain the heat. and the constant discomfort. and how effing hard it is to find the freaking monkeys. (i'm a little bitter)

yesterday was basically the worst day ever. i went out early, at 4am and quicly got separated from my buddies. i found my two monkey groups but they were not all together and i couldn't find my focal animals. i finally found the mommy with the little wee infant and i got 58 mins of focal data before i lost her in the canopy. then i thought i'd found thema gain, and i stood there for 96 more mins, got swiped across the neck by a poisonous vine so basically was in an extreme amount of pain, got attacked by ants three times, i got peed on by a monkey, and basically i sweat off a layer of skin AND THEN SHE FREAKING ROLLED OVER, AND NO BABY. WRONG INDIVIDUAL. 96 mins of data on the WRONG individual. needless to say, i packed up and headed back for a shower after that. 6.5 hours in the field and only 58 mins of data. BAD DAY.

most days aren't that bad though. the food is delicious and i havn'et gotten sick yet. usually there is running water. my prof is totally awesome and can recide ANY part of ANY starwars movie off the top of his head, FLAWLESSLY. yesterday was his birthday and so Leo (our nico guide) got him a cake (it was the weirdest cake i've ever eaten) and we ate it and drank rum and nico beer and watched the phantom menace. i have yet to actually stay awake for an entire movie... the heat and the hiking are kicking my ass so i sleep a lot.

today i am here in merida (the internet place) for the morning, and i need to do a lit review of my topic, then i am heading off into the field to HOPEFULLY get some good data (and fewer ant attacks). for my project i'm going to investigate adult male interactions with infants and juveniles. problem is, they are not interacting. and that is a pretty lame project to be like "nope, doesn't happen". so i have big hopes for today. maybe there was be some clinging. or affiliative behaviour. or better yet, an agnostic interaction.

i have big hopes.
probably i will just end up getting pooped on.
oh well.

i have some good pics but this computer is struggling so i'm not gonna try to upload it. the monkeys are adorable and the island is gorgeos. right behind or compound is maderas, an old volcano, and right out front is the lake. the clouds here are nuts, huge and puffy and flowing in weird directions. sunsets are subtle but awesome. sunrise is noisy (the howlers, the roosters, even the pigs get goin).


don't get me wrong. the generally tone of this blog is worn out i think, but i am loving this and being here. there is just no glory to it. it's awesome. but in a push-you-to-your-limits-pound-you-into-the-ground-major-test-of-self kind of way.

basically, it's perfect.