Speaking of all being well that ends well... today was tough! All six of us went into the field together to an ejido called
Ok, enough nerd stuff. We did the damage transect for Buena Vista first, tagging and idenfying trees, analyzing damage and resilliance, blah blah blah, and it took way longer than we thought it would. It's not really a job for more than two or three people either, so most of us twiddled our thumbs a lot this morning. After getting all hot and worn out (it was really hot AND humid today and we were in the sun quite a bit), we had lunch, and then dragged our exhausted selves to the other side of the ejido to start working on my bracken at 3PM. A little frustrating to say the least, but we found and mapped the fern in a timely fashion.
However, and you might see this in today's photos and in the days to come... there was a little incident in the process. At one point I was following Alex and our ejidotario guide for the day while the ejidotario hacked a path through the ferns with a machete (don't worry, that's not what gave me the gash on my neck... at least not directly). We got to the end of the area, marked it on the GPS, and turned around, so I was leading us back. Alex warned me to be careful, but didn't quite convey what I should be careful of. I watched my feet as we hiked back, looking up just once to check how far we had to go, at which point I stepped in a hole and caught my neck and chin on a sapling that was just freshly-- and sharply-- cut by a machete only minutes before. Needless to say, a little bit of damage was done, but nothing too significant. See photos. Notice I'm still smiling. Tough day, but valuable. We accomplished a lot, and learned a lot more for upcoming days in the field.
Because Marco and Zach are going off to do their own work for the rest of their time here, we decided to relax in Bacalar together for a while this evening since we won't be working together anymore. We jumped in the bay fully clothed. It was a really relaxing. I tried Modelo Negra, which is Mexico's "dark" beer... aka Mexican lager with a touch of molasses, I hear. Tomorrow will be another day of hard work, but we're getting better prepared for this as we go. We're leaving at 6AM though, so... signing off!
No comments:
Post a Comment