The Start of It All

First of all, good lord, I have a blog. Now I am officially a participating member of the cyber age. I have an iPod and a blog. I can no longer pretend to be old-fashioned or like I'm too good for all this new-fangled technology stuff.

Second, I'm in Costa Rica! And there are monkeys! Although the following might be a little boring, I am going to chronicle my first few days in a play-by-play fashion. I hope as I settle in, it will become more reflective.

Arrival Day
We got off the plane on the tarmac, which is always fun. So 1940s jet set. Walking to the building, I spot a beautiful, long-longed, whitish-orangish water bird standing right there on the tarmac. I thought, "Alright. Awesome. Now I'm in Costa Rica." I really wanted to take a picture, but was afraid of looking too too touristy.

Oh, on the plane in the two rows in front of me were two older couples from Wisconsin. They were chatting about good golf spots in CR and where one of them owns a house. I didn't speak to them, and they seemed very nice, very white and, um, Wisconsin-y. I thought, if these people can regularly vacation and even own property in CR, my parents absolutely have to come visit me. (Hope you're reading this, Mom and Dad! ;)

Three of my bags came off right away, but then the carousel stopped and I was missing one bag. I was a little annoyed, but the only things that were in there were my sleeping bag and some underwear; things I can live without for a short while. I started thinking of how to say I'm missing a bag in Spanish. Falta, I think falta is missing. Estoy falta una bolsa? Then someone took a bag off the carousel and my little duffel bag appeared. I was very relieved.

I walk out the building, and don't see Valerie (who is running the project). Cool, she said she might be late. There are taxi drivers and rental car people standing outside and I pass them and sit by a group of gringo waiting for something. I try to put my 'game face' on in preparation for fending off taxi drivers and anyone else who might harass me. I will tell them, Estoy esperando para mi amiga - I'm waiting for my friend. Quickly people from the plane get picked up and I'm more or less alone. Not one person came up to me, asking if I needed a taxi ride, or where I was going. Nothing. I was not bothered a bit, it was so nice! About 10 minutes later Valerie shows up with Ronnie, who is a local and frequnetly gives us taxi rides into town. We go into town, first to the bank (the first ATM didn't take my card, but the second one did) and the nice grocery store (which looked almost exactly like the nice grocery stores in the US). Then we drive to the park, which is about 45 minutes away. Valerie and I chatted like two little song birds, and the ride went quickly.

I unload my baggage and meet everyone. Adrienne and Anne-Sophie are the two other assistants on the project. Adrienne is from Denver and is probably going to grad school in Scotland after this (I think she leaves in August) and Ansofie is from France, a small town somewhere west of Paris. Nigel and Christina are also staying at the alberque (dorms) and they are working on another project with the capuchins, something to do with foraging. I unpack a little and chat with Adrienne and Anne-Sophie. While Valerie is in her room, Anne-Sophie and Adrienne talk about how if Adrienne gets done early tomorrow then she'll come and help Anne-Sophie with her group. Adrienne mentions this when Valerie returns when we are all talking about the work schedule for the next day, and Valerie says that if Adrienne finishes early, then she needs to come help us search for the group I'll be working with. After Valerie leaves, Anne-Sophie is noticeably annoyed at this, as is Adrienne. I sense some tension between Anne-Sophie and Valerie. Adrienne is clearly on Anne-Sophie’s side. (She and Anne-Sophie share a room and seem to be good friends). (Note: I am mentioning this not to be catty or gossip-y. Only if someone other than me actually reads this blog through November I think this will lay a good ground for drama I am almost certain will be to come. Ah, field drama!). We chat a little more, and then go to bed. I have my own room until the 'summer', when another assistant will arrive. I didn't sleep very well. I miss my tempurpedic pillow! And I was a little cold in the middle of the night. The park gives us a simple fitted sheet and top sheet, and I needed a little more.

First Day
I got to sleep in, until 8ish. Valerie and I spent the morning at the alberque discussing the project and what work I'll be doing and why. Basically, as I understand it, Valerie is studying reproductive strategies of the male capuchins. There is one alpha male in each group of monkeys and he sires the vast majority of the offspring. However, there is very little male-male competition for females, so the alpha male isn't securing all the females by fighting off the other males. So, they must be doing it some other way. Capuchins have concealed ovation (like humans), so there's no obvious way for us to tell where they are in their cycle, and when they're most fertile. but, apparently the males capuchins can tell this, since they know when to have sex with a female to ensure a high chance that she will get pregnant. So, we are collecting behavioral and hormonal data. Valerie hopes to correlate these two types of data to see if female behavior and/or male behavior toward fertile females changes throughout the female's cycle.

So, we do 10-min focal follows on the monkeys and collect fecal samples (for the hormone analysis). In order to do this, I must first learn to identify all the monkeys in the group I will be working with most - Guanacaste. This is an unusually large group, with 8 adult males and 12 adult females, and several subadults and immatures which we don't really focus on. So, Valerie and I go through photos of all the monkeys online, and she points out the distinguishing characteristics of each one, and I make notes on the list she gives me. Babaganouj is the alpha male and has a big scar over his left eyebrow. Crabbe is missing two fingers on his left hand. Lily has a dark spot in her left eyebrow. Minerva has big bushy eyebrows that extend into 'sideburns' and part of her left ear is missing, etc. Everyone has their unique identifier.

In the afternoon we head out into the field, to look for the Guanacaste group. It takes about 45 minutes to walk to the area where they hang out, and then we just walk the trail, stopping and looking and listening for monkeys and their sounds. After about 45 minutes of searching, Valerie hears them. They are not far off the trail. We move towards them, and there they are. Little white and black monkeys! Valerie walks right up to them, standing about 5 meters away from one of them and I follow. I couldn't believe she got so close. Almost immediately, a juvenile jumps branches over to where I'm standing, and stops on the branch right above my head. I turn up my head to look at him (her?) and he moves down the branch a little, looking straight into my eyes. Then he starts shaking the branch that he's on, which is right by my head, in a very playful way. I think he was just curious and maybe wanted to see if I would play with him, or what I would do. It was very cool! His little face was so adorable. I really had to fight the urge to shake the branch back at him!

So we hang with the monkeys, and Valerie starts pointing out individuals and how to identify them. Their unique characteristics are pretty easy to spot once she points them out, and I try to start memorizing faces and features. We 'put the monkeys to bed', so we know right where to find them the next morning. It was pretty hot this day, I think it was around 100 degrees. Needless to say, I am completely covered in sweat and feeling dehydrated and starting to get a headache. I drank lots of water in the morning, but was too distracted and overcome with meeting all the monkeys and didn't drink enough in the afternoon. When we get back to the alberque, I take some ibuprofen, a shower, and lie down for a bit. Its Adrienne's birthday, and Valerie cooks dinner. The ibuprofen was a mistake, I think. Right before we sit down to dinner, I go throw up. Thankfully, it was pretty much all water. Officially one of the three worst migraines I've ever had. I eat about 3 forkfuls of spaghetti, and sit there and try to be social and act like a human being. It is hard, and I keep my participation in the conversation to a minimum. I should have just gone and lied down, but I didn't want to seem too whimpy or anti-social. I take excedrin before I go to bed, which eases the pain of the migraine, but keeps me up all night. I peed about 5 times that night.

Day Two
Valerie and I got up not too early, and met Adrienne at the Guanacaste group. We got there at about 10, and most of the monkeys were resting. I got a lot of id-ing in, and felt good about being able to recognize faces and put names with them. In the middle of the day, the group was near an area where there were a bunch of old ant nests, just small piles of sandy soil. The infants and immatures were so cute, playing and wrestling like kids in a sand box, not 10 feet from me. I got a ‘threat face’ from Baba, the alpha male. Apparently I was a little too close to the group, and he came down on a branch (maybe 3 feet from me) and opened his mouth, baring his teeth. It was a little disconcerting but Valerie was right there and said that it happens, and its not a big deal. Nobody’s ever been bitten, or anything. Anne-Sophie did get chased, but that’s probably because she ran away. Since we’re not supposed to be affecting their behavior, the best thing to do is to not react to anything, either in a negative or positive way.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera somewhere out in the forest. I left it in my pocket, which was stupid. Once I realized I’d lost it, I went back and tried to look for it, which was pretty much impossible. Oh well, the monkeys are in that area a lot, so someone might come across it. I think I’ll just get a relatively cheap camera when I go into town next. So, you’ll have to wait for pictures!

We stayed late and ‘put the monkeys to bed’, so we know where they’ll sleep so we can find them easily in the morning. When we got back to the alberque it was kind of weird… Everyone was out at the tables, but every single person was on their computer. Like 6 people sitting around staring at their laptop. There was some conversation, but only ancillary to the laptop. So, I felt weird just sitting down and trying to start or get in on the conversation, such as it was. I took a shower, but afterward didn’t really want to get on my computer (plus, there would have been no place to plug it in). So I just went into my room, but I have to close the door to keep the mosquitoes out, so I felt like I was being really anti-social. Weird. I got a little homesick tonight. I think it will just take a little while to find where I fit in with everybody, since everyone seems to be settled, and they all know each other. It will just take time to wedge myself into all that. I sleep better tonight, only had to pee once.