Bird Photos

Here are some photos of birds that I took from on our front porch.

Liming Time

Wow, long time no post! It has been quite a while since I had internet, and quite a bit has happened between the last one and now! First of all I completed my first session of guppy mark-recapture, which is an achievement. It was a great experience- two weeks of guppy fishing and processing. I’m fully in the swing of things here now, I pretty much know the drill and can pretty much do everything now.

One big thing that happened is that we had our first time off. We utilized it well, taking full advantage of three days of relaxation. After work the last day of our mark-recapture we all showered (thank God) and piled in two vehicles (there were ten of us in two super small vehicles that actually were only supposed to fit 9 people) and drove east and then north to a sleepy little town called Grande Riviere where we had made reservations at a little beach-front hotel. The place was perfect; we were the only people there, there were good, comfortable beds with clean sheets and AIR CONDITIONING! The air conditioning was seriously so nice. I was actually cold at night and had to use a blanket. It was the perfect few days, we just hung out on the beach during the day, and limed at night, drinking beers and run drinks made with fresh coconuts. We also invented the Trini version of the Irish car bomb.... the Trini Maxi Bomb. (Maxis are these mini-buses that are sort of like a makeshift public transportation system.) The drink consisted of local Trini favorites--- Mackeson, an OK stout beer, and a shot of half creme de cacao, half White Oak rum. It was pretty awesome. I hope it catches on.... (it's not going to)

We had one more day off after the beach, and utilized it by heading to the mall and seeing a movie and soaking in a last bit of A/C. We saw Dinner for Schmucks. It was awful. seriously the worst movie I have seen in  a really long time. I wanted to walk out at multiple points in time. But it was still fun to see a movie.

And then it was back to work. Not having internet has made me a bit lazy in preparing posts, so I'll have to try a bit harder in order to have some more profound thoughts. 

BEACH DAY!

Well, lots of exciting things have gone on since the time of last posting. Immediately after the previous post most of the group went to see a movie. We all paid TT $22.00 (around US $5.50) to see “The Town.” It was a pretty good film, and we all agreed we were at the least entertained. And there was air conditioning. And the ticket was really cheap. So it was a good experience.

The next few days we did the usual work routine, catching guppies and processing them in the lab. One day we went out in the early morning as usual, got to our stream, unpacked and had about ten minutes of fishing time before it started a total downpour. We are in the wet season here, so it is normal to have rain, and indeed we have at least a 5 or 10 minute shower every day. This particular downpour though lasted much more than 10 minutes and was particularly intense. Will, the person I was fishing with told me after 10 minutes to watch the water level in the stream, if it went up an inch, then it was time to go, as a flash flood would be coming. So after 15 minutes or so the water was up an inch, and we packed up and headed out, and as we were doing so, the water was steadily becoming more and more brown and rising quite quickly. By the time we were leaving half an hour or so after the rain had started the river was a torrent, and the water level was up at least two feet higher than normal. At this particular site we have to hike up and back in the stream because the walls of the ravine are so steep, which presented a particular problem… If we walked in the stream, we would assuredly be transported swiftly downstream and over rocks, trees and waterfalls. So we inched our way along the side of the what I will now call a river, climbing on rocks that were out of reach from the stream bed just an hour or so before, but were now at the water’s edge. At a few points we had to cross from one side to the other due to particular impediments, and the four guys basically made a human chain across while the girls inched across using us for support. More than one person lost their grip and was swept a ways downstream. We eventually made it to our trailhead and out of harm’s way. Everyone in the group used their heads and stayed safe, working well as a team. It was quite an experience, and actually kind of fun.

The next couple of days we worked frantically to catch up from our flood-out. We had a day off on the calendar and we wanted to keep it there. On the second processing day/fish release day I got sick. Which is the worst. I was really looking forward to going to release the fish and have a swim in the river. Unfortunately I was not the only person who was sick. Two others dropped out as well, which meant that four people had to carry all the fish bottles filled with water back to the stream. (I/we average about 18 liters when we have 6 or 7 people, so having only four people is really a stretch) Anyway, I stayed home to rest and basically slept all day, I didn’t even know that the other people were sick and in the house even. Luckily the next day was our day off, to be spent at the beach. Miraculously, I recovered enough to feel like I could make the trek north to the coast.

The beach day was great, but the sun wasn’t out much, which was just fine with me, because the medication I started taking to combat the sickness makes my skin super sensitive to sunlight. We spent most of the day in the water just messing around, body surfing and such. I brought a small fishing rod and reel with me as well, and we had fun tossing a lure in, although we didn’t catch a thing, or even get a bite. I’m still hopeful that I’ll get a chance to do some real fishing sometime.

After a few more days of working, I had to go into Port of Spain, the capital city in order to try to get my visa extended (see the previous post about that fiasco). We woke up around 5 am in order to drive to the city and be there around 7:00 am, get to the immigration building, take a number, wait, and then get called to the desk. At the desk, I simply filled out a paper, and handed it to the worker. She told me “Come back on the 22^nd”. So I have to go back and get my visa officially extended. But we took the time in Port of Spain to get a smoothie from this little shack. It was a delicious combination of sea moss and pumpkin. I have no idea what sea moss is… I guess it is some sort of algae maybe. Also we walked around a bit and brought back roti for everyone for lunch. Roti is a sort of Indian dish, two layers of dough with some egg in between, then wrapped and stuffed with curried meat, and sides. I had goat with pumpkin and potato/channa (channa is chickpea). Goat was ok, a bit tough though and I probably wouldn’t get it again.

Things are rolling along here! I’m having a great time so far.