Beginning

This is the 4.5' Boa! Pretty sweet right?
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It took me a while but I'm finally getting around to telling you all what we've been doing in Alamos. I've been here for a little over two weeks and I love it! The first week was especially nice because all we had to do was prepare for the start of the class and wait for the other two students to arrive. It was basically like a vacation. It feels about 90 degrees in the sun and cools down to the 50's at night which is perfect for sleeping. We went on a number of hikes orienting ourselves with the area we'll be living in for the majority of our time in Mexico. Now you may be thinking "Camping on your teachers property for 3 months?!?! Sounds like hell!" WRONG! as you can see in the pictures it is basically paradise. It's about 2 acres of tropical deciduous forest with a couple little houses on it (one is Bob's and his wife the other is the "casita" which is our classroom/workspace) a wicked cool outdoor kitchen and a shady ramada for eating reading or whatever. Not only is Bob's property amazing and beautiful it is only a 10 minute walk from the gorgeous little colonial city of Alamos. The food is amazing! A wonderful local woman named Norma cooks for us. She is an amazing cook and an awesome lady. She helps us with are spanish and has an amazing sense of humor! (we went out with her and her friends on Valentines Day...Wow what a riot!) So the living conditions are amazing. Now about the work. After we got ourselves oriented to the area and trained with the GPS units and camera traps we started learning about the trees of the TDF (tropical deciduous forest). There are about 180 different tree species here so we have our work cut out for us. Not to mention the locals have about 6 different names for each tree! Also yesterday we set our first camera traps. We found the perfect place right near the Rio Cuchujaqui (pronounced koo'cha'hockey). The spot is a small drainage that runs into the river and was full of tracks. We saw tracks of everything from birds to small mammals, dogs and even some small cats!! We know that a Margay lives in a tree near there so we are hoping to catch it on film! We have had a good number of interactions with animals already. We've found Night Snakes, Elegant Trogans, a 4.5 foot Boa, huge 8" long centipedes and a desert tortoise! And those are just the exciting species. Today we start our week of intensive spanish classes. I hope all is well with all of you back home! I check my email very frequently even though the internet here is kinda spotty. I love you all and I'll write soon! Hopefully about the first cat we caught in one of our camera traps!