Alright, I am finally here! The first few days of my experience in Nicaragua have met my expectations in some regards, and have been different in a few others. One thing that I was very surprised about is that being in another country does not feel as different as I thought it was going to be. This is the first time I have traveled outside of the United States, so I thought it would be like entering some kind of different world. So far, however, I have to think to actually realize that I am outside of California. If it were not for all the monkeys that I have been seeing, everything isn’t too different. My expectations were definitely exceeded by the amount of wildlife I have both seen and heard. I love waking up to the sound of howler monkeys, even though they were a bit frightening at first.
As for some specific experiences that I have had, I’ll start with something positive that really made this trip special. I had a really cool interaction with a howler monkey on February 1st. The monkey and I had a “conversation” that lasted about five minutes. Other people I was with tried yelling at some howlers in the tree that we were standing by in the attempt to get a response from them, but they kept silent. I thought it would be a good idea to throat sing (it’s a little hard to explain what that is…) at them, and it worked very well! The monkey did not start howling at me, but he made inquisitive hoots at me and responded to different calls that I made. That little interaction was the first time in a long time when I felt like I was truly in nature, and that is something that I will always consider as a great experience.
The bad experience was an injury involving a slippery slope, a very pointy stick, and a clumsy me. I hiked down a trail after a very long afternoon of observing strawberry poison frogs, and since it had recently rained, the slope was extremely muddy and slick. I slid down neck-first into a branch that was recently cut by a knife. The injury was not that bad, but it is a bit annoying. I am fairly certain that this will not affect my project, which involves listening to the calls of strawberry frogs.
All in all, my experience has been amazing so far. The injury was not that bad and will give me stories, and the animals and plants I have seen more than make up for the pain. I am looking forward to finalizing my projects and collecting data!