Pascual

Nickname: Sarah and I call him “Papa.”
Age: 53

Pascal is Sarah’s and my kindly, adoptive Peruvian father. He always has good advice and anecdotes to offer and constantly makes sure we’re eating enough. He’s the head chef and he cooks everyone delicious Peruvian food three times per day. Pascual has worked at the station since long before it was CICRA; he was the cook here when it was still a mining camp. (The skull devouring him in the photo, by the way, once belonged to a black caiman from our river.)

Random fact: Almost every morning after breakfast, Pascual loves to play Huayno—a type of traditional Quechua music from the Andes—on the guitar. On mornings when I get up a bit late, he serenades me while I eat his yummy scrambled eggs or empanadas.

Adrian

Age: 30s

The science director of CICRA. He’s an expert on bats, but he loves (and knows a ton about) everything that breathes or grows, and he is a fabulous nature artist as well. He’s also the science director of Wayquecha, ACA’s field station in the foothills of the Andes.

Random fact: Adrian likes yogurt as much as (possibly even more than) I do, so when he’s here at CICRA many of my breakfasts become a race for the yogurt. ;)

Marco

Nickname: Marco
Real name: Edson
Age: 23

Marco keeps the station up and running. He’s also in charge of turning off the generator (and thus the internet) every night; it’s the only one of his duties that doesn’t make our lives more comfortable. Marco builds and fixes everything from boats to plumbing to solar panels. He’s frequently seen hiking out to the stream to pump more water for us at whatever random, inconvenient hour it runs out—often in the middle of the night. Before coming to CICRA, he was an illegal miner. Before that, he worked on a coffee plantation.

Random fact: Marco plays a mean game of soccer. Not only does he run circles around almost everyone else on the field, but he’s known to pull off his shirt and throw it to get the ball. (We play by jungle rules here.)

Pluma

Nickname: Pluma (“Feather”)
Real name: Jorge
Age: as a friend described it, “38 going on 21”

Pluma worked in a hardware store in Puerto Maldonado before he came to CICRA, but now he’s our grounds-keeper, gardener, and jack-of-all-trades. He knows a lot about medicinal rainforest plants, all of which he learned while working at CICRA. Gabe gave him a harmonica and he’s learning to play it. For some reason he also really likes to sit in the dining room and strum random combinations of strings on our guitar. It’s a sound I can’t describe, and you probably wouldn’t want me to if I could. He and Marco are the loveable scoundrels of CICRA—you can always count on them for an inappropriate joke.

Random fact: Adrian says Pluma learned how to prepare floral baths from a Peruvian shaman who taught some classes at the station. ...We have yet to see him perform any shamanic rites.

Sarah

Nickname: Hechicera (“Enchantress”)
Age: 22

Sarah is my comarade in arms. We make “ice cream” together (read: yogurt frozen in my lab freezer), play with caterpillars together, and keep each other sane. She just graduated from Barnard and will be staying at CICRA as long as I am. She’s conducting research on both bats and butterflies, running the Science Saturday program for the kids of Boca Amigo, and she’s the assistant of our science director, Adrian.

Random fact: Sarah has done field work in Madagascar and did Harvard’s OEB field course in Borneo. I really wanted to take that course—we almost met before CICRA!

Mariposita

Hola a todos! Sorry I’ve been so remiss with the blog recently! To make it up to you, I’ll start with a very, very belated introduction to my CICRA family, complete with pictures and nicknames. Almost everyone who stays here long enough eventually gets a nickname. Mine is Mariposita—“Little Butterfly.” (The photo is after I got caught in a rainstorm.)

A quick hello

Hi everyone! I'm sorry I've been so remiss with blog-writing recently. I've been working on an NSF grant proposal (due on the 6th AHH), and studying for the GRE biology test on the 7th and the GRE general exam on the 9th. So, you may not hear much from me until after that's all done with. But I just wanted to let everyone know that all is well! AND: I will be in town from Nov 1ish to Nov 13ish, so if you want to talk via phone or skype, email me to set up a time! I'd be so so happy to hear from each and every one of you!

And now, a few quick highlights and photos from the last month:

Every two weeks, Sarah and I have been teaching "Sabado Scientifico" (Science Saturday) classes for the kids in Boca Amigo, a tiny mining village across the river. We teach a class every other week, and class location alternates between the village schoolhouse and the field station. It's so much fun to walk through town, gathering a small following of children as we go. Here are Sarah and I in Boca Amigo with our mob of kids (and monkey). (photo stolen from Sarah)






Sarah also captured me and the monkey sharing the exact same facial expression.











The kids love it when we pick them up in our boat and ferry them across the river to CICRA.

So far, we've taught lessons on the interdependence between species ("what would happen if all the frogs went extinct?"), medicinal rainforest plants, plant physiology, and mimicry and defence. We organized a scavenger hunt for the last one-- the kids had to go out and find packs of cookies which we had disguised as walking leaf bugs, turtles, coral snakes, and other critters.




Talking about teeth as a defense mechanism.











Hunting for camouflaged cookies. Can *you* find the frog, the coral snake, and the turtle? (Hint: respectively, they are made of dead leaves, construction paper, and cupcake wrappers plus and a spoon.)














ALSO ALSO: Megan and Antonio came to visit CICRA! It was so wonderful to see them! They spoiled me rotten, bringing highly coveted items like chocolate, honey-scented soap, and fresh mangos! AND a whole duffle bag full of tree-climbing equipment for a study on the effect of ants on the pollination of flowers in the canopy. Best Christmas I ever had. I was so excited I think they were worried I'd lost my marbles. Here are me and Sarah learning the ropes (literally!)