A walk in the woods

Thistles-we've got them here too. but it looks pretty

some kind of slimey mold fungus?

Bufo bocourti-what a cutie!

kodak moment with some schoolgirls on our hike

Bella helping guide the group

The view from the top of the mountain-you can see part of the Inter-American Highway from here. The community here built some big, Hollywood style letters with the name of the town just behind where this picture was taken.

So while our park guard is on vacay, or when he's busy, I get to fill in as a guide in our park. Which isn't technically part of my job-local people should be doing that-but in the interim i dont mind doing it. In fact, I really enjoy it-I gotta be honest. So here's some photos from this morning's hike-I guided a group of 5th and 6th graders up to the top of the hill, where we stopped for a view and some fried chicken! Have I mentioned that they love fried chicken and french fries here? Not joking-the little town I live in has like...3 fried chicken joints, not to mention the 5 or 6 street stands that fry chicken, starting pretty early in the day. Its kind of impressive.

Anyways, it started to drizzle and the wind started to blow and the temperatures dropped pretty quickly-im guessing it was in the low 50's, so we made a speedy descent. But all in all, was a great experience and most of the students and teachers had never visited their own hill before, much less arrived at the top. So i'll call that a success!

Thats all for now folks, i'm feeling in a bloggy mood since i've started again so look for more to come.

My Great Outdoors

"Are you coming??" Can you find the impatient puppy in this picture?

Really neat succulents growing out of a rock

Crazy fungi

Just look at those spores....

(These are the reproductive structures on the underside of the fern)

As some of you may have heard, 'Tropical Storm Matthew' passed through yesterday-for me this meant nothing more than a rainy day..but I was trapped inside all day when I had been really looking forward to a nice long hike on the mountain. The only thing worse than being trapped inside all day in the cold and rain-being trapped inside all day with a bored puppy-and like 3 movies I really wanted to watch that decided not to work anymore =(

Ah well, today while I did not awake to sunshine and blue skies, at least it wasn't rainy. So we geared up and headed up the trail. So I've got a kind of naturey post today. The park I work in is a humid, high elevation oak forest on one side, with an old pine plantation growing up on the other side, and a bit of overlap as well. I've just started seriously birding the area, trying to get a comprehensive list together so that I can put together a guide for the park. This is actually, officially part of my job-the next step will be training some locals in birding techniques and how and where to spot the birds we do have. Today was a good birding day. I guess everyone was out and about eating and enjoying the 'nice' weather, even though we got started kinda late (8 am).

Fiddleneck anyone? our park is filled with various species of ferns who are all loving our extended wet season and all the rain. Good, at least someone is...

Regardless, we got some new species today! Which I expect to continue to happening for a while-we've got a very bird species-rich park. Its all a matter of being in the right place at the right time-which is just a matter of spending more time in the park (oh darn). Today we found the usual culprits-Yellow-throated Brushfinch, Stellar's Jays, Pink-headed Warbler; as well as some new faces- Singing Quail, Red-faced Warbler, Grace's Warbler, Bushtit, Band-backed Wren, and Tufted Flycatcher. Sorry though, no photos yet, you can find them on google though!

Also a ton of wildflowers continuing to bloom, and even more interesting-lots of mushrooms. They loved the rains this past week, since the last time I went up, a few hillsides had just erupted with the fungi-and there is an incredible variety as well. I would love to get some fungi-identifying experience while i'm out here. Maybe something to prepare for for the next season-although i'd say we still have a good month left of mushrooms here.

All in all-it was a good Sunday-and much needed hiking about and doing what I enjoy most here-discovering more of what my little park has to offer. It's my job =)

This week I'm fairly excited about a new project involving the artesans who make fresh cheese here. The idea is arranging for tourists to stay in the homes of these artesans to get a demonstration of the cheesemaking process-from the cow to the finished product. So I am working with a woman in town to get this project off the ground-we are (hopefully) meeting with a few interested families this week.

all work and no play...

Hehe, ok that's a total joke. As far as I'm concerned, my work here is play... at least some of the time. My main project-an oak pine forest covering the mountain that looms large over the town center- is starting to pick up pace and get very interesting. I'm finally being used in the capacity of my biological interest and knowledge as we start canvassing the park's flora and fauna. We are starting the process of applying to change the park's status from county land to protected area. This will require an exhaustive study of not only the park's wildlife and status but also the political climate, the opinions of the surrounding citizens, etc etc. On my part, i've been grabbing lizards and snakes (which are sadly few and far between) and id'ing them; and have also started birdwatching... early in the mornings-although still not quite early enough. I'm working up to it. Bella has been very helpful in motivating me to grab my binoculars and field guide and do a little casual birdwatching before heading to the office. Of course, bringing a dog birdwatching sounds a little counterproductive, i realize, but i'm (excuse the figure of speech) just trying to kill two birds with one stone.

Some pretty birds that I have seen already include the Painted Redstart and Pink-headed Warbler, and my counterpart got an awesome picture of a pair of Blue-throated Motmots... Google it as i'm not dealing with putting photos from google on here... the headache!

Also I'm very excited about my newest project-trying to put together a group of kids for a summer camp-like thing in the park-school here ends in mid october and resumes in January. I want to bring a group up hiking in the forest weekly and show them a little bit about the wildlife that lives right in their backyards. This is really what the park means to me-education and appreciation about the environment and wildlife for the local people that live directly around the mountain. When I initially heard that I would be working on Ecotourism here, i had grand visions of internationally acclaimed tourist sites receiving foreigners from all over. But this project, realistically, is geared towards local tourism; the way Mt. Diablo back home is used mostly by the people who live near it, and love it. I have a dream that this park will grow to be loved by its local people too, and that I can help them learn to appreciate the forest enough to want to conserve it.

The park, just in its beginning phases, still needs a lot of work, and that work is picking up pace since I arrived. But it is only one facet of the work that I'm doing here. More to follow on other 'secondary projects' that I think are just as cool!

peace,
amber

About a month ago, Tony came down to visit me-finally! No, only joking. He is the first one who has made it down here... so I went to meet him at the airport and we took a bus straight over to the Caribbean side-where I had never been before. We arrived in Rio Dulce, a town on the river that runs from Lake Izabal out to the caribbean. Exhausted and ready to put our bags down and get reacquainted-we headed to a nice little hotel you can only get to by lancha (little motorboats) from Rio Dulce called Casa Perico. We splurged and got the bungalow (my first bungalow!) with an awesome porch that looked out onto the swamp. I saw basilisks, frogs, and turtles from the seat-more species of herps than i've seen in my site in six months....awesome.... You can see Tony getting to know the local wildlife...

We took a day trip from Rio Dulce to a place called Finca Paraiso, further inland, where we swam in this awesome swimming hole with a hot waterfall that feeds into it. Then we walked across the highway and out about two miles to the lakeside restaurant for hamburgers. There we met a family from southern california who owned a marina in Rio Dulce and had arrived at the beach via speedboat-we chatted them up for a while and got a ride back to Rio Dulce in style! It sure beat the microbus...

Goofing around in the hot springs water fall..the sulphurous water falling down the rockwall over the year formed some cool looking mineral buildup.

After a few days lazing around in Rio Dulce, we decided to make a move out to LIvingston. Livingston, only accessible by a beautiful boat ride, is home to a population of Garifuna-descendents of an escaped slave population mixed with the locals who have a language and vibrant culture all their own. The main income comes from tourism and fishing-and most of the locals spoke Garifuna, Spanish, and at least some English. They were very friendly, and cooked some awesome food. Tony treated me to my first lobster and grilled conch which i didn't take pictures of, but it was DELICIOUS, and we ate on the porch overlooking the caribbean sea in the middle of a rainstorm.

Pretty much everything we ate there was amazing-the coconut bread, and coconut candy, and coconuts filled with rum that you drank and then chopped open with a machete to eat the coconut meat out... rice and beans with coconut milk. OK i love coconut, its official. We also stayed at an awesome hostel called La Casa de la Iguana, where they served family style dinners and also had affordable breakfast lunch and happy hour, and cool friendly staff and people. The pool and hotel pictured above is not where we stayed-just where we payed to use the pool one day....As luck would have it it started to pour the minute we settled down in the lawn chairs. Oh well.

Livingston was awesome but the time came to travel all the way across Guatemala back to Sija, so Tony could see where I live. I put him to work fixing drippy showers and backed up sinks and moving furniture, etc etc. =) Ladies, when a man travels to another country to visit you and fix your faulty plumbing...I think he's a keeper.

So in conclusion, had a great visit with the man, and he's ready to come back so we can go on a more 'focused' herping trip.... Can't wait! As it is, we have plans to meet up in Honduras in November to do some Boa-chasing. yay.

Ok, i guess the trick is you have to put the pictures in before you start typing or you'll go insane trying to put the pics where you want to. Great. maybe i'll do better in the future. So here I am at a Tourism Faire/Expo that was held in the Central Park in Xela, the 'big city' down the hill from me. I accompanied people from my community, who sold the artesan cheese our town is famous for, and distributed publicity about our park. It was a great weekend, they sold a bunch of cheese, and we got to do some great networking with tour operators and other locals groups with similar projects.

My friend Tara also came to represent her community, had a booth right across from us, so we got to hang out a little too. Oh, and notice my new earrings-There was a guy who had a table full of awesome jewelry and I am notoriously indecisive about buying jewelry for myself. But as fate would have it, he had one pair of genuine dark amber earrings-so i had to get them.

I am getting way better about being a decisive shopper down here, by the way, because what you see one day will not be there the next, so you have to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. I think this will be good for me.....

The park where I work is a humid oak forest, and right now (and since May) there are awesome mushrooms everywhere. I would love to learn more about the edible and non-edible types while i'm here. These tiny bright red ones are probably toxic.

And here I am with my new bundle of joy....her name's Bella and Im hoping she grows up to be my ferocious guard dog. But right now she's just good company going up the mountain. here she is taking a break.

This is the parade in sija, where I live, the day before Independence Day. All the schools have been practicing for this parade for months. They all get into the elaborate costumes and really go the whole nine yards. You can also see all the spectators-the whole town turned out for the event, which was kinda cool. It was also excitng to watch 'my school' go by-i got excited waves from most of the kids!

Little drummer boys..

More parade goers-you can see the traditional mayan dress (called traje) on the girls and boys-its pretty uncommon to see men dress in traje in my region. But its a common sight to see women and girls wearing their traje. It is very expensive and they generally only have one or two sets of traje, and wear the same one most of the time.

Still here...

Ok... so i'm a lousy blogger. My last post was around the same time as my last diary entry-yes I started keeping a faithful diary/journal when i left the States, until about June. That would be about when I started boring myself to tears just writing about..me. And I guess I assumed the rest of you were equally bored. The truth is that I've been settling into my life here, and it doesnt seem so extraordinary anymore. Haven't really known what to write about.

Rather than try to catch you up on the goings on of the entire summer (I can't believe its almost October already!!) I'll just start with now.

I'm sipping the coffee that I bought from my next door neighbor-its grown in the neighboring county and only cost about 2 dollars for the pound. That's one thing I love about this country-it is a country full of entrepreneurs and buying local usually rewards you. These people have a spray painted sign outside their front door that says "se vende cafe, 15Q/lb" and I walked by it several times until just deciding to try it. It is delicious, cheap, and I will stop accumulating those little jars that the instant coffee come in. So, goodbye instant coffee!

Anyways, I just survived my first Guatemalan Independence Day(Sept. 15th)! Ok-it wasn't that bad... They are really into parades here, and school bands-the last 3-4 months have been a constant assault on the ears from the three or four elementary and junior high schools practicing for hours a day. And they all have big percussion sections. I will not miss the band practice-until they start up again preparing for our feria (Dec. 15th) and christmas. Oh joy.

So I sucked it up and went to show my Sija pride, accompanying my host family on the sidewalk to watch as the 20 or so schools filed by playing various renditions of the same few melodies. As you can see from the pics, they really go all out on the costumes; I'd say a good portion of classroom time for the last two months or more has been dedicated to preparation for these parades. After I'd had enough of parade-watching, I walked down the block to check out the street food that had arrived along with the festival. Pupusas, my favorite of the typical street fare, actually hail from El Salvador, but that doesn't stop them from making a damn good one here. They're basically corn tortillas filled with either cheese or chicharron(fried pig skin), fried, and topped with salsa. YUMMM....

And later in the evening, as I had heard that the festivities down in Xela were awesome on the night before independence day, I agreed to go with my host mom, her friend, and daughter, into the city. Lttle did I know that we were going to watch....you guessed it....more parading. I couldn't manage to muster up any more enthusiasm, especially seeing how most of the bands were preceded by weird brigades of boys in high boots marching and yelling in a very north korea-esque manner. I am personally more partial to the dancing girls with batons and high heels-even if it is sexist. For a recently war-torn country, i just didn't get the hitler boys' appeal. It's probably (likely) some machismo thing that I don't get. The highlights of this trip were seeing the San Carlos Sija band play (my host brother plays trumpet) and the burritos we got at a street cart after the parade.

Independence Day came, and while going down to Xela for more parade-viewing was tempting, I opted to stay home and hike the mountain with my new best friend. Oh, perhaps I left that out? Well, yes, I went ahead and got an adorable puppy, named her Bella (shameless Twighlight fan), and she is dragging my butt out to hike on my mountain much more often now, i'm happy to report. So, we spent Independence Day hiking and then in bed napping and watching movies. Happy Birthday Guatemala.

After the week long hiatus, its back to work in a big way. I have lots of promising things happening, and will discuss them in detail next post, which, i promise, i won't keep you waiting for.

Peace and love,

Amber

oh, and im putting pictures up in a following post. I have spent the last half hour trying to put pictures in where i want them and i c ant figure it out to save my life. Which is why i laugh when guatemalans just assume i can help them fix their phone/computer/ipod/whatever. I'll probably break it even more, i tell them. Contrary to popular belief, all Americans are not technologically inclined.