Good times
I’ve been here for pretty much a full month and there has been lots of amazing happenings, some sobering contemplation, and some not-so-amazing drama. I’ll save the latter two for another post since I only have so much time (I have to pre-write all posts, emails, etc).
Being out in the bush every day is an experience in and of itself. Field work is awesome, but don’t ever let someone tell you it’s glorious! It is hard, sweaty, exhausting work. We go out covered in bug spray and come back covered in a thick grimy layer of sweat, charcoal, dirt, and (of course) bug bites. You develop important life skills like how to pee in the woods. Its in a forest but somehow there’s never any shade, and we forge endlessly through thorns and poisonwood while climbing over jagged limestone rocks. But it’s great. I’m in a dry streak right now but so far I’ve found seven nest cavities, which is pretty darn good. It’s like this game where you have to outwit the parrot.
On our time off we’ve swam in two blue holes (Abaco is famous for them--it was in National Geographic), and did cannonballs into one of them. We pet some semi-wild horses and saw sea turtles and a barracuda (I was not as excited to see the barracuda since I was in the water with it). We visited Hopetown in the rain and ate at a restaurant overlooking the gray-green sea; went to Pete’s Pub and saw the bronze-casting art gallery; and had way too much to drink at Curly Tail’s restaurant. We got a tour of Schooner Bay, a community development geared toward sustainable living that is the most amazing thing--it’s every eco-conscious person’s dream home. (Every house has a cistern and it’s own water filtration system; solar panels over the mini-garage; the air conditioning is on a town-wide circuit using an innovative system involving cooled underground water; etc). I’ve driven a pickup (and ridden in the truck bed--on the highway!) and a minivan. We played tour guide for a few days for a group of parrot afficionados and met some great people, and I learned of the existence of vulture parties, which may be the best thing in the world ever.
I have tasted the glory that is Bahamian mac and cheese. Oh lordie, the glory. It has sweet peppers and onions in it and it is spicy. I’ve also had fresh tuna sashimi, conch salad, grouper, and other local foods. And cocktails. The cocktails. Bahama mama, blasters, pina colada, strawberry daquiri, the curly tail--plus the bajillion bottles of rum we have at the house. (Here, beer is expensive and rum is cheap). I’m not much of a drinker but I love fruity froofy cocktails.
The birding has been glorious. Hummingbirds blitzing by, turkey vultures EVERYWHERE. (My love of turkey vultures borders on obsessive). Warblers and kingbirds and swallows and of course lots of parrots. I also saw a pair of pterodactyls the other day. My bird book says they were Magnificent Frigatebirds, but basically they were pterodactyls. There’s also scads of anoles and little curly tail lizards.
On a note of little probable interest to anyone but me, I found a huge-tusked boar skull in the woods, some random cat bones, and a partial turkey vulture skull. I’m not allowed to keep the turkey vulture (legal issue), but just getting to touch it filled me with incandescent joy. I might get to keep the others since they’re invasives, which would be yay because I have a serious thing for collecting bones (some of you may be aware of this. I may have gone on about it at great lengths).
There’s more but I don’t want to make this too long, and like I said the bad (because there is always a bad) can wait for another (probably friend-locked) post. At the moment it's almost time to get back in the field.
Being out in the bush every day is an experience in and of itself. Field work is awesome, but don’t ever let someone tell you it’s glorious! It is hard, sweaty, exhausting work. We go out covered in bug spray and come back covered in a thick grimy layer of sweat, charcoal, dirt, and (of course) bug bites. You develop important life skills like how to pee in the woods. Its in a forest but somehow there’s never any shade, and we forge endlessly through thorns and poisonwood while climbing over jagged limestone rocks. But it’s great. I’m in a dry streak right now but so far I’ve found seven nest cavities, which is pretty darn good. It’s like this game where you have to outwit the parrot.
On our time off we’ve swam in two blue holes (Abaco is famous for them--it was in National Geographic), and did cannonballs into one of them. We pet some semi-wild horses and saw sea turtles and a barracuda (I was not as excited to see the barracuda since I was in the water with it). We visited Hopetown in the rain and ate at a restaurant overlooking the gray-green sea; went to Pete’s Pub and saw the bronze-casting art gallery; and had way too much to drink at Curly Tail’s restaurant. We got a tour of Schooner Bay, a community development geared toward sustainable living that is the most amazing thing--it’s every eco-conscious person’s dream home. (Every house has a cistern and it’s own water filtration system; solar panels over the mini-garage; the air conditioning is on a town-wide circuit using an innovative system involving cooled underground water; etc). I’ve driven a pickup (and ridden in the truck bed--on the highway!) and a minivan. We played tour guide for a few days for a group of parrot afficionados and met some great people, and I learned of the existence of vulture parties, which may be the best thing in the world ever.
I have tasted the glory that is Bahamian mac and cheese. Oh lordie, the glory. It has sweet peppers and onions in it and it is spicy. I’ve also had fresh tuna sashimi, conch salad, grouper, and other local foods. And cocktails. The cocktails. Bahama mama, blasters, pina colada, strawberry daquiri, the curly tail--plus the bajillion bottles of rum we have at the house. (Here, beer is expensive and rum is cheap). I’m not much of a drinker but I love fruity froofy cocktails.
The birding has been glorious. Hummingbirds blitzing by, turkey vultures EVERYWHERE. (My love of turkey vultures borders on obsessive). Warblers and kingbirds and swallows and of course lots of parrots. I also saw a pair of pterodactyls the other day. My bird book says they were Magnificent Frigatebirds, but basically they were pterodactyls. There’s also scads of anoles and little curly tail lizards.
On a note of little probable interest to anyone but me, I found a huge-tusked boar skull in the woods, some random cat bones, and a partial turkey vulture skull. I’m not allowed to keep the turkey vulture (legal issue), but just getting to touch it filled me with incandescent joy. I might get to keep the others since they’re invasives, which would be yay because I have a serious thing for collecting bones (some of you may be aware of this. I may have gone on about it at great lengths).
There’s more but I don’t want to make this too long, and like I said the bad (because there is always a bad) can wait for another (probably friend-locked) post. At the moment it's almost time to get back in the field.