dia ultimo

Last day in Mexico! My bus departs from Chetumal at 11.30PM for Cancun, about a six hour trip. My flight is at noon tomorrow.

This morning I woke up at 5.30 without an alarm. I was able to doze for a little while longer, but have been up for good since around 6. I guess I'll sleep like a champion on that bus.

This morning we went to the market so I could wander around, admire all of the tropical produce and take a few photos. We went out for empanadas for brunch. Apparently, typical Yucatan (the state and sort of the peninsula) food is empanadas made with chaya, a kind of leaf, and filled with cheese. We enjoyed these and some agua de jamaica (a sort of juice made with the jamaica flower, aka hibiscus tea according to a quick google search) before heading to Ecosur for the day. Shortly we'll be having a Skype conference with my advisor. In the meantime, we're having cake in the work room for Alex's birthday (this space really is like the cart lab at Mary Washington!) The rest of the day? Lunch at Ecosur, as cooked by Doña Rosa. I guess I should pack. (We know I have a history of doing this last minute, see: before this trip, before Canada trip, etc.) I bet my father, who will be picking me up at the airport, would also appreciate me showering before I depart. We may have dinner with Birgit (our EDGY person at Ecosur, if you recall). Just little things like these for the rest of today.

It's been yet another pretty excellent adventure.

Tree of the day: casuarina. I've had my eye on this all along. It's an invasive exotic... but it looks like a sort of pine tree. We know I love my pine trees, so this is in honor of me returning to my homeland, located snugly between the ocean and the Pine Barrens.

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

I should be working right now but I don't feeeeeel like it!

Today was a productive, albeit frustrating second to last day in the field. Finally made it to Los Divorciados. I suspect that's one of the less poor ejidos; this assumption based not only on the facts that there are tin roofs and more recent paint jobs on the houses, but also that you can't see all of the stray dogs' ribs. These have been frustrating people to work with. Not 16 hours after we visited to get permission to work did we find ourselves there with no one aware, much less available to help us with the damage transect and bracken work. Members of our team have now visited a total of five times, but the work is done. Our ejidotario was a bit frustrating though. Around noon, he told us there was no more bracken. It was hot and sunny today, so we went to a store in town to get some cold sodas. As we pulled up, he said there was still another road full of bracken we had to visit. So we skipped the Coca Colas and went back to work for nearly four more hours. The time spent working is not the problem. The ejidotario said at nearly every patch of bracken, "This is the last one, but there's one more down there, too." Arghrghrakghdfg.

Also, can we discuss this photo?

Regardless, it's done! One ejido left! Petcacab and Polinkin! Tomorrow!

Tree of the day: ramon, easily recognized by its buttressed trunk

The skies are clear so perhaps I will take my field notes to the roof to type and think about...

Ride, captain, ride upon your mystery ship!

Guess what it did today? There's a tie for rainy day photo, although one is foreshadowing and one is... aftershadowing? Is that a word? It is now.

It did rain again, though it thankfully held off until after we finished the ejido of the day, Aaron Merino Fernandez. We had a plethora of people in the truck this morning, which I was quite worried about: myself, Irene, Juan-Pablo, Angel, Alberto and the ejidotario makes more people than we have seats. I didn't like the idea of forcing anyone to sit in the back with the threat of rain, even the interns, who are meant to be treated poorly (right? But they're good boys. They're helping me. They're nice.) But Angel and Alberto volunteered to sit in the back while we drove from plot to plot. I'm the only driver left here and Alex had the day off, so I had a good time (and thus, the interns had a good time) sliding through some intense mud puddles in the Hilux. It was a bit more like sailing a ship than driving a truck at times, but I didn't get stuck or stall!

After we finished at Aaron Merino Fernandez, we headed out to the last ejido on my list. We've been having trouble finding anyone to ask permission to work. Well, today we had better luck, finding the entire leadership board of Petcacab and Polinkin. (Of note: two ejidos in one!) The comisario, his treasurer, secretary, security guy and I don't remember what the fifth guy's job was? together granted us permission to work there on Tuesday. That plus Los Divorciados on Monday means that I'll visit everywhere on my list before I head home!

tree of the day: cedro. Have I already picked that one? It's cedar, but it's very, very different from cedar as we know it in the United States.

t minus one week

The rains continue! The good news is, it is no longer eight trillion degrees out, and I don't have to reapply sunscreen every thirteen minutes. The not so good news includes the intense humidity, the loss of regular access to our rooftop office, and the mosquitoes.

The bracken continues! Yesterday was a long day spent at Ecosur, working out the details of my last week here, among other things. There was a bit of a faux-pas with some files, which lead to some confusion about what I needed to do (something like double digits more ejidos in seven days)... but a little bit of decision making later (yes, I am capable of doing that when necessary), it looked like I needed to visit five more of these farming villages to check out their bracken situations. Today I did two with the help of Alex and my interns. Two down, three to go? Seven more days? I might actually have time to be a tourist a little bit!

Things to do before leaving Mexico (feel free to make other suggestions):

• visit the market to take pictures
• go to Belize*
• acquire tequila for my brother and his fiancee (anyone who knows me knows this is true, and that in no way is said tequila for my own consumption)
• clean the mud off my boots so they can reenter the United States (current status: biohazard)
  
• probably some other shenanigans

I guess I didn't really think that list through very far. Oh well.

*Since it's down to myself, Irene, Juan-Pablo and Alex with US, Venezuelan,Colombian and expired Mexican passports, respectively, we cannot actually all go to Belize-- they need visas. Well, and Alex needs to renew his passport. Since I don't speak Spanish, I'm a bit wary of going alone, but there's a free zone 15 minutes from the house... I'm determined to go there! ANOTHER COUNTRY IS 15 MINUTES AWAY! Come on, you should have me figured out by now!

inundable!

I will try not to inundable you with information about my last two days, but come on, the title is "inundable" (Spanish for inundated, or flooded... one of my many forestry/conservation vocab words)!

Yesterday was the last transect for Karen and me (the 19th of 20 in real life, though). We went out with a bang, literally! Around 75 meters out of 100 of assessing forest damage, the thunder that we'd been hearing rumble all morning decided it would be a good time to arrive over our heads and start raining, after 18 transects without any rain, in the rainy season. Ludicrous. It was a tough transect, too-- selva baja inundable (lowland inundated forest, lots of young trees, lots of brush, very wet, and lots and lots of bugs). Thankfully, we're equipt with waterproof field notebooks, which actually work! You can write on the pages in the rain. Nothing smears. Nothing runs, except the water. Incredible. Bracken was bracken, but it was really rainy for the rest of the day. I somehow came home more caked in mud than everyone else, despite all walking and working in the same places.

We had a farewell dinner out with Karen. Marco and I dropped her off at the bus station late last night; by the time I woke up, Juan-Pablo had arrived from Colombia, been picked up, and had settled into our casa on Av. Bugambilias.

Today, Alex and Irene went to finish the last transect in Los Divorciados while Marco and I took my pair of interns west to train them to do my work for the next six months. What's that? You are also surprised, shocken even, that I have been given a pair of interns? I know, me too! But it's true. I have two interns: Angel, the tall outgoing one who speaks a slight amount of English, and Alberto, the shorter rounder shyer one who did not say a single word in English. They are clearly buddies, but they're required this internship in order to graduate from college, so it's a nice mix of hilarity and productivity. Also, did I mention, they are going to collect data for me for the next six months?

I had a great time in the field today. Most of what I did was troubleshoot the form Marco and I wrote for the interns to collect information with, questions about land use and fire history and all of the other things I won't bore you with that my thesis will be about. Ahem. Anyway. We were at an ejido called Nicolas Bravo, which my advisor worked at quite a lot for her Phd dissertation, so everyone there knows and loves her. In fact, our ejidotario named his daughter after her. So they were all excited that I, Laura's student, was there.

The coolest part might have started with our ejidotario saying, "Oh, there's an old Maya house." We just drove past this crumbled house sitting atop a mound (the Maya liked to build up the land they built their structures on). That house is more than twice as old as the country which I hail from! Just sitting there, in the middle of the ejido! I learned the words in Spanish to inform the interns that "I am a student AND a tourist" before I took that photo. At the next plot, what do you know? More ruins! Unguarded, un-roped-off... Marco mentioned casually that I could go up and see them if I want, so I clearly climbed on top of them and did my intern-supervising from there.

It rained on and off throughout the day. The rest of it was spent getting filthy by walking through burned helechals (plots inundable-d with the helecho, which is Spanish for fern) and standing around on Maya mounds surveying the awesome landscape. Don't worry, I was sure to leave my camera in the truck for the last plot, when we stood on a particularly high mound that offered a complete panoramic view of the landscape and horizon. (I'm so dumb.)

The day ended in an intense workout to prevent Marco, the interns, and my untimely deaths in the torrential downpour. I was behind the wheel in the Chevy truck, which is about 10 years old and only marginally better than The Monster. Shifting that thing was a pretty intense physical workout to begin with, but driving in that storm was a big workout for my brain. The streets in and around Chetumal were inundable-d. Also, the Chevy had crappy windshield wipers and the vent system did nothing to defog the windshield. I drove into town at about half the speed limit, and we clearly survived without incident, as I'm writing about it all now. The streets are still flooded here even though the rain has mostly stopped, but we're all home safely and planning on relaxing a bit tonight: tomorrow is an Ecosur day, Marco's last day, and Juan-Pablo's birthday!

Don't worry, this one is much shorter!

After telling you how kind and helpful everyone has been along our way, we were blown off by the comisario in Los Divorciados today (yes, that means "the divorcees" but I'll tell you about it when we actually go there to work). He didn't tell anyone else we were coming and was out of town at least all morning so we couldn't work. Irene and Alex will return on Tuesday while I'm out galavanting with Marco and my pair of interns, so I'll return at a later date.

So instead, we visited some Maya ruins in Chacchoben. They were delightful. We were the only ones there.

Tree of the day: ceiba.

Also, for everyone who kindly requested that I not catch swine flu while in Mexico, there are three confirmed cases at Rutgers... and I'm still flu-free in the Yucatan!

This is long, I know, I'm sorry. You can skip it. I won't know!

This blog is as much for my own memory as it is to let people know I'm alive and well and enjoying my travel shenanigans. What follows is long. Rambling. Stuff about trees. etc. Just so you know.

We returned this evening from our three night stay in Laguna Kana and are now 18/20 finished with what we were assigned to do here in the southern Yucatan. I would like to tell you mostly about two things: the kindness of the people we've worked and stayed with, and what you do in a town that doesn't have running water.

Pretty much everywhere we've gone, we've been met with kindness. Karen, Irene and I all agreed that even if some ejidotarios have made jokes about marrying us (especially when Alex isn't working with us), no one has ever been outright creepy. Pretty much everyone has worked really hard for us. Cutting a straight line through dense secondary growth with a machete in the Mexico heat is not easy! I was particularly surprised with our trip to Laguna Kana though. When we visited on Sunday to get permission, we asked a man if we could stay in his house while we worked in the three northernmost ejidos. He agreed-- he housed a team from Ecosur last year, too. His wife was away in Cancun visiting their daughter, who I understand may be handicapped in some way. When we arrived kind of late on Tuesday night, it turned out his wife was home, but they cleared out of the two room house and slept in hammocks next door so we could stay. I just thought that was really nice of them.

I like to think I'm pretty flexible and open to new life experiences, but I was not particularly prepared for the whole no- indoor- plumbing/ running water at all scenario. I'll spare you the details of how these things work (though I had to tell someone and my mom was kind enough to pick up the phone tonight!). I clearly survived and now have a better idea of how I'll survive living in a village in Africa for a while someday (I mean, what? We'll cross that bridge when we get there.). However, I thought I'd share what a town without running water does have: pretty forests, pretty night skies, and very little else to do, so also good night's sleep. I slept in a hammock all three nights, and did so much like a baby. It helps that I went to bed earlier than I do when I'm in Chetumal uploading photos and sharing my shenanigans with you all.

But back to that thing about the clear, gorgeous, billions-of-stars sky... it was awesome. Breathtaking, even. I told my mom about this on the phone too (I don't just tell her about how people sponge bathe over toilets when we talk), and she said I was pretty awed when I first noticed stars as a toddler. I imagine this was pretty much the same. I've been in rural places, I've seen bright starry nights. One of the nights in Laguna Kana, the power went out (yes, they have electricity but not water), and it was even more pronounced loveliness. Oh man. Words just can't describe, so I'll stop trying.

But now that this is nice and long anyway, some snippets of my starlit ponderings these past few nights whilst hanging out in the village without running water or anything else to do besides ponder things under a gorgeous starry sky:

• Apples. Think about the produce section at your local grocery store. What's exotic to you? Ok, probably nothing, because we get whatever we want in the US. Well, here, apples are exotic. They are shipped from places like Washington State. People here are crazy about their apples! We have apple flavored crackers, apple granola bars, apple soda...
• Toilet seats. Why don't most toilets in this country have them? We don't need to debate actually utilizing them or not, but it just looks strange.
• Chickens. It's so obvious why people (not me) eat them. They're really dumb, and rarely adorable. However, why is it that some have feathers and some in the same flock look ready to jump in a deep fryer? Do chickens get mange?
  
• Bugambilias. They are probably my favorite flowers I've seen here, and I figured out why. The flowers look more like extremely colorful little leaves than actual flowers, so it's like they're extremely beautiful little trees. And we know how I feel about trees.

Speaking of which, trees of the last few days, and then I'm really going to bed!:

• Tuesday: jabin. We see these everywhere. On Tuesday, in Bacalar, Karen explained to me very specifically how we so easily identify them all the time. I won't bore you. I recognize jabin now.
  
• Wednesday: in Laguna Kana, pucte, a huge tree down by the Laguna that I half climbed
  
• Thursday: in Yoactun, DEFINITELY the amapola
• today in Santa Maria Ponientte: I know the Pich was already mentioned, but come on, who can resist a bunch of grad students measuring the DBH of a giant, beautiful tree in the town square for fun first thing in the morning?

In conclusion, I'm still alive and well and loving trees. Did you notice my invasive bracken fern wasn't mentioned? That's because it barely exists up north!

back to Bacalar tomorrow

Not much to report here. We worked from home after several failed attempts to get permission to work on ejidos in the area. Tomorrow, we're doing damage transects and bracken hunting in Bacalar starting at 6.45AM! Thankfully that only means we have to leave here around 6.15. Oof. And at the end of the day? Not playing in the laguna, sadly. Shower, pack, and drive up north to work there for a few days. We got our tree tags today!

By the way, when I say "up north" I kind of mean central Quintana Roo, the state I've been living and working in. I work in the Southern Yucatan region. So we're going to the sort of northernmost part of the southern part of the region, if that makes sense. I felt I needed to clarify. I am a geographer, after all.

Yesterday, though, was pretty cool. We had to drive all over Quintana Roo to arrange our schedule (you can tell we're working in rural places without phones) for the coming week, so we went an additional two hours out of our way to see some ruins and the Caribbean Sea. Long, but lovely day!

Tree of the day: orange tree. Unlike pineapples, these do grow on trees! And, we have one in our neighbor's backyard that grows up and onto our roof, where we all like to sit when we're working on our computers. Nothing is ripe on it yet, but it sure smells nice when climbing through it to get on the roof!

If you like piña...

I wasn't going to write again before heading north, but we're still waiting for some forestry supplies and thus, will not be heading north tomorrow morning. Well, we are, but to rearrange our schedule.

Today: easy damage transects! We were in El Bajio, which doesn't have a lot of trees. We had about a third the number of trees to assess in each of two transects. We split into two teams of two, each had an ejidotario, and finished quickly. Bracken fern was easy, too, very condensed. When we finished our work, the ejidotarios offered us some pineapple (piña in Español). As in, fresh picked, wild pineapples. I followed our ejidotario into the plot figuring that pineapple trees would CLEARLY be the tree of the day, but silly me had no idea that pineapples don't grow on trees! The ejidotario kept piling them up in my arms, and talking to me in Spanish no matter how many times I told him during the day, "No hablo Español!" He would smile, then start talking again and giving me more pineapples. Once back at the truck, we immediately ate some. So amazing! (Besides it just being straight up delicious, I have a soft spot for food that is locally grown and organic. This was a beautiful moment for me.)

We got a lesson in Maya language on the way back, which was amusing. The younger of the two ejidotarios was really excited and yelled everything to us. "Yosh bo'otik!" (thank you)

I don't know why I bother sharing our plans for the upcoming days because they change constantly. But, because we didn't receive the tree tags we need for the damage transect work, we're not staying up north starting tomorrow. It's looking like Tuesday to Thursday, and working in Bacalar on Monday. Still heading up north to talk to the comisarios and hammer out a work schedule and check out Maya ruins and the beach at Tulum though... as a consolation prize when we found out the package would not be arriving today as promised and that our plans needed to change, Alex took us to the home of a woman he knows who makes really, really good ice cream. We picked up a container each of vanilla and coconut and enjoyed them very, very much. Fresh pineapple and fresh ice cream. I'd say it was a pretty good day!

Tree of the day: pineapples can hold an honorary position here, but the real title goes to guano trees, which are a kind of palm. They're a pain in the butt to get a DBH for, but hey, I can identify it! We noticed a lot of these around El Bajio today. (And yes, I know that guano means something else in English. Just wait till the boob tree wins the title.)

hint: it's the ITCZ

My morning consisted of sitting in the bed of the pickup truck with Alex and an ejidotario and driving around some of Noh-Bec's better roads in search of bracken. We found and mapped some, but Alex and I also had a good talk about trees and climatology. (If you didn't already know what a huge nerd I am, I guess I just blew it.) I saw a 400 year old Pich tree! And yet, the tree of the day is going to be the Chicle tree, easily spotted due to the diamond shaped slashes in the bark for the purpose of harvesting the sap for chewing gum.

I'm sitting on the roof, watching a pretty awesome lightning storm in the distance. Don't worry, it's so far you can't even hear thunder yet, and there are lots of things around me that are taller than I am... and it's really pretty! As mentioned, in addition to being a tree nerd, I am admittedly a climate nerd. I can tell you all about why the rainy season is about to start in this region... but I'll spare you unless you want to have this conversation. It was pouring when we woke up this morning and it seems like it will rain again tonight. This should make fieldwork more interesting in the next few weeks.

We've finalized our plans for the next few days, so in case you're my parents who just got back from an internet-free weekend in D.C. and you wonder where your daughter is: she'll be in internet-free central Quintana Roo. On Sunday, we're travelling north to visit Maya ruins and the beach at Tulum before settling into the house we're renting for a few days in Laguna Kana. It's got two rooms. I'll be sleeping in a hammock and not posting here. I may have some things to say tomorrow, otherwise, catch you Wednesday or Thursday!

halfway

Right now, Irene and Alex are cooking dinner and I'm playing Christmas music. No real reason. We wanted to eat. We wanted to listen to music. Done and done. Rice, potatoes, plantains, chicken for them, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

We returned to El Gallito to do a damage transect with our friend Primitivo. Afterwards, we went to El Bajio to ask for permission to work their Saturday. They were in the middle of a very large and very heated meeting, but we got permission. They don't really know and don't seem to care what we'll be doing. Alex said we'd pay them, and they promised us two ejidotarios. The forest of El Bajio is very young, and since the minimum diameter at breast height that we consider is 5 cm, we're thinking there won't be a lot of trees for us to assess in these two transects. This leaves us plenty of time to take a tour of their bracken paradise. I'm sure they don't view bracken fern invasion as paradise though. It is really, really extensive.

The two days prior were spent at Juan Sarabia-- you know, the ejido that I am a partial owner of. On Tuesday we were stood up by our ejidotarios but when we stopped by the ejido office on our way home to double-check for Wednesday, we were promised this pair of men who happened to be hanging out behind the Casa Ejido at the time. I can think of two words that well summed up our first impression: old and crotchedy. One was much more vocal than the other. They were not pleased to be told what to do. However, despite our fears for Wednesday, things went very well. Once split up and put in the field to cut a path in the woods and assess the trees with us, they were kind and very helpful.

Three weeks from now, barring any great delays on Continental's part, I will be in New Jersey. In the three weeks since I've arrived, I've learned to identify bracken quickly at a distance (yes, even with my eyes-- it's a weird color and consistency in the landscape), picked up un poquito (a very little bit) Spanish, spent a ridiculous amount of time in the truck, grown quite fond of my rooftop office, and discovered that for 20 pesos more than I paid at the lame laundromat several blocks away, the woman across the street will gladly wash and fold my laundry for me within 24 hours. I think it's going pretty well.

ALSO! I am getting the hang of the trees here and can start sharing a tree of the day with you! I can only hope you're half as excited as I am. For today: the flamboyan (sometimes spelled with a "t" on the end). It's mostly a decorative, probably from India, thinks Alex. We have a few in the median of Avenue Bugambilias and elsewhere around Chetumal. It's very pretty!

Yes, I would like some cheese with my whine, thank you.

Have I mentioned that doing damage transects is hard work? And that it takes a long time? And that IT'S HOT IN MEXICO?!

Before I discuss this any further, you should know that while I was not pleased at the time, I am pleased now that it's over and pleased to be sitting on the roof enjoying a nice breeze. However, it's hilarious that 70 degrees feels cool.

We set out at 6AM to an ejido about an hour and a half away called Noh-Bec. The comisario didn't have two ejidotarios ready for us at 7.30, as we'd discussed when we went to ask for permission last week, but promised us two other guys would be ready soon. So at 8 we meet our two guys, whose combined age was still probably younger than 50% of our research team. As Alex put it, "We're giving them a tour of their own ejido." After a couple of hours of off roading searching for the place, we took them back to town and requested someone who actually knew the land, and after waiting a while for someone to finish what they were doing, we were off again, around 11. He lead us to a road that used to exist. An hour of extreme offroading later, we were in the middle of the selva mediana-alta (medium-high forest). The conversation leading up to that moment was along the lines of, let's find the points and come back on Friday to do them. Let's just do bracken today. But upon our arrival at the points, it suddenly changed to, "Let's do this!" A few issues here:

• It was noon. You know, high sun.
• The two damage transects we've completed thus far took over 4 hours each.
• Today's pair of transects were in a forestry ejido. Meaning, there were more trees, bigger trees, and we couldn't use nails to tag the trees.
  
• Fishing line is hard to tie quickly.
• Our "ejidotarios" were obediant but didn't know the trees or the land at all.
  

Alex and Karen took the transect that required a 2 kilometer hike to get to, but I got to take that hike later anyway when Irene and I realized we misplaced our DBH tape (diameter at breast height, it's a snazzy little forestry tool that measures the diameter using the circumfrence). Thankfully, they had an extra, and work carried on. We finished the transects a little after 6, out of water and pretty tired. But they're done! And that felt pretty awesome. Actually, all things considered, we had the weather and the shade in our favor for the most part. High of only 85 today, and a somewhat regular breeze. Glorious. We don't have to go back there again. At least, not till next year. But hopefully I'll actually have graduated with my masters by then. Actually, we do still have to do bracken fern work, but we're going back on Friday and we requested someone a little more familiar with the land...

We got back to Chetumal at 8.30. Long day, but I think we're all feeling pretty accomplished and pretty glad to have that one behind us. Tomorrow we return to Juan Sarabia to do more damage transect work. You may recall this is the ejido that I now co-own with Karen and Irene. It's nearby so we don't have to leave until 7! I might go read a little bit FOR FUN before I go to bed!

brick-a-bracken

You know, that might be a good title for my thesis.

Today was devoted entirely to bracken. Karen, Irene and I spent the day in an ejido called Juan Sarabia, whose comisario (sort of commissioner, I guess, the guy who runs the place, the head ejidotario) man named Manuel (I didn't catch his last name). He was very nice when we went to his office this morning to ask permission to do research in his ejido. In fact, his words were, "The ejido is yours!" So we spent the rest of our day surveying our land (for bracken). We found so much of it that it became overwhelming to make maps of, but I think we've got some pretty good information. We'll be going back on Tuesday and Wednesday to do damage transects and get the last few patches of bracken. New photos posted.

The funniest part about my research is that any time we ask an ejidotario about the land and bracken history, they're very nice and helpful, but also kind of confused, sort of, "Why would these girls want to know about this stuff? We already know all there is to know about bracken. It grows everywhere. You burn the land, and snap! It grows back." Most of them say it's been a problem for as long as they've been on the ejido-- the Mexican government encouraged communal farming development in the last 40 years or so as part of conservation efforts. So most people remember bracken when they arrived in the ejido 20, 30 years ago. Ultimately, I'll be looking into other variables as well, but it's been interesting hearing their stories about bracken.

damage

The last few days have been pretty busy, though in all sorts of different ways. We spent Monday and Tuesday at Ecosur, doing research and prep work. On Monday, Marco and Zach gave presentations (in both Spanish and English) about the EDGY project to the students (it's just a grad school, so all masters and Phd candidates). Afterward, we finally met Karen, our UVA contingent! The funny part about that (not really funny ha-ha, though we laughed later) is that we had found out upon our return the night before at 8PM from the middle of nowhere, that Karen had arrived at 6AM Sunday morning. No one told us ahead of time! Oh wait, it gets better! Karen actually arrived at 11PM Saturday night in Chetumal. She spent the night in the tiny bus station hoping someone would come for her. We were all in the middle of nowhere though. At 6AM Sunday is when she gave up and checked into a hotel. She was then clever enough to take a taxi to Ecosur first thing Monday morning, at which point, we met her. Crazy, but all's well that ends well, right?

Speaking of all being well that ends well... today was tough! All six of us went into the field together to an ejido called Buena Vista. First task of the day was to complete a damage transect. This is not any of our research specifically, but relates to the overall project and contributes more directly to the primary investigators' own projects. This is why all of the schools were so happy to pay for us to come to Mexico. I won't bore you with all of the details of what a transect is and what it accomplishes, but basically it's compared to satellite data. When a satellite takes a photo of earth, the pictures of a region are taken in a sort of back and forth sweeping motion, like mowing a lawn. We were basically doing this on the ground in a specific place, studying how damaged the trees are and how much they have or have not recovered since Hurricane Dean in 2007, which is EDGY's temporal anchor.

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!

produce and productivity

This update is from El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (Ecosur), in a room that is reminiscent of the Mary Washington cart lab-- people come in, people do work, people drink coffee, there are big windows.

Today we found an ejido in Caan Lumil with many different types of fruits and veggies (plantains, oranges, these little apples, maize) and plenty of invasive ferns. We met some very helpful farmers who shared how long ago different areas were burned, and how they're trying to deal with the fern invasion. It wasn't even on our list of sites to visit, but we spent most of the day mapping it. The sketch got kind of out of control, but I'm going to redraw it tonight. I heard from my advisor, who seems to think I'm doing fine work so far. This is pretty reassuring.

We called it a day a little earlier to try and get the beds from the witch in Bacalar... but no success. However, plans changed at the last minute so only two others are arriving tonight, Zack and Marco from Clark. No one knows if we'll have anyone from UVA or not, or when... so we're making do for now.

We haven't had dinner yet and Alex is being very patient while Irene and I do some work, so I'll just share some photos: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v473/fishius25/Mexico/. Don't worry, I'm not posting every fern photo I take... I'll bake a pie for whoever guesses closest to how many photos of just helechos we have taken so far...

Day two: still no flu!

Hola again from the internet place two houses down from our house in Chetumal! I actually came down here by myself, and asked if I could please use the internet in Spanish by myself (Puedo usar internet, por favor?), and have clearly had success in this endeavor. Now I´m just carefully studying my pesos to make sure I give them the correct one when I´m done. I´m catching on, no matter how slowly.

Day two in the field: Irene, Alex (after four nonstop days together, Alejandro tells us he prefers Alex, and that no one calls him Alejandro) took on some points in the next state west, Campeche. The day started with a meeting with the Primary Investigator of EcoSur, the EDGY university affiliate here in Chetumal. Birgit, a German native, is actually the only PI who will be present in Mexico this summer. (Rutgers, Clark and UVA each have one, too-- my advisor is the one at RU, but none are coming. It´s frightening how much they all appear to trust us.) She gave us some gear and helped us sort out some details for the next few days before we headed out for the day.

We stopped by the field house in Zoh-Laguna in Campeche. It lacks a proper shower and the internet but does have tarantulas! Don´t worry, people rarely see the tarantulas and there is a water spout and some buckets for bathing. The little town was on the way to one of the sites we needed to visit to search for my helechos (ferns, if you haven´t been paying attention). We actually found a lot of helechos today. Irene got some great photos and GPS points while Alex and I climbed into the bush to get details for my sketch maps.

It was really hot out, but today was slightly shorter. At the end of it we spent some time back at Laguna Bacalar, waiting for a woman to get home who is currently holding the rest of the EDGY beds hostage. We just sat on a stone wall near the Fuerte San Felipe eating some pan (bread) we got from a baker across the street since the woman wasn´t there when she said she would be. I guess EDGY rented some beds to her or something, but tomorrow our cohorts from Clark arrive, so we kind of need more than the two beds that Irene and I have been occupying. Tomorrow morning we´re going back to Bacalar for these beds, and if we have success, we´ll spend the day catching up on our computer work here in Chetumal, and I´ll be sure to post some more photos. If the witch, as Alex has come to call her, is not in, we´ll continue north to search for more bracken.

Trial by fire... literally.

My first day in the field started out with two strikes against it. One, Irene and I barely slept last night. By the time we loaded our points into the GPS last night, it was kind of late, but then the neighbors kindly left their dog out last night, and it howled and barked and whined. The. whole. night. Irene was so disoriented that she woke up an hour early at 3.30 and then kindly woke me up as well to make sure I was ready to go in time. So, the day started in a super exhausted way.

Second, and anyone who has ever gone anywhere with me before will not be too surprised: guess who got carsick? We´re at the internet shop two houses down from ours, so I won´t be uploading photos tonight, but when I do in coming days, take a look at the road and you´ll see why. Hours and hours of bumpy, curvy, unpaved roads. Fare thee well, breakfast.

So quite obviously the day started out not in the smoothest way. It was interesting to be in Mayan territority though. We were searching for my fern (helecho) in places several hours north of here and not having much success early on. Eventually we were shown some by a few farmers in one ejido, and then had several more failures, including a multiple mile hike that yielded no results under the high sun. Ugh. We passed some fields that were actually in the process of being slashed and burned, so I learned a bit about the agricultural season. Right now is the typical time to be burning fields, right before the rainy season really gets going. There was evidence of this all over the place.

Eventually we found some large patches along the highway near where we thought we´d find some helechos, though not the exact point. With the help of my cohort and manager, I´ve got some GPS points and some really sloppy sketch maps that I´ll of course go back and correct. Photos to come in days following. All in all, Alejandro, Irene and I spent over 14 hours in the field today, with mixed failures and successes, but we stopped by another lovely lake on the way back to our Casa Amarillo (yellow house). It´s raining pretty hard right now so the heat has broken at least temporarily, so I think I´ll sleep well tonight... if the dog stays quiet...

next destination: Mexico!

Oh hey!

Some of you may have heard, because I'm excited and tell anyone who even slightly expresses interest in what I'm up to these days: I'm going to Mexico!

For my masters thesis, I'll be studying the bracken fern invasion in the southern Yucatan peninsula and its relationship to fires in the area-- mostly slash and burn agriculture, but potentially with a nod to wildfires/hurricanes too (I can only hope to include natural hazards!). Yes, I am excited! Yes, I will take pictures! No, I do not speak Spanish! Thankfully, I have been teamed up with my fellow geographer Irene, whose Spanish is exponentially better than mine (she's from Venezuela). She's going to be doing some preliminary work for her Phd dissertation, too. I'll drive the truck, she'll speak the Spanish. It should be pretty excellent!

Right now my life is a whirlwind of grading my students' exams and getting all of the things I need before I leave on Friday morning. Many thanks to my kind mother for doing my laundry and my kind father for taking the day off to drive my research cohort and me to the airport!

exciting and edgy upcoming adventure!

This is pretty exciting news!

After a bit of panic about what courses to take this semester and what direction my thesis work might take, I landed a really sweet field research gig for a chunk of the summer. My advisor, Laura Schneider, had mentioned offhandedly in the past that she might be happy to bring me onto her research, the EDGY project in the southern Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. She looks at land use change, among other things, but a lot of the foundation work for the project includes biogeography and soil stuffs.

She needs someone to do some vegetation mapping for her this summer. She was going to hire someone down there, but then remembered that I might be having a panic attack about my thesis by now, and am interested in this sort of thing and have a small amount of experience in it, too. The conversation went thusly:

"Do you have a driver's license?"
"Yes."
"Can you drive stick shift?"
"YES!"
"Then we would really like you to come to Mexico with us."

Fully funded, at least three weeks of wandering around forests in the Southern Yucatan, near the borders of Guatemala and Belize, with Mayan ruins in the middle of the field site. I'll be driving a truck they have down there, exploring the area and what's growing in it (specifically looking for the bracken fern but making note of the other plantlife, too).

!!!

More to come in the months following. We'll talk more as the end of the semester draws nearer. Meanwhile, I'm going to continue to jump up and down a bit about this.