Nicaragua

Note: The following are a series of transcriptions from my travel journal. The dates will not line up with the posted dates. Sorry.

March 4-6; The road to Nicaragua

After a confusing trip back and forth around Hartford and a fast food meal, we finally made it to Massachusetts. Reuben, Lizzie, Heather, Natasha and I were spending the night in Boston at Natasha's childhood home. It was richly decorated with art and artifacts from all over the world, and was maze-like in design. It also featured a terrifying massage chair, which restrained one as they took their massage, whether they liked it or not. Disturbing.

After some deliberation, we decided to forgo sleep and remain awake until our early-morning flight to Miami. Board games, conversation, and silliness passed the time. Then came approximately nine hours of travel in remarkably uncomfortable airplanes.

We landed in Managua, largest city and capital of Nicaragua.

After going through customs, we opened front doors of the airport to be greeted by a dense crowd of local taxi drivers: "Taxi? Taxi? Taxi!" they called, hoping to tempt exhausted travelers into their cabs, away from the heat and the wind.

There is snow on the ground, and the air is still and cold... at least it used to be, just hours ago. It is immediately apparent that I am in a tropical climate, far away from the cold misery of Connecticut's dreariest time of year.

We found our driver, and we promptly rocketed toward San Juan del Sur, our final destination.

Passing the outskirts of Managua we saw incredible amounts of garbage and people walking for miles as if they did it every day (they probably do). We saw tortured landscapes of chopped trees and smoking piles of vegetation. We saw villages cobbled together bits of wood and metal, families sitting together on the front stoop, groups of kids playing football and kicking up clouds of dust in the hot air. There were children walking toward their rural homes in their school uniforms, miles of plantain fields, and huge estates surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. Everywhere, the buildings were brightly painted and garish, their appearance almost mocking the apparent destitution.

When we reached San Juan del Sur, it was 5:00 and we were starving. After greeting our host family and enjoying a delicious meal (gallo pinto, chicken, some kind of vinegary salad), we went to a local bar called Iguana's and had some pretty good beer (Toña). Our first night ended, and we slept soundly in the spare rooms of our hosts, as our apartment was not ready yet.

The night was quiet and hot, the wind rushing through the spaces between the walls and the ceiling, and our fans running, their operation punctuated by frequent brown outs and power outages. Thoughts of home filled my mind until I finally drifted off to sleep.

bbb

Nearly graduation.

Well, it's just under a month until I walk and receive my diploma.  Since I posted last I was accepted into Wesleyan's BA/MA program, which entitles me to a master's degree one year from now.  I also went to Nicaragua for Spring Break, and I actually took detailed notes and many pictures, so perhaps I will transcribe the notes and put some pictures up here to chronicle my adventures for everyone to see.  There is no time for that now, however.  I've got plenty to do in the last days of my Senior year in college.

I'm 22.  I turned 21 in Australia last year, and 22 in Connecticut this year.  Unbelievable.  I don't feel any more grown up than I did when I first entered college, though I suppose I'm still relatively young.  I think I at least expected to know what I'm doing with my life by now, but hey, I suppose I'm lucky enough to have plans for next year.  Many of my friends are having a lot of trouble finding things to do in this economy.  I suppose there will be many adventures and trials ahead for people in my class the world around.

A couple of confirmed cases of swine flu in CT so far.  Only one death in the US though, so things aren't all that serious just yet.  Who knows.

Alright, that's enough for now.  I'm not very good at writing off the top of my head, so I'm just going to stop.

Wow... this thing still exists?

It's been a busy summer so far.  My research has progressed and now all we really have to do is menial lab work: feed caterpillars, check for moths and butterflies, enter data.  Pretty soon we'll start analysis.  I miss being in the field!

I've continued on with my photography, though my portfolio is currently in crisis since my computer crashed.  I've gotten a bit better at photographing inside of forest-type conditions, which is nice, and I've gained a genuine appreciation for the Connecticut forest; different from Australia, of course, but no less wild.  I've also started to do macro photography, which is rather a lot more complicated. I find many interesting insects in the field and I've been collecting them; ultimately I'll be pinning them into an entomological display box, but as I've gone along throughout the project collecting them, I'd always wanted to photograph them in detail.  What I do is flip around my lens, which allows it to focus no more than a couple of inches in front of my subject.  Anyway, it takes forever for a number of reasons, but I'm generally happy with the results.  Should I get my pictures back, I'll post them.

Well, I hope everyone's summer is going well so far (provided it's started).

My job is interesting... more field research, of course.  I collect and rear caterpillars.  Every day.

I've decided to start using facebook to promote my work.  I've sold one photo on istockphoto.com.  Wow, a 23 cent royalty!  It's going to take a while before I actually make money from that website.  I figure, though, I can post a bunch of albums on facebook that people would actually see, and just write a note on the album that large format prints are available for them.  I can get pretty big prints or small prints, whatever anyone would want, and they would be priced accordingly (plus shipping, of course).  I can't really think of a better way to do it, and I think that maybe a few Australia folk might be interested in getting full format prints of a panorama or two, which would be a tad more expensive.

I guess we'll see what happens.

Still here.

It's been three weeks now and I suppose I feel a bit more at home.  I've started work for Professor Singer at Wesleyan.  This generally consists of laying sheets under branches, hitting said branches with sticks, and seeing what falls out of the branches onto the sheets.  We collect some of the caterpillars that fall out of the branches and then raise them in the lab.

On an interesting note, I've started to sell my pictures on www.istockphoto.com.  I know, it's sort of cheesy to plug my own work, but it's a pretty cool site and you can buy digital copies or prints at some pretty reasonable prices.  My member name is cskorik, so check it out if you're at all interested in copies of my work.  I'll be uploading more of my pictures there as time goes on.  Alternatively, I have also been in touch with the print lab at my school, and I'm going to try to get my panoramas printed in large formats.  If any of you readers out there (provided you still read this blog) would be at all interested in large format prints, please shoot me an email and we can work something out.

To view my work, click here.

Back.

I'm officially back from Australia.  I've been back for less than 24 hours, and I've already been completely shell shocked by so abruptly changing everything about my life.  Seeing everyone again, especially everyone back at Wesleyan, has been incredibly interesting.. I have so much to tell them, but absolutely no context for doing so... I end up just not knowing what to say.  Oh well.. I guess I'll get comfortable reasonably soon.

I'm going to try and start selling prints of my pictures.  Not a big deal at all or anything, but I'm thinking I'd like to start selling mainly my panoramas in very large format prints, price and sizes to be determined.  If anyone would be at all interested in purchasing anything like that from me, don't hesitate to email me; that will certainly expedite the process of me figuring out how to get large prints of my work, which would be great in general.  I'm also thinking of producing some sort of digital catalogue of my work so that people can order from me if they'd like.  

Right then, time for some sleep.

Why I can't wait to come home.

I'm almost done with an extremely long research project; the only thing that's stopping me, in fact, is a stupid piece of crap 6 year old printer that'll print a half of a paper and then give up and force me to start over. Thanks. Well at least I'm done writing, eh? Anyhow, I'm tired of being here. I'm not going to lie, this whole project has really made me question how worthwhile research of this type is. It's an incredible amount of work for a publication (or, non-publication, in my case) that people will not read, just cite in their further research, provided they even continue your research ever. I investigated growth habit traits with regards to frost resistance in rainforest seedlings. So what? Really! So what?? This is interesting to NO ONE. I would have much rather just had free reighn over some sort of method of transportation and just rode around the Tablelands, creating some sort of wildlife photography portfolio. Who likes pictures? Everyone. Are they important? Yes; they might make people realize that the environment is kind of interesting after all. Me spouting statistics about relative foliage retention with resepect to minimum foliage height and foliage densities isn't going to make anyone interested. Ever. I know this is just a negative spouting of nonsense, but at this point in my life, I don't think I can honestly say I'm interested in the career I've chosen for myself. I suppose I'll probably feel differently when I return home, but right now I can't wait to get out of here, away from this pointless study and all of the nothing it has accomplished.

Why can't I wait to get home? Simple. I've got five more days here in this forest and I can't wait to leave. I've been here longer than I've ever been a foreign country, longer than I've been stuck in the middle of a jungle, longer than I care to be here. I long to have my own room; to be able to drive a car downtown more than about once a week; to walk around barefoot on clean hardwood floors that aren't always covered with dust and dirt; to be able to walk down the hall to a bathroom in the middle of the night instead of down a jungle path; to be able to sit down to eat with my family and friends and tell them my stories and show them all of my pictures (what I've posted on here is around 1% of all the photographs I've taken here). I want to make a little money instead of watching my balance drop. I want to sleep in a bed that isn't cold and wet, and doesn't smell like mold. I'm totally aware that I'll probably get home and miss this place and all of the people here; I'll come to appreciate the things I've learned and the time I've spent. But that's always the case. I'm itching to get on a plane.

In five days I board a Qantas flight (possibly my last) and I won't stop traveling until I've gone 5,000 miles. The journey will take 34 hours and because I'll be crossing the international dateline it will be May 8th for the entire trip. In fact, it will be may 8th for a total of 38 hours. That's going to be a bitch, but it'll be worth it. When I finally lay down in my bed at 11:30 PM, May 8th, I'll be home.