Into the Woods

23 June 2016

After 2 days of calls back & forth, I was happy to be picked up from Cali & taken to the field station on Thursday (rather than waiting around until next Monday)…just long enough to watch Colombia’s odd delay & sad defeat against Chile. :( But clearly there was no hurry to get here, other than me just wanting to get started. The researchers were already 2 weeks into the project & don’t expect to be finished here for another 4. The field station manager is a young guy (Mario) who’s been working at the station for 2 years now; his girlfriend (Tatiana) is spending the summer volunteering with him (they both seem very nice). He works at other stations (both in Colombia & Peru) during the year as well (all through a research program at the University if ICESI in Cali), but is working here in Farallones right now. The project is to capture & catalogue the bird species (taking lots of different body measurements), banding them for identification, following their nests if we find them, then taking blood & ectoparasite samples from each adult to do an evolutionary study on the parasites. Mario had to run into town earlier today to pick up supplies & do a grocery run, so he was able to come get me on his way back to the station.

La Chiva - open shuttle bus - from Cali to Farallones 

The project seems like a pretty big venture, actually. Now that the parks are open (no longer occupied by paramilitary or FARC), a professor at the University of ICESI has an NSF grant to build a database of the birds across the various parks within Colombia. He recruits former students to run the projects at various parks, as well as volunteers (some international), to do the grunt work of capturing & cataloguing bird species to get an idea of the species distribution & DNA samples from each to determine any variation or relatedness in species. (Part of which has resulted in this: http://www.icesi.edu.co/wiki_aves_colombia/tiki-index.php?page=Introduccion) This is the last year (out of 3) for the grant. The professor (who created the protocols & coordinates all the volunteers) is hoping to get a larger grant next year to continue the project as a partnership among 4 other international universities.

Cabin in the woods

Field station up close

I see now that the lack of information from the coordinators leading up to my arrival was not just an inconvenience but a HUUUGE oversight. For those who thought that Tern Island was remote & rustic, let me tell you: I was in the fucking lap of luxury there! We have running water, thanks to the cloud forest we are nestled in – so nice fresh, cold mountain/rain water to drink, cook, clean & bath in. And we have 4 brick walls (covered in a fiberglass roof that is not sealed & does let bugs in) encompassing 2 rooms of bunk beds, 2 bathrooms & a communal area that serves as a dining/small kitchen/work area. Aaaand that’s it. There’s very little cell reception up here; no wifi (not sure how I’m supposed to coordinate my return flight with Nick…I’ll have to figure something out later), and no electricity. Thank goodness for gas stoves & a generator that provides 3 hours of electricity at night so we can see to make dinner & charge any electronics we may have. Other than that, we rely on headlamps. As I said: rustic. I’m laughing to myself at how MANY amenities we had on Tern, even though it was a more isolated location than this is. We had fridges & freezers for food, a huge pantry, solar panels for electricity, satellite internet, our own rooms, a huge kitchen & space (although it seemed so small at the time) to get away from each other. None of that here. Although for now, I’ve got one of the bunk rooms & a bathroom to myself, while the couple running the station has the other. That may change when another Colombian student arrives on Monday. Mario said that last year they had 15 international volunteers here – not sure how they all fit. I’m guessing they weren’t here all at the same time. For some reason, it’s just me now.

Looking into common room

Looking to the front door

My bunk room

Kitchen corner of common room

It’s not horrible by any means; it’s just not at all what I expected. I was communicating with other English-speaking volunteers before coming here – we were all on the same email list – but clearly they must have gone to a different station b/c it’s just me & the Colombians here. And I could kick myself for not bringing a Spanish-English dictionary with me!! They speak a little bit of English but they are communicating with each other all in Spanish – they help me out when I look completely lost (which is a lot – imagine going to work one day & having to do your job in a foreign language: you know what you’re doing & have thoughts/comments/questions but are completely unable to communicate them. My tourist-grade Spanish skills are not cut out for this!) Clearly, this is gonna be a trial by fire as far as being able to understand and communicate everything that’s going on. (I can hear Nick smiling & shaking his head at me right now…) The conversations are slow & labored; I have to ask them to repeat things a lot or explain different words but I’m working thru it (no other way to do it). I wish I had made myself bird-related Spanish flashcards!