Same Old, Same Old

I haven´t written in a while because honestly not much new has happened here. I´m deep into the routine of going into the field every day and following, most likely looking for, monkeys, and usually spending the rest of the day, either morning or afternoon, reading or walking around the waterfalls. It has been raining here a lot lately, at least one or two days a week. And by rain, I mean a torrential downpour with bonechilling thunder and lightning. We literally can´t work when this happens and we end up losing the monkeys for a couple of days. And lately our monkey group has been running off into a part of the woods where there are no trails. After a couple of hours of just walking around the forest looking for them, or hacking your way through impassable undergrowth just trying to keep up with the monkeys, we get pretty tired and frustrated and call it quits, only to try to return in the evening to where they might sleep. As nice as it is to have some days off to relax or do stuff around town, it´s actually very frustrating not being able to do our jobs and get the data we need to collect. My mother will be delighted to know, and I´m sure will gloat about this when I get home, that I have actually taken to wearing the silly safari vest thing she made me buy before I left. I wore it when I wanted to look silly for a day and found that it was actually quite handy. I no longer need to take my big backpack into the field with me everyday, and instead put all the little things I need, radio, batteries, notebook, water, snacks, etc. So, as silly as I look, thats mom.

A few days ago there was a massive storm so going into the field would have been dangerous. Dan, Boi, and I decided to go to town, fully decked out in rain gear, and grab some lunch. While there we decided to retrieve a frisbee that we had lost a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago, Renata, who has since left, threw the frisbee into a steep forested area by the river in town. At the time it seemed impossible to get because of the incline and the massive swarms of biting ants. With the rain however, the ants would be kept in their holes. With rain gear and rubber boots, the three of us bombed into forest embankment. It was actually easier than expected to find the frisbee and after climbing out of the ravine, the three of us rejoiced at our small victory. As silly as that story may seem, it was an exciting day and just about the only real thing I´ve done in the past few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago, Boi and I were walking on the Upper Trail, Paseo Superior, above the Cataratas towards closing time. The park guard that was closing is a friend of ours and he actually let us go back onto the paseo after he made everyone else leave. Boi and I were the only two people in Argentina looking at the waterfalls that evening. We stayed by ourselves marvelling at their power for over half an hour until it started to get dark. For those few minutes the waterfalls existed only for us. It was really awesome.




Before Renata left, my whole group took a day off and took a high speed boat ride under the falls. We all dressed up in silly clothes and got absolutely drenched by the waterfalls. It was super cool. They take you really close and you can barely open your eyes from all the water spraying.

Rain

It´s been pouring here with lots of thunder and lightening for two days now, which means we don´t have to work. My boss left yesterday so my group decided to hang out at here at her house and watch movies. Of course, once we got here the power went out. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading, listening to music, eating, and playing the guitar. Dan was nice enough to teach me Wilco´s California Stars on the guitar, since it´s only three chords. I spent most of the day practicing that and coaxing people into singing along. It was pretty cool; I´ve never had anyone sing along to my guitar playing before. We all watched Forrest Gump and passed out. I woke up again today to thunder and rain. It looks like another day of guitar practice and reading, maybe some scrabble. This is nothign exciting, but an update nonetheless.

Also, a shoutout to Dan´s dad Rick! Thanks for reading!

Luna Jena, Full Moon

This week was the full moon, and we got a chance to go out to the waterfalls at night, something that no one is normally permitted to do. One of the park guards has become a good friend of ours and he offered to take us out on the Paseos (the catwalks above the falls). It was Boi´s birthday so we had a small party first and then at around 11 or 12 went to the falls. It was so amazing that it´s hard to describe. There was absolutely no one else around, just about 10 of us and the waterfalls, which in the daytime are awesome, but at night were crazy. The sound of them is overwhelming. In the full moonlight the scene was so black and white like I´ve never experienced before. Dan took some pictures and they came out in color, but all I was able to see was stark monotone. Then a few of us walked a little farther to the Garganta and took in the massave waterfall in the moonlight also. Literally, no flashlights needed in the middle of the night. And here, we were the only people again. There´s probably no other time when there would be no people at the Garganta. We stood in awe for about an hour, getting soaked by the spray and revelling in the awesomeness, monotone, and power of one of the world´s greatest waterfalls all by ourselves in the moonlight. We even layed down on the catwalk for a while staring that the moon. We decided to get up before we all fell asleep there though. The night was incredible and I think we´re going to try and go down to the lower trail tonight while the moon is still bright.

Yesterday afternoon a few of us hopped over to Foz de Iguazu, Brasil again. It´s crazy to hop on a bus and be in a completely different country in about 30 mins. We only walked around and got some food and drinks and then came back to Puerto, where we got a kilo of ice cream for about $3. My boss leaves tomorrow for a month-long vacation back in the states, so we´re pretty much left to ourselves to be responsible for her project. It should be fun!

Cataratas and some animals

above-me practicing the guitar, which the two boys have been kind enough to teach me. I think it suits me well.

My group-- Renata, Me, Dan, Boi, Lydia, and Angelica

flying toucan

Agouti

toucan

coatis

a funny sign

Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to this... nothing much exciting has happened in the last week or so. We had a going away party for this kid Fabio who was going back to school in Spain. They made arepas, which are a bread with this meat, chicken, corn, veggie mix on top = absolutely delicious. Then we had another late night out dancing in town, but luckily I didn't have to work that morning. My computer is a little busted, the e key doesn't work, so I have to ctrl-v (paste) an e every time i need to use one. And I accidentally knocked my friend's computer on the floor and shattered its screen, so basically 5 of us only have my slow computer to use. It sucks.

We spent a few days without being able to find our monkey group. I had to walk around the jungle for hours hoping to run into them, but with no luck. It was a very frustrating couple of days. But we're making some good progress on getting the data we need. And I'm making some good progress on learning to play the guitar. The two boys here play and have been teaching me chords. They say I'm picking it up quickly, but I'm not so sure, especially since I'm tone-deaf. But Boi taught me to play Brown eyed Girl and that's what I've been working on. I really hope I can get decently good at it in the next five months. My groups has been hanging out in town at the river, the Rio Iguazu, which is gorgeous and really chill.

There's been some drama in our group lately. My boss has some issues with the administrator who runs the research station that we stay at, and we have to be on our very best behavior or we'll be evicted and have to live somewhere else. So we've had meetings and meetings and meetings, and we're safe for the time being, but all a little unnerved.

I did spend some time at the waterfalls, and I'll post some of those pictures as soon as I can, hopefully later today at the Sheraton, to show how unbelievable they really are. The other day I saw some Pecaris, small wild hogs. A troop of about 10 of them crossed the road a few meters away from us, but luckily they didn't turn and attack us, as they've been known to do. I think they were pretty cute. Then I almost stepped on a coral, or fake coral - I didn't get a great look at it- snake. Those are the red ones with black and white stripes. It was a good animal sighting day. Today is a rain day and we're supposed to be cataloguing our data, but I really don't want to do any of that.

P.S. mom-- send me an email!