last day in the field

If I've seen any trend in the bracken so far, it's that the stupid fern doesn't grow well in dense forests. (I call it stupid because it's mean and kills everything else growing near it and cows and people's livelihoods.) Since Petcacab and Polinkin are a forestry ejido, I didn't expect to see a whole lot of the stuff. However, no easy day for us. The first patch that we visited took an hour to drive to down a 22km (that's about 12-13 miles) long dirty road. It was enormous and the ejidotarios insisted we hike through it rather than drive along it. It was a pretty hot day, and many ticks later (ugh, gross) we made it through and travelled back down that road to get to the other patches. We came to another large agricultural plot that had some bracken mixed in it, and again the ejidotarios insisted we hike through it. Alex dropped us off at the start and drove the truck to meet us at the end. It was around 1PM, and the sun was draining my will to live. Just as my head started pounding and I thought I couldn't possibly sweat anymore, we got to the end of the patch, where Alex was waiting with water and the announcement: this was the last patch.

The last patch!

I finished my field work!

With 24 hours to spare!

To celebrate, we checked out Belize's free zone and later went out for dinner in Chetumal. The original intention was to have Chinese food, because how hilarious would it be for the American girl to order her dinner in Chinese, in Mexico? But two of the Chinese retaurants were closed, and the third didn't serve my kind (vegetarians). We settled on quesadillas and beers, which were really, really good. Beer of the day: Modelo's Leon. This brings me to an important point: why hasn't there been a beer of the day in Mexico, like there was in Canada?

I like beer. I like trying new beers, especially local beers. That was my goal in Canada. Here in Mexico though, there is little variance, and no such thing as local breweries that I've found. I've tried plenty of beers, most of which you can find in the US: Sol, Corona, Dos Equis, Tecate, Modelo, but they're all Mexican lager. Nothing else. I've tried a few "dark" beers, aka Mexican lager with a drop of molasses in them: Negra Modelo, Modelo's Leon, Bohemia Classica. But really, little variance. And, while one cold beer is very refreshing after a hard day of work, the second beer combined with the heat and humidity made me understand why I see so many people laying around in hammocks in the afternoons.

This brings me to my next point: aside from my family and my friends, what am I most excited for upon my return to NJ in just a few more days? It's a toss up if I'm more excited about a cold glass of milk with dinner (they only sell the boxed Parmalat-type milk here, which did not agree with my stomach at all), or a cold Guinness. The funny part about Guinness being one of my favorite beers? I wasn't crazy about it when I tried it for the first time in Northern Ireland. But I digress. Regardless, being in Mexico has been a really great experience (except maybe the scar I now have on my neck and chin), but I am looking forward to being back in New Jersey (for reasons beside Guinness, of course!).

tree of the day: the lovely ficus in Polinkin's town square