Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Send Me on My Way

Day 23, Wednesday, August 2
Movement day, we are headed to Cantiles sometime mid morning? Not really sure, there has not been an announcment and Sergio has not yet returned from Buenos Aires. I am packing, very lightly for the time in Cantiles. I will bring one change of clothes and another set of work clothes, but Sergio has taken my laundry to BA with him, and the clothes I intend to take are with him. I am quite happy that as I write this, there are only a few entry dates that remain. Now I have the word that I will go to Cantiles tomorrow with Sergio. Today will be another day of writing, sorting, and cleaning, I will wash my hair so I can be that much cleaner through the weekend. I can also study up on the bats that Sergio and I have captured so far. I am happy about the group that will be travelling to Cantilles, which includes Dom and Eduardo (bug guys), Dr. Bruce Byers (UMAS bird guy), Ferny (small mammaler), and certainly others I have spent a fair amount of time with. It should be a good group to spend my last few days in the jungle with.

I hear guitar strumming from outside, Steve is playing the opening lead from Rusted Root’s “send me on my way”. I go out to take a picture of him. He plays various song starts from the Dave Matthews Band and I am exhilirated to think that in a couple weeks I will be sitting outside at Cricket Pavillion listening to some of those same dmb songs. He plays the Beatle's Blackbird quite nicely. We chat about music; Steve’s been learning the guitar for 4 years. He is from Pennsylvania, one of the few folks from the U.S. out here. Dave and Max from Canada join the conversation, which evolves to the beauty of Moab and their trip last summer to the southwest. We also talk about the wages of the Honduran guides, $5 per day, and Dave mentions he bought one of the guide’s machetes for $20, which made the guide ecstatic. I am thinking of doing the same, if possible, from one of the Cantiles guides. Sergio will be able to set that up for me. $20 dollars is the equivalent of $377 Lempira, and I need to retain $605 Lemps for the ~$32 departure tax at the airport. I will count my cash after lunch, and also wash my hair. I am filling in gaps in my journal, and am listening to KGSR, the Austin radio station that I listen to at work. Love that station!

Spaghetti with tomato sauce and SPAM tonight for dinner. Not a meal I’m going to miss.
Sergio exclaims, "got it!" and goes running joyfully out of the science room. He’s always doing things like that.

Nils Navarro (nilsarts@yahoo.com) of the cuban bird society shows us the diversity of cuban wildlife. He is also a fantastic artist, showing us his oil paintings of wood ducks, macaws, and watercolor illustrations of toads, chameleons, spoonbills, orchids, boas. He is working on a field guide to birds of Cuba. Next year he is planning to teach a field course on painting and sketching wildlife in the field. He is an amazing artist - his paintings look like photographs. I am inspired to sign up for a watercolor course when I return to Tempe.

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