- Our ejidotario yesterday was named Primitivo. For the English translation, exchange the "o" for an "e". A very nice and helpful man in explaining the land use history, but really? What were his parents thinking?
- Today was a half-work-day and a relaxing afternoon at Bacalar for the ladies on the team. Good choice.
- This evening, Zach, Marco, Alex, Birgit, Irene and I went out for a little bit. I wasn't that hungry so I tried to order "papa natural" (natural baked potato) and "frijoles with something else" (beans with something else) which Irene went through extensive discussion with our server to find out if there was any meat in the beans. The server said no, we placed the order. I was brought a bean soup with chunks of steak in it.
- (A similar event happened at Calakmul, when we asked, "No carne, por favor!" and the lady at the food table assured us, "No carne!" and I got a little grilled plantain packet filled with ground beef. I've been reminded often that the Latin world doesn't understand vegetarianism, though my advisor assured me ahead of time it wasn't a problem, which it mostly hasn't been.)
- Also, the baked potato was COVERED in cheese. So much for natural.
- Overall, a good day. Tomorrow we leave at 6AM for an ejido called Noh-Bec to do some damage transects. There are two that need to be done there, so we're (Karen, Irene, Alex, and me) splitting into two teams of two. It's a forestry ejido... it might take all day to tag and identify the trees, and we can't even use nails.
- Most importantly, I am sitting on my roof, and our "dealer" Doña Rosa across the street (let me be clear, she deals us fresh advocados and clean laundry) is listening to Spanish versions of old Motown hits. I didn't notice this until now, but am super amused now that I have.
Showing posts with label Calakmul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Calakmul. Show all posts
31 May 2009
short list
I'm exhausted, but a few things of note:
24 May 2009
Pich-y keen
The six of us spent the weekend in Campeche with the goal of doing a little GPS training, using the anniversary of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve as a good excuse. Friday was a day of seminars on different conservation research projects going on for the park. However, being that we're Mexico, none of the presentations were in English. By the end of 7 hot hours of presentations, I was a very frustrated girl.
We stayed in Zoh-Laguna this weekend, but since there aren't enough beds there or anywhere, Irene and I were sent over to a hotel. Really, our room was a little hut. It was very cute and very nice, although we found it a little odd that there was no distinct shower or bathtub, just a shower head next to the toilet and a curtain that went around both. Interesting...
Saturday was spent in The Monster, a 1996 or so Chevy Suburban that acts and smells its age. We drove all over the place in and around the town of Xpujil (pronounced Schpoo-heel, it's Maya, as most words with X's in the area are), where Calakmul is, checking some points on a land cover map (think: what kind of stuff is or isn't growing where. This is biogeography. This is kind of what I do.) and basically getting a crash course in local forestry from Birgit. I actually really enjoyed this. We never drove for long, then got out and hiked a little bit, talking about how to characterize different types of tree stands. I know, I know... I'm a nerd.
Today was a similar endeavor, except much, much longer and hotter. The temperatures were well over 100 and we spent over 9 hours in the car, very little getting out and a looking today. It was kind of a wild goose chase to find some types of land cover that we didn't find the day before. Our lunch break was really great though. We ate at a family restaurant in a town called Pich in Campeche. The man who seemed to run the place was very proud of it and would share tidbits about it every time he brought us more lemonade or tortillas. The building we were eating in was a 17th century church. The wooden beams of the ceiling were older than the US. After we finished eating he showed us some photos of some of the oldest families in town and then actually gave us a tour of the little village, taking us down by the Laguna. It was competely dried up. He said there are always turtles there, but not this year. This is the first time in 50 years that it has gone completely dry. At least it's the very end of the dry season at this point; any day now it should start pouring on a somewhat daily basis. Just in time for the intensive field work to start!
A quick language lesson (not even Spanish!): Pich (the town) is named after the Pich tree. There was a really huge, ancient one by the lake but several others around town. The Pich (tree) is named after its seed pod, which is shaped like an ear (which, in Maya, is "pich"). There are a lot of Maya descendents in the southern Yucatan, and we continually encounter them speaking something that the five Spanish speakers I'm working with cannot understand. Every time that happens though, they remember, this must be what Colleen feels like all day every day. And they're right, to a point, but I'm learning... after this weekend, my conservation and forest taxonomy vocabulary has grown quite a bit! (I know, I know... nerd...)
More photos posted!
We stayed in Zoh-Laguna this weekend, but since there aren't enough beds there or anywhere, Irene and I were sent over to a hotel. Really, our room was a little hut. It was very cute and very nice, although we found it a little odd that there was no distinct shower or bathtub, just a shower head next to the toilet and a curtain that went around both. Interesting...
Saturday was spent in The Monster, a 1996 or so Chevy Suburban that acts and smells its age. We drove all over the place in and around the town of Xpujil (pronounced Schpoo-heel, it's Maya, as most words with X's in the area are), where Calakmul is, checking some points on a land cover map (think: what kind of stuff is or isn't growing where. This is biogeography. This is kind of what I do.) and basically getting a crash course in local forestry from Birgit. I actually really enjoyed this. We never drove for long, then got out and hiked a little bit, talking about how to characterize different types of tree stands. I know, I know... I'm a nerd.
Today was a similar endeavor, except much, much longer and hotter. The temperatures were well over 100 and we spent over 9 hours in the car, very little getting out and a looking today. It was kind of a wild goose chase to find some types of land cover that we didn't find the day before. Our lunch break was really great though. We ate at a family restaurant in a town called Pich in Campeche. The man who seemed to run the place was very proud of it and would share tidbits about it every time he brought us more lemonade or tortillas. The building we were eating in was a 17th century church. The wooden beams of the ceiling were older than the US. After we finished eating he showed us some photos of some of the oldest families in town and then actually gave us a tour of the little village, taking us down by the Laguna. It was competely dried up. He said there are always turtles there, but not this year. This is the first time in 50 years that it has gone completely dry. At least it's the very end of the dry season at this point; any day now it should start pouring on a somewhat daily basis. Just in time for the intensive field work to start!
A quick language lesson (not even Spanish!): Pich (the town) is named after the Pich tree. There was a really huge, ancient one by the lake but several others around town. The Pich (tree) is named after its seed pod, which is shaped like an ear (which, in Maya, is "pich"). There are a lot of Maya descendents in the southern Yucatan, and we continually encounter them speaking something that the five Spanish speakers I'm working with cannot understand. Every time that happens though, they remember, this must be what Colleen feels like all day every day. And they're right, to a point, but I'm learning... after this weekend, my conservation and forest taxonomy vocabulary has grown quite a bit! (I know, I know... nerd...)
More photos posted!
21 May 2009
research update
Today is a work day at Ecosur. I'm pretty sure whatever tan I might have gotten through the intense amount of sunscreen I've been wearing is mostly gone from sitting in the library all day. We got to sleep in a little bit at la Casa amarillo, but we still got up at a reasonable time to enjoy a nice breakfast together: scrambled eggs, hash browns (from scratch!), coffee, juice and awesomely fresh avocado. The entire team (Zack, Marco, Irene, Alex, Birgit and me) met to discuss everyone's individual research and to try and figure out a schedule for the coming weeks. We did pretty well with the first half of that, but there are still some questions about our upcoming plans. For example, who from UVA is going to be joining us, and when will they arrive? This has changed several times. Also, there aren't enough beds here in Chetumal and there aren't any beds at the field house in Zoh-Laguna. The whole team is going to Zoh-Laguna this weekend for some talks for the anniversary of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, one of the two we work with. Are we buying mattresses or staying in a hotel? To be determined. It looks like Irene and I won't be spending much if any time at that house though; priorities have changed a little bit so we're going to spend more time in other areas, perhaps staying in a house in one of thse edjidos in northern Quintana Roo for a week or so. It's hard to organize so many different researchers and projects, but it's coming together.
We almost ran out of water in the house last night. Not the drinking water-- we keep one of those big blue jugs that you see on water coolers handy in our kitchen at all times. I mean the water supply we get from the city once a day. It goes into a tank under our back patio, which we then pump into a tank on the roof, which then goes to the faucets in the house. Of course, there's little other control over it-- we only have hot water in the kitchen, and only cold water in the bathroom. No matter. Point was, the level was really low and we were worried there wasn't enough for my shower. I ended up filling a bucket just to make sure I'd have something to rinse my hair with when finished, but dumping a bucket of water over my head was far more effective than our weak shower has been and I'll probably just do this from now on. Truth is, I was seriously considering a dramatic haircut, because between our low water pressure and the high humidity here, my hair was getting pretty awful to deal with. Necessity is the mother of invention though, and now I'm hopeful that I'll return home unaltered, except the whole more tan/ more blond/ more bug bites thing.
We almost ran out of water in the house last night. Not the drinking water-- we keep one of those big blue jugs that you see on water coolers handy in our kitchen at all times. I mean the water supply we get from the city once a day. It goes into a tank under our back patio, which we then pump into a tank on the roof, which then goes to the faucets in the house. Of course, there's little other control over it-- we only have hot water in the kitchen, and only cold water in the bathroom. No matter. Point was, the level was really low and we were worried there wasn't enough for my shower. I ended up filling a bucket just to make sure I'd have something to rinse my hair with when finished, but dumping a bucket of water over my head was far more effective than our weak shower has been and I'll probably just do this from now on. Truth is, I was seriously considering a dramatic haircut, because between our low water pressure and the high humidity here, my hair was getting pretty awful to deal with. Necessity is the mother of invention though, and now I'm hopeful that I'll return home unaltered, except the whole more tan/ more blond/ more bug bites thing.
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