Seeing as I’ve spent the past three weeks in a rainforest with three species of primates, none of which are orangutans, my title does not make any sense. But that didn’t occur to me in the middle of the night when I was frantically trying to find my shoes and headlamp to get away from said orangutans. It has happened before where I wake up in the middle of the night disoriented and thinking I’m still in my dream, but to the dismay of my roommates it has happened nearly every night since half way through my trip. I often wake up, confused and terrified, as I fully believe I’m in the rainforest at night either trying to find leaf cutter ants or scared that there are large bugs and spiders surrounding me. When I finally locate my headlamp and turn it on I realize I’m in the safety of my mosquito net in bed. The other night, after three hours of collecting data on leaf cutter ants past sundown, I woke up thinking I was back in the field and my professor walked by screaming “the orangutans are coming we must get out of here quickly” and it was quite frightening. I jumped over a fallen tree and couldn’t find my shoes or headlamp, luckily my friend Emily came up to me and I told her how we must leave soon but I couldn’t find my things, so she helped me by turning on her headlamp. At that moment I realized I was standing on the floor of my room facing Emily lying in her bed and it was a very strange situation I found myself in. I also realized that the tree I had jumped over must have been me jumping out of my bunk bed (I am impressed with my lack of falling off my bed completely). I had woken up my roommates, but the first thing Kaylee said (having just woken up and not sure what was happening) was simply “did you find the cake we left you?” because I had missed the cake they handed out after dinner. It was a comical ending and I went back to bed still slightly weirded out.

It’s funny because during the day I feel perfectly safe wondering the trails of Refugio Bartola, even taking hikes by myself. It is beautiful here, everything is green and constantly full of sounds I haven’t ever heard before. I enjoy the freedom of choosing a trail and hiking wherever you desire for seven hours of the day. All of that, and the food, and the new experiences I happen upon every day, I will miss. But I definitely wont miss the night terrors.

I’ve read many scientific papers for class. I’ve searched for them endlessly on Web of Science, a database the UCLA libraries subscribe to. I’ve had to critique them with classmates and discuss how they could be better, how their methods weren’t exactly right, how their sample sizes could be larger or their collected data simply doesn’t answer the question they are asking. But what I’ve never discussed in class, what I had never previously really thought about, was how challenging the entire process of answering a scientific question can be. It is almost surreal being here in Nicaragua and having to come up with a question on my own, creating a set of methods that will answer that question precisely, and carrying out those methods while making sure to collect a large enough set of data. While sitting on the floor of a rainforest moving leaf cutter ants onto a section of trail I’ve cleared of other ants, squished between the fronds of a short palm tree, as it turns dusk and the playful noises of the day begin to sound eerie, I realize how very different an experience it is from reading a paper in the safety of a classroom critiquing what could have been better.

It was definitely difficult coming up with a question I found interesting and then proper methods to follow. There were many observations made, notes taken on random things I saw and where, ideas brought up and decided against. It was exciting then landing on an idea and deciding to stick with it. Although there were then endless obstacles while conducting pilot trials of issues I didn’t previously think about (like the difficulty of picking ants off the trail when most of them are 2 mm long). For my project that is not on leaf cutter ants, I’m studying the effects of hiker group size on strawberry poison dart frog calls. It is a simple concept, recording calls for two and a half minutes, having a group of hikers walk by while talking, and then recording the calls for another two and a half minutes after. What will not be included in the final paper though, is how difficult collecting that data can be. Although I know the frogs do not truly know that we are trying to find and study them, I am convinced they have some ulterior plan and choose to avoid us at all costs. We have wandered the rainforest for hours only to find two strawberry frogs in the midst of calling. We have set up our experimental stage (a 15m pink string laid out on the trail in front of the calling frog) only to wait for an indefinite amount of time before deciding the frog isn’t going to start calling again. And doing all of this while dragging around our very kind classmates that are helping us by being additional hikers for the experimental trials. I’m aware now of how much thought and effort goes into these projects, which I will forever think about while reading the endeavors of others in their published scientific papers.

Being at the field station the past four days has been unlike anything I have ever experienced. The rainforest is massive, endlessly full of noises that I’ve never heard before and animals that I have most definitely never encountered before. We have been here four full days, but it feels like I have been here for weeks. For one, I have already become accustomed to feeling dirty at all times, but it has become the norm and doesn’t bother me. I’m covered in a layer of bug spray, dirt, sweat and dampness from the humidity, but it’s actually quite fun, I just focus on trekking through the rainforest day in and day out. It’s interesting because I already feel settled. We have all found somewhat of a daily routine here, which is nice. I break my days up into before breakfast, between breakfast and lunch, between lunch and dinner, and after dinner. I go on at least two hikes a day, most often after breakfast and after lunch, with the occasional morning or night hike or canoe ride. It is mildly exhausting going on so many hikes throughout the day (a majority of the hours of my day are spent wondering the trails here, which is awesome) but you get used to it after a while and I feel like I am getting in superb shape. Plus, one of the research studies my partner, Jeff, and I are planning involves locating strawberry poison dart frogs by their calls (we are getting quite good at it), which requires stopping along the trail and listening for multiple minutes, which is very peaceful.

And as for the research, the main reason we are all here, it is amazing to see the range of different questions people are choosing on focusing on. I am currently typing while sitting in the common area of the field station, an open dining area with hammocks looking out at the Rio San Juan, while some of my peers are shining a UV light on a spider they caught that fluoresces. Another group has an arena made in a Tupperware with a spider and ant enclosed, seeing if the spider will eat the ant (the last time I went over to check, the spider seemed afraid of the ant). Other groups are looking at things from the contents of the water in bromeliads to trying to catch agoutis. There are just so many variables, controls, and possible directions when thinking of questions for something you want to research, it is overwhelming at times but exciting.

I have loved so many things being here, one of which being the food, more will have to come on that later, but my favorite part so far has to be standing in the rainforest when the wind passes by. The rush of wind builds up and sounds like an ocean wave passing over you. The entire forest moves, the trees and the leaves, and it feels like you move with it and you simply can’t help but smile. It will be a long three weeks, but it is off to a good start.