July 7, 2009
At the halfway mark
Another week is almost over, which means I’ll be heading out to another camp tomorrow. This time I’ll be going to Buenos Aires (BA), which is a small village half an hour jeep ride down the mountain (about 1.5 hour hike). The local Hondurans who work for us are from there and many of them make the trek up everyday. BA will be a nice change of scenery, since Base Camp is quickly becoming older and more mundane the longer I stay here. Plus, BA has a “restaurant” where they serve chicken and fries! That’s where we’ll be eating for the week, and although our menu is pre-fixed by Opwall, I heard we’ll be eating chicken twice during the week. Oh joy! There’s also little shops where you can by candy and other foodstuffs, so I’ll probably load up and stash it away for the remainder of my trip. And of course, I’ll be collecting more tadpoles and froggies to test.
On the note of frogs, there were some interesting developments that happened in the last few days. Yesterday, we hiked down to one of the rivers further down the mountain. The high school kids came with us, and while they were splashing around in the pools and flicking each other with water, we found a HUGE tadpole in shallows. This one was a giant compared to the other ones we’ve found, at least 5 times the size of “normal” tadpoles. Whereas most have been the size of a fingernail, this one easily stretched across the palm of my hand and looked more like a small fish.
No, it wasn’t a mutant, but just another species that we haven’t caught yet this year. It was a Rana maculata, and the adult is biggest frog species known in this park, usually about 1-2 hands big. That find was definitely the highlight of the walk, although getting to wade and splash around in the river was pretty invigorating too.
This is part of the river that we were at. Gorgeous isn’t it?
Cool thing #2: I dissected a frog earlier (the one that jumped in the fire and killed itself) and found its belly full of eggs! They were all yellow and caviar-looking, both sad and cool at the same time.
Cool thing #3: This doesn’t have anything to do with frogs, but was awesome nonetheless. Joe, one of the head guys here left (for good, as in this was his last year here) and we had a party for him. And party= barbecue=meat! (and other yummy foods). Because this was “extra” stuff outside normal Opwall budget, we all pitched in a little money to pay for ourselves and the guides and cooks, and we all enjoyed a nice meal of beef, sausage and fried plantains. I loooove plantains, especially when they’re deep fried in sugar and all gooey and soft inside. Yummy yummy…I’m going to look up a recipe when I get home, although I’ll probably have to use bananas since plantains are pretty rare in the US. So it was a pretty festive night last night, we left the generator on for longer than normal and had music blasting from some iPod speakers. It felt weirdly “normal” and “clubby” even though we were surrounded by dense forest and in the middle of nowhere. If you had transplanted us to the UK, I think we would’ve fit right in the middle of a pub crowd.
Ok…so I’m off again for another week. Write again when I get back!
June 30, 2009
Back to Base Camp
During the one week I’ve been gone, the rest of the world has apparently experienced some drastic changes. The first piece of news we got via radio dispatch one night while we were sitting around the campfire: Michael Jackson is dead. The next morning, we hear that the Honduran President tried to circumnavigate constitutional law and run for reelection, resulting in his subsequent removal from the country. Basically a military coup (although the US has not officially called it such) happened while we were happily traipsing through the jungle.
(And before you all freak out, yes, I’m fine. We’re all fine here. The middle of the jungle in the middle of nowhere is probably the safest place to be in this country right now. From what we’ve heard so far though, things have been pretty peaceful, although a lot of people have been on strike (an excuse not to go to work, basically). At any sign of violence, Opwall (the program I’m with) is supposed to evacuate us, so no worries. When I opened my inbox this morning, I also found an email from Dean Kanach from OIP at school: she wanted me to update her on my status and sent me the US Embassy contacts numbers and other emergency stuff. I found it pretty amusing, considering none of us feel threatened at all, but reassured at the same time that Princeton is keeping tabs on us.)
And then, this morning we get the news that Obama has finally declared that the US is pulling troops out of Iraq. Wow…so much stuff has gone but it all seems a bit surreal. I feel like I’m living in a bubble here, away from the rest of civilization, so much so that whatever is going on “out there” doesn’t affect us in any way. We’re still going about our days normally, hiking up and down transects, eating beans and rice, etc etc. Same old same old.
But, to recap on the past week: it’s been seriously awesome. I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of this place, and really enjoy being here. Being at Cantiles was entirely different from being at Base Camp. First of all, it’s smaller (fewer people), so the environment is a lot more intimate. There were about 12 of us doing our projects, with 8 more locals who served as our guides/cooks. We all ate together and sat around the campfire together, and really got to converse and live together in a way that just isn’t possible at Base Camp among a mass of people. A couple of nights, the Honduran guides would sit with us and we’d take turns teaching each other Spanish and English. They’re such eager learners and teachers, incredibly patient with us when we have no idea what they’re talking about and just gesticulating madly, and constantly cheerful hiking up and down the transects with us, even when we’re incredibly slow. One night, we helped the cooks make dinner. I learned how to make tortillas! It’s amazing how much people can work together even when they don’t speak the same language, and all of us chopping and cutting and kneading dough really brought us (Hondurans, British, American) together. There was an incredible feeling of camaraderie, and that was definitely part of why Cantiles was so great.
The entire camp is built on a hillside, so every night it was a muddy trek up the mountain to my tent. The camp is flanked on two sides by rivers, one big one, and one little one (more like a stream). We used the big river for group bathing/sun tanning, which we managed to do one day when the sun decided to show its face for more than three hours. It’s so relaxing just to lay out on a big rock and bask like a lizard. The small stream we used for private washing, and there was a little waterfall with a pool surrounded by huge rocks, so it was extremely private and pretty. Imagine those TV shampoo commercials where the girl comes out of a tropical pool in the middle of the forest, flipping her long hair…that’s what the place looked like. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it, so you’ll just have to make do with your imagination.
As for my project, I managed to collect samples from about 20-something tadpoles, so I’ll be spending this week testing them in the lab. To find the tadpoles, we walked up and down the rivers, poking under rocks and leaves. And when I say walking down the river, I literally mean walking in the river, jumping from rock to rock, occasionally falling in and getting soaked. The entire experience was thoroughly enjoyable though, especially when your boots are already squishing with every step you take, so you’re just like, “screw it”, and splash around some more. We had some excitement one night, after a day of looking for frogs, when one particularly stupid (or cold?) one jumped right into our fire. I managed to rescue it before it got too charred, but unfortunately it had twitched its last by the time I got it in my hand. I hope to dissect it later this week and get some tissue samples.
There’s a lot more I can say about Cantiles, but this is a massive post already. Basically there were two instances/thoughts that really struck me this week: 1) during one of the hikes we went on, when we were practically clawing our way up a muddy vertical hillside, and my thought was “I really love this”. After a certain point, being dirty and gross doesn’t matter as much, dying of exhaustion isn’t as painful, cause you’re with people you like and ultimately, going up always means going down later (and go down that steep hill we did, doing crazy mudsliding stunts on the way. I think someone else has a picture of me on their camera.). 2) Just the fact that we are here in the jungle, doing what we’re doing, makes us incredibly privileged compared to the locals who live here year round. I keep thinking that because we’re not in the city, I don’t see as much evidence of poverty, but the guides and cooks who work for us receive a bulk of their yearly income from these few weeks of working for Opwall. They sell chocolate, cookies, and pop to us to make money, but are too poor to afford it for themselves. I thought I was deprived in not having eaten meat in three weeks, but talking to one of the cooks in Cantiles, the last time she ate meat was last year. Most of them have never been to San Pedro Sula, a mere two hours down the mountain by truck (because none of them have cars). It really puts things into perspective, and makes me appreciate so much more what all of these people do for us (aside from saving our butts/keeping us alive in the jungle), and makes me wonder what we can do for them.
Generator is going off in 5 minutes. As always, pictures later. Thanks to everyone who’s sent me a note asking how I’m doing. I know your prayers and thoughts go before me. Please pray for continued health and safety, and that I’ll be able to stay strong in faith and spiritual discipline.
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.
