July 28, 2009
nearing the end
I have officially completed my last trek in the jungle. From now on, I won’t be doing much walking, as my next week in the monkey house is pretty chill and we’ll get driven everywhere. I’m also done with all of my sampling, and will be returning home with 183 samples of DNA and 4 dead frog specimens. Whoo…more lab work once I get back to school. Other “lasts” are less momentous, like my last inevitable fall into the river (quite spectacular this one, I almost went on my back like a turtle), my last river bath, my last time peeing in a funnel or using a trench (I forgot if I’ve explained this before), my last PCR reaction (in the jungle), etc etc.
Generator is going off soon so I’ll try to review last week quickly: a bus took us from Base Camp through San Pedro Sula (the city), around the mountain and dropped us off at the base on the other side. We then hiked up in the HOT noon-day sun to a camp called Santo Thomas, which is like the “base camp” of the west side. The hike was incredibly grueling, especially since this was the first time we’ve ever had to do it under the sun, jungle hikes are nicely shaded by the canopy and are nicely cool and breezy. It was worth it though, because the views from the side of the mountain are absolutely amazing. Because there were no trees to obstruct our view, we were close enough to the border to see into Guatemala for several miles. And when you’re standing on the edge of a hillside, with the land laid out before you for almost 360 degrees, it’s really a breathtaking moment. There’s no way cameras could capture it, although I tried (pics later).
We stayed over in Santo Thomas for a night, then the next day made the 6 hour hike to Cortecito. Another very hot, uphill journey. Santo Thomas is at about 500 meters above sea level. Cortecito is at 1500 m, so we hiked about 1000 m up! Pretty crazy, and I thought I was going to die on the way, but after I got there still in one piece, it felt like quite an accomplishment. I’m glad I did it, even though I probably wouldn’t volunteer to do it again. In comparison, the trip back (all downhill) took us only slightly less than 4 hours.
Ok, more later, I’m afraid they’re going to cut power before I can post this.
June 15, 2009
Post Jungle Training
I’m alive!!!! Three days in the jungle and I’ve collected quite a few bug bites, a little more calf muscle, and the knowledge of how to tie my own hammock. The entire time, I couldn’t help comparing it to OA, which might give some of you guys a little perspective on how different/same the jungle is.
In terms of hiking, this was waaaay more strenuous. We didn’t travel very far…the first day was only about 3-4 miles. The problem is, the majority of the paths here are either straight up or straight down. One of the guys at camp told me that people say this part of Honduras is all at a 30 degree incline. Some of the hills we climbed definitely felt like we were going 60 degrees up. And while going up is tiring, going down is just plain scary. There were several places where we just gave up walking and slid down the hills on our bottoms (and there’s so many British people here that I’m tempted to say “bum”). The paths were never straight, as well, always twisting and turning, going over fallen tree logs, under tree roots, over streams and across mud pits. It’s usually so narrow that even walking single file doesn’t prevent you from getting scraped and smacked in the face by tree branches and vine. In some places, the trail looks like it just disappears…thankfully we had amazing Honduran guides that led us through, or else I’m sure we would not have made it through so safely. (Btw, these guides have probably been walking these trails since they could walk. They run up and down those slopes I mentioned like its nothing and carry ridiculous amounts of stuff on their back and still travel twice as fast as we do.)
The second day, we hiked out to a river which was actually big enough for us to wash in. I went in with my bathing suit, but only ended up washing my arms and legs cause it was freeeeezing. But it was very very cool…I mean, bathing in shallow pools formed by rocky outcroppings, as the river flows over and down the hillside…that’s like stuff you only see in movies.
Food was definitely way below the quality of OA. We had to make our own fires, which was cool, but food consisted mainly of noodles, beans, and canned vegetables. Definitely not appetizing after more than one meal. Oh, how I longed for the cheese, sausage, and Nutella of OA fare. Meat is basically non-existent here…we get our protein from peanut butter, beans, and maybe some tuna. I guess large farm animals are few and far between around here. Last night though, we had fun toasting marshmallows and dough balls over the campfire, and this morning the guides taught us how to cook eggs over the fire using tree leaves. Mine failed cause I dropped it in the fire, haha, but I got some cool pictures of other people cooking.
We also learned how to set up hammocks, which is how we slept for the past three nights. I can’t say they’re as comfortable as people make them out to be; sleeping in a U shape with my feet and head above my butt doesn’t really do much for good blood circulation. Plus, there’s not much room to maneuver in a hammock, so it was a cramped 3 nights. It also gets dark around 6:30, and after the sun goes down its pitch black, which makes walking around in the forest a bit scary. Random noises in the night are also creepy, although mostly we could only hear crickets and birds. Apparently, somebody sighted a puma, but I’m not sure a large feline would come so near a noisy camp.
At any rate, I don’t think jungle training was very helpful in terms of teaching me how to survive in the jungle. I thought we’d be taught how to find edible leaves and berries and stuff like that, but nope…they didn’t even give us a crash course on what plants and animals to avoid. The only thing we got was “snakes: if you see one, don’t touch it!” Well, duh…tell me something I’m not already conditioned to do. So now if you throw me back in the jungle for a week with nothing, I’m sure I won’t survive more than a few days. Good thing that’s not going to happen.
Anyway, so now we’re back, and after a few days in the middle of nowhere, Base Camp feels like civilization. Showers, toilets, tents, FOOD….seriously, it’s like luxurious compared to jungle training. Which is probably why they make us do this the first week, so we’re not complaining about Base Camp the whole time. But it’s only been ONE week, and I feel like I’ve been here forever. I have 7 more to go!! Not sure how I’m going to survive that, but hopefully most weeks won’t be as dirty and tiring as this past one has been.
I’m currently writing this post as I’m waiting for the Internet to load. The cloud cover is pretty heavy (looks like its going to rain later), and the internet is waaaay slow. I’ve been waiting for Gmail to load for almost two hours now, but it’s still not working. You’ll see how long it takes when I finally get to post this.
Pictures later cause obviously this is soooo slow.
June 11, 2009
Day 2 (today)
First day of Jungle Training. We hiked out this morning for a 4 hour hike, which was pretty tame considering I was thinking we’d just be dumped in the jungle for 5 days. But apparently, we only do a 3 day overnight hike, and the others are all day hikes from Base Camp. This morning’s hike was very cool though, got to see some really neat jungle scenery, and even swung like Tarzan on a vine, hehe. In the afternoon, we hiked out to a waterfall. The trail that led to it felt like we were scaling the side of a cliff, which might actually be what we did. It was incredibly rocky and steep, but the final destination was definitely worth it. Check out some pictures.
Tomorrow we leave for our 3 day adventure….post when I get back!
