The story of Hurricane Omar is pretty intense, prepare. Forecasts said that the eye of the storm would pass our corner of the island late Wednesday night. By Tuesday-ish the storm was a hurricane, level 1-2.
I usually work Monday-Friday, 6:50am to 2:30pm. Monday I went to get the ice packs like usual at 6:10, but the guys said we were not going. Just William, the boat captain said this, there was a huge clap of thunder, and I understood. The sky was definitely gray, and it did, indeed, rain and thunder all day. I went back to sleep, and did my little puttering around things for the rest of the day (reading, watching movies, cooking, cleaning, playing with dogs).
Tuesday, I prepared as usual because it didn't look too bad outside. The guys said we were not going to the island, because of bad weather. It did not rain, and I kept thinking, its the calm before the storm. We learned Tuesday evening that we were definitely not going to Cayo Wednesday or Thursday. At this point, the storm was already a Hurricane, before it had even reached land, somewhere between a level 1 and 2.
Wednesday I slept in, no preparation. That was nice. Later in the day, Maria stopped by and said she needed to go to San Juan. Doreen, James Postdoc an I advised her not to. Though the hurricane was not supposed to hit the island until between 8 pm an 2am, an it was only 1pm, it would not be smart to go driving in the possible heavy rain. Everyone in the neighborhood began to prepare their houses for intense wind. The restaurant at the end of our street, on the beach, put up sheet metal in all the windows. Across the street the old woman left, and put sheet metal up on her door. Doreen, who lives in a trailer (a very nice one) decided to go to Keishya's house because it is further from the beach, and safer. I began closing all our shutters on the house. Our house is rather hurricane proof, in that it has no glass, only screen and metal shutters. In Katy an Josephs room, though, there are many shutters missing. In the living room, the shutters were rusted and could not be closed. Since we were expecting 70-100mph winds an rain, I put up a towel in the space where water could get in. Its true, while other put up sheet metal I put up a towel. What could I do?
Wednesday afternoon we got internet in our house!!! I took a long nap in the afternoon to prepare to stay up at night and listen to the loud wind. I prepared my room, taking books away from the window sill and such.
I took my "last" dog walk around 6. It was eerie outside, so quiet an all boarded up. It felt as if the wind was being pulled slowly but in great amounts.
At 8o'clock, we were watching Project Runway and the Presidential debates. I began to look at the weather on the internet. The hurricane trajectory earlier that day looked as if the eye was heading straight for Punta Santiago. At 8pm, the trajectory took the hurricane to the east of Puerto Rico island.
I went to bed at 11pm. It was a quiet night. When I woke up, there was no sign of anything having happened the night before. The hurricane had comppllleeetly missed us.
The suspense was terrible for me too!!! all week and hours of preparation for stupid Omar who completely missed us!
Thursday I slept in.
Friday, Saturay, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and tomorrow will be Friday, we've been workin. Because hurricane Omar was a doozie.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Cayo Characters
Sometimes I think it should be called Iguana Island
How can one tell the difference between individual monkeys?
Well at first I was learning them by ear notches and tatoos, but here's
an example of some pretty distinct faces.
Above=17K
Below=99L
They're around the same age, but very different faces,
one rather ugly, one a pretty good looking monkey.
Below: guy w/o a nose.
Below, a female with a very bad wound. It has been
getting bigger by the day, and smells very bad.
Unfortunately, we must let nature take its course.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Bebes
Its birth season!!! There 3 babies so far born in my group, and they are in that half way too cute and half ugly stage. Interestingly and as expected, the three females who have had babies so far are 3 who’s infants died last year. They were able to go into estrus earlier than the other females who were probably still lactating, some Life History Theory for ya.
Besides these two pieces of exciting news, not too much has changed in Punta Santiago. Pandora, my doggy has learned some new tricks. There’s been a kitten living inside the stairs but not inside the patio gate to my house, being whiny as hell and making both the dogs bark at her all day, that’s been annoying.
I do have a place in my heart for this small town that I live in. A few weeks ago when I went on a weekend excursion with Grace, Matt, and J.P. I learned a lot about the countryside of PR, mostly that there are many many small dilapidated towns. One part of “dilapidated” that I can put into words is that there are usually buildings painted many different colors, but all of them fading because of the intense heat and sun. It gives the towns a feeling like they’ve stood still for many, many years, and brings me to understand Garcia Marquez books to an even more extreme degree than I already do.
After driving through many small towns in many a beautiful countryside, it was nice to return home to Punta Santiago, MY dilapidated Puerto Rican town.
The weather report
When the sky is darker than the water, that means its going to rain.
Yes,
So Wednesday I got up and went about my daily routine to get ready, but when I got to the office to pick up ice for the poo-packs, the guys said we weren’t going to the island. I was kind of confused because the weather looked alright.
About an hour later, the weather changed quickly. A rapid wind came, causing waves in the ocean and people to look out their windows on our street. I think the schools around us (there are 2 in my very small neighborhood) were having recess, and ran out to the end of my street to watch the ocean, excitedly talking and screaming. Ina, my new housemate who is here from
Then of course, every time it stopped raining I’d try to take my doggy for a walk it would start pouring again, which was about 13 times that day. Ina, Matt, and I played GinRummy for a few hours, it was a nice day.
And Josefine: wheeeew its been hard to sleep during Josefine. She came by yesterday, Saturday evening and then all night. She made pretty much the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard, and put on a brilliant light show. I was watching Saturday Night Live on Saturday Night, and although the host was Tina Fay, I chose to lie in my bed and watch the lightning and listen to the thunder.
After a night of rain (when we do go to Cayo the next morning) we will find group R all huddled around the "monkey rain shelter" which is actually a water catching device. On all other days when I find them, around 7:10 or so, they are dispersed. I believe it is because they do not sleep as well on rainy nights, and so they are still groggy. Its pretty adorable, not to mention wonderful for sample collection.
Friday, July 25, 2008
My camera works = A day in the life.
First of all, thank you Mom for making my camera work again, I don't really understand how you're so efficient but I appreciate it!
Second, I'm figuring out how to format this blog. By that I mean I notice that it is not formatted very well, and I wish I knew how to better it.
(Above) This is the dock where we meet every morning at 6:50, and the boat ride to the island. That's Grace on the right and Doreen in the back.
(Above) Lunch cage. Though its a cage, its comfy. It keeps our food safe from monkeys. (Below) View from the lunch cage, the lower coral where monkeys get chow, and a water hole, so there's always something entertainin' to look at. 
(Above) What we do in the lunch cage. Its true, naps are scrumptious, even on the single wooden bench that's provided. 
The monkeys sit around until they get fed, usually between 7:30 and 8:30. On the left is 83L, a dude from which I collect fecal samples. He is alone getting his monkey chow because he just so pompous that he'll scare anyone else away, while on the right the monkeys are nice enough to share elbow room.
The monkeys sit around until they get fed, usually between 7:30 and 8:30. On the left is 83L, a dude from which I collect fecal samples. He is alone getting his monkey chow because he just so pompous that he'll scare anyone else away, while on the right the monkeys are nice enough to share elbow room. 
This guy I hate. He is 50B and he just doesn't prove very good samples. He has some idiosyncracies, such as here, where he is licking a tree. He also licks bricks, rocks, and metal. It may be a taste thing, it may be a minteral/nutrient thing, I just call him a loser because its fun to have someone to make fun of, especially when they don't "mind." 
This is Paco's boat, one of those crazy old men I mentioned a few blogs ago. I'll get a better picture eventually, but every few days he takes groups around the island to see monkeys and snorkel, while playing loud music. I enjoy it. 
This female is threatening me, and she has a rediculous, very swollen forhead. The females get this when they are pregnant, with increasing swellings on their faces until they give birth. I hear that her's is going to get a lot worse than this because she still has at least a month to go. Damn.
Today, Friday, when we returned from the island to mass beach party on OUR beach. The picture is from the middle of the dock and right there on the left where the red car is located is where my street ends, and I usually walk my dog, but on a desolate beach. It's a holiday, I'm not sure what its called, but it is in honor of the Puerto Rican Constitution. This is what beach parties look like, you drive your car onto the beach, set up some chairs, then make out with your honey in the water, and maybe ride a wave runner. Puerto Rico IS a beach party.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Sam's Terribly-Awesome or Awesomley-Terrible Last Day
A few rediculous things happened this past Wednesday, I'm pretty sure in honor of it being Sam Yale Kid's last day. First, the boat stopped working pretty much exactly between the dock and the island. Orlando was driving, my favorite worker man, and he pulled out his cel phone which didn't get very good reception. The 8 of us or so on the boat started making bad jokes about swimming and entertaining ourselves for the hours we may be on the small speed boat together. After about 5 minutes, Orlando pulled the engine chord and it started up, then died. This repeated for another 5 minutes. The jokes got worse. But then, eventually, after about 15 minutes, the boad started and we made it safe.
Secondly, a few monkeys got into the lunch cage. The lunch cage door must always be closed, because the monkeys do know that there's goo food happening inside. I'm not sure how because I was outside at the time, but a few monkeys got in and stole some of Sams grapes from the table. There was a lot of yelling and screaming and loud slamming, eventually scaring away the monkeys. Everyone was fine, but an intense few moments.
Lastly, as Sam and Meg were leaving the lunch cage after a relaxing lunch, the adult male monkeys decided to threaten the hell outta Meg and Sam. As they slid open the door to leave, a female nearby got scared, grabbing her infant to her belly and tried to jump up onto the fence, but missed because of the baby on her belly, making a very loud noise. The female was a high ranking female so all the males in the area RAN to come threaten sam, and soon there were about 7 adult males, grunting loudly, and showing their shart teeth through the "O" face. Meg ran away, and Sam ran back inside the cage. They continued to threaten, until I picked up some rocks and started throwing them towards the monkeys so that they would back off. They eventually started to quiet down. It was intense, though. Its very scary when that many infectious animals with large teeth are threatening you, and coming closer and closer, even when inside a fenced off cage!
The boad has never malfunctioned, nor that have I ever seen that many adult males threaten so intensly, but a few weeks ago a few monkeys did get inside the lunch cage and poo all over the place, but luckily did not distrub anyone's lunches.
You've got to be prepared for anything on that island. wow.
Secondly, a few monkeys got into the lunch cage. The lunch cage door must always be closed, because the monkeys do know that there's goo food happening inside. I'm not sure how because I was outside at the time, but a few monkeys got in and stole some of Sams grapes from the table. There was a lot of yelling and screaming and loud slamming, eventually scaring away the monkeys. Everyone was fine, but an intense few moments.
Lastly, as Sam and Meg were leaving the lunch cage after a relaxing lunch, the adult male monkeys decided to threaten the hell outta Meg and Sam. As they slid open the door to leave, a female nearby got scared, grabbing her infant to her belly and tried to jump up onto the fence, but missed because of the baby on her belly, making a very loud noise. The female was a high ranking female so all the males in the area RAN to come threaten sam, and soon there were about 7 adult males, grunting loudly, and showing their shart teeth through the "O" face. Meg ran away, and Sam ran back inside the cage. They continued to threaten, until I picked up some rocks and started throwing them towards the monkeys so that they would back off. They eventually started to quiet down. It was intense, though. Its very scary when that many infectious animals with large teeth are threatening you, and coming closer and closer, even when inside a fenced off cage!
The boad has never malfunctioned, nor that have I ever seen that many adult males threaten so intensly, but a few weeks ago a few monkeys did get inside the lunch cage and poo all over the place, but luckily did not distrub anyone's lunches.
You've got to be prepared for anything on that island. wow.
Other Creatures
Besides monkeys and dogs I also have daily interactions with: lizards, iguanas, crabs, mosquitos, no-see-'ums, chickens, cats, birds, frogs, I'll do this ecology lesson-style
Lizards So on the monkey island there are also many lizards that eat the monkey chow. There are beautiful black and blue ones that are vegetarian and eat leaves and monkey chow. Then there are the brown ones tha teat the blue ones and dead iguanas.
Iguanas There are some huuuuge iguanas on Cayo, and the staff is constantly keeping their numbers down. Last year they dug up their eggs and threw them into the ocean. They also shoot them with rifles and behead them with machetes. The monkeys usually don't pay too much attention to the iguanas, but sometimes they will grab an aguana by the tail and pick it up, swing it around, or just hold it so the iguana cannot run. When they let go, the iguana sometimes slaps them with their tail, which has a ridge that goes all the way down from their backs with spikes, which hurts the monkey. Then the iguana runs away with their funny feet that makes them look like they have wheels.
Crabs Two kinds. Hermit crabs and roadside crabs. The hermit crabs are all over the island, and are pretty cute. I pick them up sometimes and look at the, but if their too big they can reach around the shell and pinch me. Roadside crabs are a whole different thing. So if your driving at night on the roads here there area always people with flashlighs off to the side looking for crabs. There is barely room for 2 cars on the roads, and these people with nothing but flashlighs expect you to see them, and not kill them! Its very scary to drive at night because of it. I've been told if you find a crab off to the side you feed him for a month to clean them out, corn or something, then you eat them.
Mosquitos The mosquitos don't like me, but they loooove Grace. Sucks for her, seriously. The mosquitos are tiny here, and they don't fly straight. Its nice because they don't have the obnoxious buzzing sound, but are impossibel to kill!
No-see-'ums. This is their technical name. These guys are tinnnny little monsters that really sting when they bite or sting you, I'm not even sure what they do. They're very random. Sometimes right when I get out of the water they attack me, but sometimes they don't. Sometimes they get me while walking the dog at sunset, but sometimes not. Obnoxious. Luckily, though, they don't hurt or itch later.
Chickens The house next to the office has many chickens and roosters. The rooster does his call thing throughout the day, so I guess his circadium rhythem is off. There are also chickens up the street, that are uncaged but I beleive belongs to a family. One time a rooster came and sat in front of our house and scared away a cat.
Cats. Sooo many cats, probably just as many as street dogs. They like to sleep on top of cars and taunt our dogs. They make the dogs bark all day and all night, ggrrrr. One time I let Pandora have a stare off with a cat, and the cat pounced at her, and now she's even more scared of them. When we begin our walks, like 4 a day, she always looks under cars for them.
Birds There are beautiful white egrets, and one lands everyday in the same place on the island when I am eating lunch. The pelicans look like teradactals when they are flying. The Pigeons in San Juan are disgusting.
Frogs. There are frogs the size of my fist that are fun to watch jump away. I only started seeing them, but maybe this is because I have to walk Pandora every night now. There are also tiny tan frogs that I've never seen, but are kind of the emblem of Puerto Rico. They are called Coqui's, because that is the sound they make. They're Very loud, and start making their noises once the sun goes down until about midnight. There's a really good cheese called Coqui cheese, and the coqui is the symbol next to the Puero Rico Google home page, because that shows you for real how important the frog is to PR, right? Our neighbor said that once her dog was playing in our back yard and had a frog in its mouth, then 10 minutes later the dogs face swelled up immensly, and they had to tak it to the vet for a shot. I'll work on not letting that happen to me or my puppy.
More Dogs Yesterday for the first time I walked around a neighborhood with Pandora on the other side of the highway(its a joke to call it a highway, its a small but major street). As I walked into the neighborhood the dogs in their respective houses started barking, like a wave. The barking started about 2 houses ahead of my path, and ended about 4 houses behind me. OOO it was loud. Some houses had 4 small dogs, some 2 big dogs, some dogs on the roof. All mutts, ALL strange twists of dog fate.
Rats/Mice. Grace saw a small furry being in our kitchen. Crap.
Horses. Someone has a horse tied up next to the beach in a little green area. Sometimes in the afternoon I hear the guy running around on the horse. That's really all I know about it.
That's about as much as I know. Enjoy!
Lizards So on the monkey island there are also many lizards that eat the monkey chow. There are beautiful black and blue ones that are vegetarian and eat leaves and monkey chow. Then there are the brown ones tha teat the blue ones and dead iguanas.
Iguanas There are some huuuuge iguanas on Cayo, and the staff is constantly keeping their numbers down. Last year they dug up their eggs and threw them into the ocean. They also shoot them with rifles and behead them with machetes. The monkeys usually don't pay too much attention to the iguanas, but sometimes they will grab an aguana by the tail and pick it up, swing it around, or just hold it so the iguana cannot run. When they let go, the iguana sometimes slaps them with their tail, which has a ridge that goes all the way down from their backs with spikes, which hurts the monkey. Then the iguana runs away with their funny feet that makes them look like they have wheels.
Crabs Two kinds. Hermit crabs and roadside crabs. The hermit crabs are all over the island, and are pretty cute. I pick them up sometimes and look at the, but if their too big they can reach around the shell and pinch me. Roadside crabs are a whole different thing. So if your driving at night on the roads here there area always people with flashlighs off to the side looking for crabs. There is barely room for 2 cars on the roads, and these people with nothing but flashlighs expect you to see them, and not kill them! Its very scary to drive at night because of it. I've been told if you find a crab off to the side you feed him for a month to clean them out, corn or something, then you eat them.
Mosquitos The mosquitos don't like me, but they loooove Grace. Sucks for her, seriously. The mosquitos are tiny here, and they don't fly straight. Its nice because they don't have the obnoxious buzzing sound, but are impossibel to kill!
No-see-'ums. This is their technical name. These guys are tinnnny little monsters that really sting when they bite or sting you, I'm not even sure what they do. They're very random. Sometimes right when I get out of the water they attack me, but sometimes they don't. Sometimes they get me while walking the dog at sunset, but sometimes not. Obnoxious. Luckily, though, they don't hurt or itch later.
Chickens The house next to the office has many chickens and roosters. The rooster does his call thing throughout the day, so I guess his circadium rhythem is off. There are also chickens up the street, that are uncaged but I beleive belongs to a family. One time a rooster came and sat in front of our house and scared away a cat.
Cats. Sooo many cats, probably just as many as street dogs. They like to sleep on top of cars and taunt our dogs. They make the dogs bark all day and all night, ggrrrr. One time I let Pandora have a stare off with a cat, and the cat pounced at her, and now she's even more scared of them. When we begin our walks, like 4 a day, she always looks under cars for them.
Birds There are beautiful white egrets, and one lands everyday in the same place on the island when I am eating lunch. The pelicans look like teradactals when they are flying. The Pigeons in San Juan are disgusting.
Frogs. There are frogs the size of my fist that are fun to watch jump away. I only started seeing them, but maybe this is because I have to walk Pandora every night now. There are also tiny tan frogs that I've never seen, but are kind of the emblem of Puerto Rico. They are called Coqui's, because that is the sound they make. They're Very loud, and start making their noises once the sun goes down until about midnight. There's a really good cheese called Coqui cheese, and the coqui is the symbol next to the Puero Rico Google home page, because that shows you for real how important the frog is to PR, right? Our neighbor said that once her dog was playing in our back yard and had a frog in its mouth, then 10 minutes later the dogs face swelled up immensly, and they had to tak it to the vet for a shot. I'll work on not letting that happen to me or my puppy.
More Dogs Yesterday for the first time I walked around a neighborhood with Pandora on the other side of the highway(its a joke to call it a highway, its a small but major street). As I walked into the neighborhood the dogs in their respective houses started barking, like a wave. The barking started about 2 houses ahead of my path, and ended about 4 houses behind me. OOO it was loud. Some houses had 4 small dogs, some 2 big dogs, some dogs on the roof. All mutts, ALL strange twists of dog fate.
Rats/Mice. Grace saw a small furry being in our kitchen. Crap.
Horses. Someone has a horse tied up next to the beach in a little green area. Sometimes in the afternoon I hear the guy running around on the horse. That's really all I know about it.
That's about as much as I know. Enjoy!
Fruitless in San Juan and the pain of July 5th
The event of not seeing fireworks in San Juan on July 4th is largely representative of Puerto Rico in general. Everyone in my town told us, me and Grace and her visiting bf that Old San Juan is the place to go on July 4th. The three of us, incrediblyl skeptical about the possibility of entering Old San Juan with the traffic situation, headed out. Once parked we started to ask around if there were going to be fireworks and where. Everyone gave us the same answer, "We thought so.... but it doesn't really look like it. . . " There weren't many people there. We saw fireworks beginning about 20 miles away, low to the groud across the bay and sat down to watch, just in case they were the only fireworks we were to see. And they were. Grace's bf, Geremy from Seattle then coined the term "Fruitless in San Juan." True. Hilariously Puerto Rico, no one knows exactly whats going down.
But the night did provide a few more entertaining moments. We met one of the 4 electricians for the US Coast Guard, getting very drunk and very eager to talk about the doings of the Coast Guard. His rablings were interesting, including how if your in the military and your not paid to scratch your ass, then you don't do it. Since there are 4 electricians for 150 Coast Guards in Puerto Rico, he replaces light bulbs every few days and basically does nothing else. So I kept asking questions to see what else would leak out of his mouth. He continued to tell disturbing truths about how the Coast Guard's job to keep immigrants from setting foot on land, because once they do they are safe, really is just a big game of shark and minnows. So there are planes that survey the water, and they coordinate with coast guard ships to intercept people. He's been on the boats a few times, and explained that when they intercept attempters they usually get them on board, give them blankets because they've usually been at sea for a few days, a majority of them coming from Dominican Republic or Cuba. Then they take them back from wherever they came from. He said the success rate of making it if you attempt is about 40%, the other 60% are either caught or drown. They come on small speed boats, sometimes with 30 unprepared people. He was a nice guy who went on to rant, furiously that if everyone who tried to come to the US just stood up to better their country, it wouldn't be like this. Intense shit, I had to take a break after hearing the story. SOME kinda patriotic July 4th. . .
So maybe I should have thought ahead of time about this, but it is a BAD IDEA to take 2 dogs walking on the beaches in Puerto Rico on July 5th. Can you guess why? Trash and bbq chicken and fist bones EVERYWHERE!!!! I was excited for a walk on the beach with 2 dogs, and I was going to get them, Pandora and Ginger to play with a ball instead of just gnawing on each other's ears. Everything went wrong as soon a I let them off the leash. They ran in the direction of a quiet thicket, where there was a couple getting IT on. I got all nervous and flustered and w/o making too much eye contact chased the doggies around until I got them both back on their leashes, which they continued to twist around each other and tangle. The only way to make these 2 dogs keep moving when they smell something fishy or are into playing is to start running and they run with me. Once I finally go their leashes untangeled, I started running, but right next to me there happened to be a cement wall about 1 foot high, which I fell over, pretty f-ing hard. So my legs are and look pretty beat up right now, a week later. I blame it on July 5th.
But the night did provide a few more entertaining moments. We met one of the 4 electricians for the US Coast Guard, getting very drunk and very eager to talk about the doings of the Coast Guard. His rablings were interesting, including how if your in the military and your not paid to scratch your ass, then you don't do it. Since there are 4 electricians for 150 Coast Guards in Puerto Rico, he replaces light bulbs every few days and basically does nothing else. So I kept asking questions to see what else would leak out of his mouth. He continued to tell disturbing truths about how the Coast Guard's job to keep immigrants from setting foot on land, because once they do they are safe, really is just a big game of shark and minnows. So there are planes that survey the water, and they coordinate with coast guard ships to intercept people. He's been on the boats a few times, and explained that when they intercept attempters they usually get them on board, give them blankets because they've usually been at sea for a few days, a majority of them coming from Dominican Republic or Cuba. Then they take them back from wherever they came from. He said the success rate of making it if you attempt is about 40%, the other 60% are either caught or drown. They come on small speed boats, sometimes with 30 unprepared people. He was a nice guy who went on to rant, furiously that if everyone who tried to come to the US just stood up to better their country, it wouldn't be like this. Intense shit, I had to take a break after hearing the story. SOME kinda patriotic July 4th. . .
So maybe I should have thought ahead of time about this, but it is a BAD IDEA to take 2 dogs walking on the beaches in Puerto Rico on July 5th. Can you guess why? Trash and bbq chicken and fist bones EVERYWHERE!!!! I was excited for a walk on the beach with 2 dogs, and I was going to get them, Pandora and Ginger to play with a ball instead of just gnawing on each other's ears. Everything went wrong as soon a I let them off the leash. They ran in the direction of a quiet thicket, where there was a couple getting IT on. I got all nervous and flustered and w/o making too much eye contact chased the doggies around until I got them both back on their leashes, which they continued to twist around each other and tangle. The only way to make these 2 dogs keep moving when they smell something fishy or are into playing is to start running and they run with me. Once I finally go their leashes untangeled, I started running, but right next to me there happened to be a cement wall about 1 foot high, which I fell over, pretty f-ing hard. So my legs are and look pretty beat up right now, a week later. I blame it on July 5th.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Why do so many Adventures involve Old Men?
After a big adventure snorkeling around the Monkey Island with Paco, and then a trip to his friends house, I reflected back that I've made friends with 4 Old men in the month I've been here.
First of all, when Loren and I were in Old San Juan, while we ate dinner the night before she left an old dude named Julio talked to us for about an hour. I guess he's a usual to the restaurante, and stood outside the bars of patio with a glass of wine from the restaurante and talked to us. We shot some shit, and it turned out that he had grown up in my current town, and I told him how I love Puerto Rico but have problems getting around with no car. He said he has property in this side of the island and could pick me up and gave me his number. I haven't done anything with it yet.
Another was when Grace and I went surfing at Luquillo beach, and we met Tom Fergeston, the surfing instructor OF that beach (in his opinion). He invited us back the next day, and said he was having a BBQ on the beach, and that every sunday he went to bar down the street where there was a great live rhumba band. I had a car and it sounded interseting, so we showed up at the beach the next day, and found him drinking with a group of people. I went over to talk to him, met some people who were playing reggae music. (Sorry for this next part to all family members and those I know through Academic institutions) I met one older guy who was well drunk for 5pm who told me I had a nice ass for 10 minutes stright, I have no idea how he did it but he had a LOT of ways of saying it. (That's the end of the nonPG part)
Tom gave me a few rides on his surf board, which was much easier than the board I had rented the day before, which was his point. Tom was a really nice guy and I liked his friendly attitude. This all changed once we got to the bar, I bought him a drink for the 20 minute surf lesson, and he started hitting on Grace non-stop and was just another dirty, old, drunk man. The band was amazing, though, with an upright base, great horns, keyboard, and a singer who didn't even need a microphone who was, as Tom said, as "gay as the sky is blue."
Next was Paco and the snorkeling boat. Paco owns a good sized, maybe 15 seater, bright red, blue, and yellow boat that we see a few times a week circling around the monkey island. He teaches tourists about the monkeys, gets close so that his passangers can see them, and provides snorkeling equipment. The snorkeling was awesome. On one side I've always seen a few pelicans that hang out on some things sticking out of the water, which Paco explained is a ship wreck. A nice reef had formed with crazy huge brain corals, sea urchins, and some tropical fish. There were also huge star fish all over the bottom. Back on the boat, Paco handed us (me, Maria, and Maria's friend) each instruments, turned on salso music. He started dancing and encouraging us to do the same. We did for a few minutes, entertaining. On our way to the next snorkeling spot on the other side of the island, we asked him many questions, none of which he answered though he definetly thought he was. He's definetly an eccentric, crazy, nature-loving old man. He used to be the post master in Punta Santiago, told me he was once a teacher and when I asked him further he said "well I'm a jack of all trades." His knowledge of the monkeys when we asked for what he tells otherse was very close to on point, but not coooommmpletly there.
Once the sun was beginning to set and we needed to start home he asked if we wanted to visit his friend, a guy from New York's, amazing house. We said sure, and so his friend, I forgot his name so I'll call him Joe, met us at the dock. Paco explained that Joe's house had just been broken into, so it wasn't a great sight but we should definetly see the view. Joe took us in his car up to his house, straight up the hill, about 5 minutes from the dock. His house has an ammaaazing view, overlooking a huge portion of coast, looking west so that one can see many bays and inlets along the coast. It also has a wonderful view of Cayo Santiago. As it turned dark there was a wonderful breeze, and we could see the coast line light up, and the dark, mysterious monkey island right in the middle. Just wonderful.
So of course its Puerto Rico, so though a robbery had occured a few days before Joe came down to his beautiful vacation home in PR, the police couldn't make it to do fingerprints until the day after we visited. The whole house was a crime scene. He showed us some of the oddities of the incident. The robbers drank 3 whole bottles of rum, and had begun to pack many things to steal, which they started loading into a room. The robbers had taken down the shower curtains, putting the clips into a bowl like respectful robbers. They had moved many strage things it appeared they wanted to steal into a room, such as mirrors, DVDs, and other statues, that Joe explained were definetly not in their correct spot. Joe explained that his neighbors heard something going on, and so called the police and came to the house. The robbers then excaped, leaving most of the things behind, besides all of Joe's underwear and a suit. Wierd.
When it came time for someone to take us home, Paco and Joe turned into old men. First they told us we had to come back once the place was cleaned up for some wine, which wasn't too strange. But then they got into a little old man conversation that didn't make any sense about who should take us home, in which car and who should leave what equipment where. It took about another 30 minutes before things were arranged so that we could get a ride home, which included taking 10 minutes to back a car up very carefully into a parking spot and losing an electronic gate opener that Paco had in his hand a minute earlier.
I've been in Purto Rico for a little over a month now, and I find the number of old men that I feel I know quite well very strange. I'm not sure if its because I talk to them too much because I find them un-intimidating, because they enjoy talking to me, or what. I've only met one Puertorequeno, the guy who works at the key making kiosk, and his phone number doesn't work anymore. Its not that I'm incredibly anxoious to meet Puerto Ricans my own age, but something just seems off.
Today is the 4th of July and I'm not sure what lies in store for tonight. I may go to San Juan with Grace and her bf, or just stay here in Punta. There are many people coming into town, but its mostly families and I don't think there is any central party or anything. If I do stay here maybe I'll get the nerve to walk around and at least see whats happening. There are huge packs of fireworks for sale at Walmart, so I suppose fireworks are legal. We'll just have to see what happens.
First of all, when Loren and I were in Old San Juan, while we ate dinner the night before she left an old dude named Julio talked to us for about an hour. I guess he's a usual to the restaurante, and stood outside the bars of patio with a glass of wine from the restaurante and talked to us. We shot some shit, and it turned out that he had grown up in my current town, and I told him how I love Puerto Rico but have problems getting around with no car. He said he has property in this side of the island and could pick me up and gave me his number. I haven't done anything with it yet.
Another was when Grace and I went surfing at Luquillo beach, and we met Tom Fergeston, the surfing instructor OF that beach (in his opinion). He invited us back the next day, and said he was having a BBQ on the beach, and that every sunday he went to bar down the street where there was a great live rhumba band. I had a car and it sounded interseting, so we showed up at the beach the next day, and found him drinking with a group of people. I went over to talk to him, met some people who were playing reggae music. (Sorry for this next part to all family members and those I know through Academic institutions) I met one older guy who was well drunk for 5pm who told me I had a nice ass for 10 minutes stright, I have no idea how he did it but he had a LOT of ways of saying it. (That's the end of the nonPG part)
Tom gave me a few rides on his surf board, which was much easier than the board I had rented the day before, which was his point. Tom was a really nice guy and I liked his friendly attitude. This all changed once we got to the bar, I bought him a drink for the 20 minute surf lesson, and he started hitting on Grace non-stop and was just another dirty, old, drunk man. The band was amazing, though, with an upright base, great horns, keyboard, and a singer who didn't even need a microphone who was, as Tom said, as "gay as the sky is blue."
Next was Paco and the snorkeling boat. Paco owns a good sized, maybe 15 seater, bright red, blue, and yellow boat that we see a few times a week circling around the monkey island. He teaches tourists about the monkeys, gets close so that his passangers can see them, and provides snorkeling equipment. The snorkeling was awesome. On one side I've always seen a few pelicans that hang out on some things sticking out of the water, which Paco explained is a ship wreck. A nice reef had formed with crazy huge brain corals, sea urchins, and some tropical fish. There were also huge star fish all over the bottom. Back on the boat, Paco handed us (me, Maria, and Maria's friend) each instruments, turned on salso music. He started dancing and encouraging us to do the same. We did for a few minutes, entertaining. On our way to the next snorkeling spot on the other side of the island, we asked him many questions, none of which he answered though he definetly thought he was. He's definetly an eccentric, crazy, nature-loving old man. He used to be the post master in Punta Santiago, told me he was once a teacher and when I asked him further he said "well I'm a jack of all trades." His knowledge of the monkeys when we asked for what he tells otherse was very close to on point, but not coooommmpletly there.
Once the sun was beginning to set and we needed to start home he asked if we wanted to visit his friend, a guy from New York's, amazing house. We said sure, and so his friend, I forgot his name so I'll call him Joe, met us at the dock. Paco explained that Joe's house had just been broken into, so it wasn't a great sight but we should definetly see the view. Joe took us in his car up to his house, straight up the hill, about 5 minutes from the dock. His house has an ammaaazing view, overlooking a huge portion of coast, looking west so that one can see many bays and inlets along the coast. It also has a wonderful view of Cayo Santiago. As it turned dark there was a wonderful breeze, and we could see the coast line light up, and the dark, mysterious monkey island right in the middle. Just wonderful.
So of course its Puerto Rico, so though a robbery had occured a few days before Joe came down to his beautiful vacation home in PR, the police couldn't make it to do fingerprints until the day after we visited. The whole house was a crime scene. He showed us some of the oddities of the incident. The robbers drank 3 whole bottles of rum, and had begun to pack many things to steal, which they started loading into a room. The robbers had taken down the shower curtains, putting the clips into a bowl like respectful robbers. They had moved many strage things it appeared they wanted to steal into a room, such as mirrors, DVDs, and other statues, that Joe explained were definetly not in their correct spot. Joe explained that his neighbors heard something going on, and so called the police and came to the house. The robbers then excaped, leaving most of the things behind, besides all of Joe's underwear and a suit. Wierd.
When it came time for someone to take us home, Paco and Joe turned into old men. First they told us we had to come back once the place was cleaned up for some wine, which wasn't too strange. But then they got into a little old man conversation that didn't make any sense about who should take us home, in which car and who should leave what equipment where. It took about another 30 minutes before things were arranged so that we could get a ride home, which included taking 10 minutes to back a car up very carefully into a parking spot and losing an electronic gate opener that Paco had in his hand a minute earlier.
I've been in Purto Rico for a little over a month now, and I find the number of old men that I feel I know quite well very strange. I'm not sure if its because I talk to them too much because I find them un-intimidating, because they enjoy talking to me, or what. I've only met one Puertorequeno, the guy who works at the key making kiosk, and his phone number doesn't work anymore. Its not that I'm incredibly anxoious to meet Puerto Ricans my own age, but something just seems off.
Today is the 4th of July and I'm not sure what lies in store for tonight. I may go to San Juan with Grace and her bf, or just stay here in Punta. There are many people coming into town, but its mostly families and I don't think there is any central party or anything. If I do stay here maybe I'll get the nerve to walk around and at least see whats happening. There are huge packs of fireworks for sale at Walmart, so I suppose fireworks are legal. We'll just have to see what happens.
Scientifically, whats going on?
Whew, its been a busy week. I've been meaning to write this blog about scientific endevours on the island for quite a while now so I'll get right to it.
So there's a few groups of people who work on the island, and I'll categorize them as the long-term-researchers (Maria, me, Grace, Doreen, and Aki), The Yale Kids, and The Hardvard Guys. Grace and I are working on Maria's project, hormone analysis and adulte male behavior. Doreen is working on a project for Anja Widdig at the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. They are studying the behavior of the entire cohort (monkeys born in the same year) of 2004 and are interested in paternity (relation to their father). Aki is from a University in Japan and is studying play behavior. She records juveniles alllll day long, and will eventually go back to look at the facial expressions and body language that initiats play behaviors.
Second there are the Yale Kids. They are all working under Laurie Santos, a Psychologist at Yale. There are usually four of them working here at a time, and they stay for about 4 weeks at a time, coming and going in groups of 2 so that there are always 4 people. Yale has purchased a house in the next town over, Naguabo, where they all stay. Their projects are mostly looking time experiments. Each Yale Kid is in charge of one experiment, and they video tape the reactions fo the monkeys to the experiment. The theory is that monkeys look longer at things that are unnatural, unusual, or implicitly incorrect with the laws of physics. The experiments are adapted fom ones done with human babies. Of course they all have complex psychological names for the experiments, but I am an Anthropologist, so I'll explain it in those terms. One girl did an experiment to see if monkeys understand statistics, so she had a box with a clear front with a whole bunch of red balls and a few white balls. On one randomly decided condition she pulls out a white ball supposidly from inside the box but its fixed, and on another she pulls out a a red one. Another experiment is a similar set up where they pour from a pitcer of blue water into a clear cup, then with a piece of cardboard cover up the aparatus. When it is lifted the cup is placed under 1 of 4 conditions on a little thingy so that the cup is tilted, all fixed where the cup is traded and filled with dried colored play dough. In two the play dough is flat, ungiving to the proper forces of gravity, one with blue dough and the other with yellow. In the other two the play dough is made to look as if it is indeed flowing the direction it would while tilted, one blue and one yellow. Once they go through their data with looking times they will gain an understanding of the implicit intelligences of rehsus macaques.
The other type of experiments the Yale kids have are searching experiments, where they give the monkeys different amounts of information about where food may be, and then see where the monkeys will explore. In one there are levers and fake bananas, which the monkeys destroyed, frustrating the hell out of its creator. The other involved ramps and two grapes. It was originally called Grand Theft Auto, where grapes were placed on stickes taped to the top of two remote control cars. It's a theory of mind experiment, where the experimenter places grapes in two separate places, then turns away so the monekys "think" he cannot see, and the grapes move, the top to the position of the second, and the second to a position on the bottom of the aparatus. Then the monkeys are allowed to approach and supposidly if they have a theory of mind, they will go for the grape that is at the botoom, that the experimenter does not know about. Its been fun to see the stagest this experiment has gon through, becasue the first 2 set ups needed to be adjusted. Now it is just ramps and rollilng grapes, and is called "Grand Theft Grape."
All the Yale Kids have a certain number of monkeys have to run through the experiment to gain proper statistical power, and some the monkeys are very interested in watching and some not. They roam around the island with their aparatus in groups of two, one recording one with the experiment in hand. They have to find monkeys that are alone, and who will pay attention. Its fun to watch, because in order to get a monkeys attention they set up in front of it, and then yell "monkey, MONKEY!" or something of the sort. Sometimes the monkeys respond well, sometimes they charge as soon as two grapes are presented, sometimes they walk away.
The Third group of researchers are the Hardvard Guys, working with Marc Hauser with his cognitive science lab. Hauser is a very well known and very cutting edge in the literature of cogsci. If you go to the Cayo Santiago website under literature, all of his papers are posted. Some that are of interest to me deal with neurological elements of facial expressions. They've found that in slow mo, different sides of the face produce facial expressions milisecons before the other, showing neural hemisphere differentiation for respective corresponding emotions. Anyway, they are currently doing play back experiments, where they electronically mess around with rhesus calls, and have speakers set up to play back to them noises in different frequencies, volumes, orders, you name it. They then record how the monkeys responed. Interesting stuff. The other day I was working next to Doreen and we heard a WIERD noises, kind of like elephand shouts, looked at each other and realized it was the playback experiments. Maria soon after asked us, sounding pretty frightened, what exacly the noise was. Funny.
Oh yes, a final note on the Yale kids: they create all their aparati(?) once they get here. They are all made out of foam board, mass quantities of duck tape, and whatever other materials necessary from walmart, in a creative manner. These make the experiments cheap, and easy to replace if they get attacked by the monkeys, which they often are.
We all enjoy talking about the fine elements of DOING research that are not mentioned in scientific papers. These include rediculous miniscule elements that make or break an experiment, for me purple berries, for them flat groud, whacky noises that attract monkey attention, knee pads, keeping the video camera charged, rain, not to mention heat, exhaustion, and hunger for us all.
So there's a few groups of people who work on the island, and I'll categorize them as the long-term-researchers (Maria, me, Grace, Doreen, and Aki), The Yale Kids, and The Hardvard Guys. Grace and I are working on Maria's project, hormone analysis and adulte male behavior. Doreen is working on a project for Anja Widdig at the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. They are studying the behavior of the entire cohort (monkeys born in the same year) of 2004 and are interested in paternity (relation to their father). Aki is from a University in Japan and is studying play behavior. She records juveniles alllll day long, and will eventually go back to look at the facial expressions and body language that initiats play behaviors.
Second there are the Yale Kids. They are all working under Laurie Santos, a Psychologist at Yale. There are usually four of them working here at a time, and they stay for about 4 weeks at a time, coming and going in groups of 2 so that there are always 4 people. Yale has purchased a house in the next town over, Naguabo, where they all stay. Their projects are mostly looking time experiments. Each Yale Kid is in charge of one experiment, and they video tape the reactions fo the monkeys to the experiment. The theory is that monkeys look longer at things that are unnatural, unusual, or implicitly incorrect with the laws of physics. The experiments are adapted fom ones done with human babies. Of course they all have complex psychological names for the experiments, but I am an Anthropologist, so I'll explain it in those terms. One girl did an experiment to see if monkeys understand statistics, so she had a box with a clear front with a whole bunch of red balls and a few white balls. On one randomly decided condition she pulls out a white ball supposidly from inside the box but its fixed, and on another she pulls out a a red one. Another experiment is a similar set up where they pour from a pitcer of blue water into a clear cup, then with a piece of cardboard cover up the aparatus. When it is lifted the cup is placed under 1 of 4 conditions on a little thingy so that the cup is tilted, all fixed where the cup is traded and filled with dried colored play dough. In two the play dough is flat, ungiving to the proper forces of gravity, one with blue dough and the other with yellow. In the other two the play dough is made to look as if it is indeed flowing the direction it would while tilted, one blue and one yellow. Once they go through their data with looking times they will gain an understanding of the implicit intelligences of rehsus macaques.
The other type of experiments the Yale kids have are searching experiments, where they give the monkeys different amounts of information about where food may be, and then see where the monkeys will explore. In one there are levers and fake bananas, which the monkeys destroyed, frustrating the hell out of its creator. The other involved ramps and two grapes. It was originally called Grand Theft Auto, where grapes were placed on stickes taped to the top of two remote control cars. It's a theory of mind experiment, where the experimenter places grapes in two separate places, then turns away so the monekys "think" he cannot see, and the grapes move, the top to the position of the second, and the second to a position on the bottom of the aparatus. Then the monkeys are allowed to approach and supposidly if they have a theory of mind, they will go for the grape that is at the botoom, that the experimenter does not know about. Its been fun to see the stagest this experiment has gon through, becasue the first 2 set ups needed to be adjusted. Now it is just ramps and rollilng grapes, and is called "Grand Theft Grape."
All the Yale Kids have a certain number of monkeys have to run through the experiment to gain proper statistical power, and some the monkeys are very interested in watching and some not. They roam around the island with their aparatus in groups of two, one recording one with the experiment in hand. They have to find monkeys that are alone, and who will pay attention. Its fun to watch, because in order to get a monkeys attention they set up in front of it, and then yell "monkey, MONKEY!" or something of the sort. Sometimes the monkeys respond well, sometimes they charge as soon as two grapes are presented, sometimes they walk away.
The Third group of researchers are the Hardvard Guys, working with Marc Hauser with his cognitive science lab. Hauser is a very well known and very cutting edge in the literature of cogsci. If you go to the Cayo Santiago website under literature, all of his papers are posted. Some that are of interest to me deal with neurological elements of facial expressions. They've found that in slow mo, different sides of the face produce facial expressions milisecons before the other, showing neural hemisphere differentiation for respective corresponding emotions. Anyway, they are currently doing play back experiments, where they electronically mess around with rhesus calls, and have speakers set up to play back to them noises in different frequencies, volumes, orders, you name it. They then record how the monkeys responed. Interesting stuff. The other day I was working next to Doreen and we heard a WIERD noises, kind of like elephand shouts, looked at each other and realized it was the playback experiments. Maria soon after asked us, sounding pretty frightened, what exacly the noise was. Funny.
Oh yes, a final note on the Yale kids: they create all their aparati(?) once they get here. They are all made out of foam board, mass quantities of duck tape, and whatever other materials necessary from walmart, in a creative manner. These make the experiments cheap, and easy to replace if they get attacked by the monkeys, which they often are.
We all enjoy talking about the fine elements of DOING research that are not mentioned in scientific papers. These include rediculous miniscule elements that make or break an experiment, for me purple berries, for them flat groud, whacky noises that attract monkey attention, knee pads, keeping the video camera charged, rain, not to mention heat, exhaustion, and hunger for us all.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
How the monkeys play capture the flag and I gamble
Hello hello
I realize how strange the excitement is that I feel when my focal monkey poops. The more samples I collect before 10am during the week, the more concrete Maria's dissertation will be, and the more likely I am to have Saturday off. It is a bit like gambling, because I've started to understand the odds that the monkey may poo. Some of the odds I make up to keep myself entertained, others are definitely real. I'll spare you the details of the turgid-ity and personality of their butt holes, though. First of all, its good if I find the right monkeys early right when I get there, which is getting easier because I'm better able to distinguish their individual struts and tail position while walking. If they sit with their butts hanging far off the edge of the rock, my odds are good, if they pee while sitting off a rock, my odds are VERY good, and my heart starts beating, its just like a slot machine with the first two aligned on the cherry! The odds I convince myself are good are when they begin to walk after napping for a while, after mating with a female, or after a fight with other males and then walk off to find a place to rest by themselves. The last its a bit of over anthropomorphizing since I tell myself they will poo because they are just so relaxed now that the fight is over. So these thoughts are how I entertain myself through the day.
The monkeys on the other hand, seem like they are playing capture the flag alllll day. When I first arrive on the island my group is often laying around somewhere, all the females calmly grooming their offspring. Its a nice sight in the mornings. When we get to the island, though, so does their food. When the hear the guys going up the hill in the truck with the food, they make their "food call," one right after the other. Its a pretty cute, high pitched whine. Its hard to describe, but then the whole group moves up hill to the corral. Usually the high ranking males get in the corral first and the rude ones sit in front of the feeder holes and scare off everyone else who tries to get food until they are done. The lower ranking males and females sit outside the corral, just waiting. The low ranking males often take this opportunity to mate with females in the bushes, at a time when the higher ranking males won't bother them. Good strategy. Others rush in, very quickly, grab some chow and stick it in their pouches, and run out to find a quiet secluded place to sit and eat. After feeding the monkeys will consecutively head to the water hole a little down the hill. The water hole is a whole separate scary place for lower ranking males. Females and offspring will "play a game' where they see how many heads can fit into the hole and drink, its pretty adorable. But if a higher ranking male comes, they must get out of the way, fast. Also, lower ranking individuals in general are very weary when drinking. They take breaks every few milliseconds to look around. I have definitely seen individuals get attacked, bitten and scratched, while their head was down in the hole.
This is only the first hour or so of the day, and probably the times when lower ranking individuals must be the most careful, since there are tangible resources at stake if they make the wrong move. The rest of the day, though, males are walking around, checking out who's in their vicinity. The entire island is forested, so I can always see them lean side to side in order to get a good view between the trees. They get up in trees to get better views, hide behind trees so they can't bee seen. The resource at stake here is staying safe, and maintaining dominance. Its known that the best way to stay high ranking is to inflict random acts of aggression, rather like a bully. That way, your subordinates are just always afraid of you, makin sure their in the right place at the right time, or else they may get chunks bitten outta their bodies, bloody, deep scratches, or something of the sort.
So life on the island is intense, but my life on the island of Puerto Rico is pretty simple. I'm still researching my butt off. Besides that, I started Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabrial Garcia Marquez. I love him, he is the one of the best authors I have ever read and definitely recommend him to everyone. There has never been an author so incredible with words, to describe even the most mundane situations so that they become profound. MM mm mm.
Love from the Caribbean!
I realize how strange the excitement is that I feel when my focal monkey poops. The more samples I collect before 10am during the week, the more concrete Maria's dissertation will be, and the more likely I am to have Saturday off. It is a bit like gambling, because I've started to understand the odds that the monkey may poo. Some of the odds I make up to keep myself entertained, others are definitely real. I'll spare you the details of the turgid-ity and personality of their butt holes, though. First of all, its good if I find the right monkeys early right when I get there, which is getting easier because I'm better able to distinguish their individual struts and tail position while walking. If they sit with their butts hanging far off the edge of the rock, my odds are good, if they pee while sitting off a rock, my odds are VERY good, and my heart starts beating, its just like a slot machine with the first two aligned on the cherry! The odds I convince myself are good are when they begin to walk after napping for a while, after mating with a female, or after a fight with other males and then walk off to find a place to rest by themselves. The last its a bit of over anthropomorphizing since I tell myself they will poo because they are just so relaxed now that the fight is over. So these thoughts are how I entertain myself through the day.
The monkeys on the other hand, seem like they are playing capture the flag alllll day. When I first arrive on the island my group is often laying around somewhere, all the females calmly grooming their offspring. Its a nice sight in the mornings. When we get to the island, though, so does their food. When the hear the guys going up the hill in the truck with the food, they make their "food call," one right after the other. Its a pretty cute, high pitched whine. Its hard to describe, but then the whole group moves up hill to the corral. Usually the high ranking males get in the corral first and the rude ones sit in front of the feeder holes and scare off everyone else who tries to get food until they are done. The lower ranking males and females sit outside the corral, just waiting. The low ranking males often take this opportunity to mate with females in the bushes, at a time when the higher ranking males won't bother them. Good strategy. Others rush in, very quickly, grab some chow and stick it in their pouches, and run out to find a quiet secluded place to sit and eat. After feeding the monkeys will consecutively head to the water hole a little down the hill. The water hole is a whole separate scary place for lower ranking males. Females and offspring will "play a game' where they see how many heads can fit into the hole and drink, its pretty adorable. But if a higher ranking male comes, they must get out of the way, fast. Also, lower ranking individuals in general are very weary when drinking. They take breaks every few milliseconds to look around. I have definitely seen individuals get attacked, bitten and scratched, while their head was down in the hole.
This is only the first hour or so of the day, and probably the times when lower ranking individuals must be the most careful, since there are tangible resources at stake if they make the wrong move. The rest of the day, though, males are walking around, checking out who's in their vicinity. The entire island is forested, so I can always see them lean side to side in order to get a good view between the trees. They get up in trees to get better views, hide behind trees so they can't bee seen. The resource at stake here is staying safe, and maintaining dominance. Its known that the best way to stay high ranking is to inflict random acts of aggression, rather like a bully. That way, your subordinates are just always afraid of you, makin sure their in the right place at the right time, or else they may get chunks bitten outta their bodies, bloody, deep scratches, or something of the sort.
So life on the island is intense, but my life on the island of Puerto Rico is pretty simple. I'm still researching my butt off. Besides that, I started Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabrial Garcia Marquez. I love him, he is the one of the best authors I have ever read and definitely recommend him to everyone. There has never been an author so incredible with words, to describe even the most mundane situations so that they become profound. MM mm mm.
Love from the Caribbean!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Now I live in Puerto Rico
Loren and Sarah actually got to explore many places that I hadn't been to yet, which was awesome for me because they tested some waters for me. They found a woooonderful beach near me called Palmas del Mar. It supposedly has some of the best gold courses in the world, whatever. It has some amazing beaches, with a line of hotels whose pools you can just hop into. Before that though, we cruised around some beaches between San Juan and my town, Punta Santiago, along the east coast. We found my new spot, Luquillo beach, specifically La Pared (the "wall") because of a big
cement wall that lines the beach. We also accidentally found (the best way to find) a great restaurante right on the beach in Luquillo that whoever visits me will definitely get a trip to. I'm starting to get my surf on in Luquillo, since its an easy beach for beginners (I've been a beginner surfer now for 10 years! will I ever get better?. . . )Loren, Sarah and I had some great adventures. One of the best was when Sarah and I couldn't find our hotel in old San Juan, so after looking for 30 minutes we asked a security guard. We soon found out that the book (Lets Go! Puerto Rico) had the hotel in the wro
ng spot on the map. The security guard took our book to 2 other security guards, they discussed for about 3 minutes, completely halting their security watching, then one security guard asked a taxi driver, while another asked a bum. The bum spoke great English, and directed us. It was a funny sight.Other adventures include getting lost and getting found. Between our only having maps of the whole island and no local maps, and the TERRIIIIIBBBBLLLEEEE Puerto Rico street Signage, we got lost quite a bit. Between many "U" turns and stopping at gas stations for questions, we usually made it, but in longer than we expected. It seems to me like people twist the street signs around for fun, so that you can't tell which direction your supposed to go. The highways and roads constantly merge into each other, but it will only tell you one of the two, so you are constantly unsure if you are in the right place. It was seriously Maddening.
Oh yea and the Bio Bay! I'm not sure if I've mentioned yet, but there is a wonderful American (Bostonian) couple named Bob and Keisha who have a have a hang gliding
company and they take friends out in Kayaks to the biolumencent bay in Fajardo, the eastern most tip of the island. The bay has dinoflaggulates, organisms that glow when the water is moved. It's a magical experience to kayak in the water with them. Usually its best to go on a night with no moon, but my guests were here during a full moon. It ended up being fine, be cause there was cloud covering the moon. We kayaked in the dark through a small mangrove canal, which lets out into a larger bay. Once in the bay, every time you dip the kayak in the water the water glows around you. Every time you splash the water, wherever the splash lands it glows, mezmorizing ! Bob also showed us that if you are quiet then hit the kayak, you will scare the fish in the water below you, and they will scurry away leaving glowing trails behind them.In terms of monkeys, I have still not figured out a research question that I find suitable. Researching has been going well because through the process I've gained some insight to rhesus macaque behaviors. Now that Sarah and Loren are gone things will go back to normal. Next weekend, though, there is a hang-gliding event that Keisha and Bob are putting on, where we will volunteer and make change boxes for "For Paws" at a time, the program that Keisha has started to save street dogs. She gets them vetted and then finds them adoption agencies in the Contintnal US.
Whew, things going well in the Carribbean, enjoy!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Purple Poo and The Bad Boys
I've been working hard to get to know all 20 of Maria's focals, and feel rather successful. Until now I've been following the 11 or so that I feel confident in IDing, which are mostly the old guys. The older rhesus monkeys, namely N60 and K85 are easy to see because of their distinctive walks. N60 has a bump on his nose, walks with his back up, and has been attached at the him to a young female since I've been here. K85 has a very straight mouth, and has tons of loose skin where he used to have fat that hangs when he walks.
The purple poo? The purple poo has finally ended. The last few weeks the monkeys were eating primarily purple berries, instead of their monkey chow, which gives them terrible bright purple diharreah. I can't collect diharreah because it disrupts testosterone levels, making my week soo difficult! This week they are finally eating chow again, thank goodnes.
There are 4 women working in my group of monkeys, group R. We get to gossip and discuss them all day, but I guess I have a major difference of opinion about which adult males are likable. I tend to like the high rankin ones, who walk around with their tails sooooo high in the air, and terrorize everyone. I think I like them the best because they are the easiest to find because high ranking males are usually in the center of the group, whereas lower ranking males are on the "less safe" outskirts of the group. One of them, 83L, looks like a teddy bear to me. Its true though, he is rather rude which his terrorizing techniques as he bullies others around. He'll push males, females, and babies off their sitting spots if they don't move out of his way. At least he poos a lot.
Loren and Sarah are visiting me!!!! I'll get to all these adventures soon!
The purple poo? The purple poo has finally ended. The last few weeks the monkeys were eating primarily purple berries, instead of their monkey chow, which gives them terrible bright purple diharreah. I can't collect diharreah because it disrupts testosterone levels, making my week soo difficult! This week they are finally eating chow again, thank goodnes.
There are 4 women working in my group of monkeys, group R. We get to gossip and discuss them all day, but I guess I have a major difference of opinion about which adult males are likable. I tend to like the high rankin ones, who walk around with their tails sooooo high in the air, and terrorize everyone. I think I like them the best because they are the easiest to find because high ranking males are usually in the center of the group, whereas lower ranking males are on the "less safe" outskirts of the group. One of them, 83L, looks like a teddy bear to me. Its true though, he is rather rude which his terrorizing techniques as he bullies others around. He'll push males, females, and babies off their sitting spots if they don't move out of his way. At least he poos a lot.
Loren and Sarah are visiting me!!!! I'll get to all these adventures soon!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Los Puertorequenos and 7 hours of buttholes
The few things I've noticed about Puerto Ricans I've gained from my 4 trips to Walmart, 4 super market trips, and many walks on the beach. All the boys pluck their eyebrows! They have such pretty eyebrows because of it, and look clean and . . . .sturdy maybe describes it. And they're on their cel phones MORE than people in LA and the OC. Maybe not in quantity, but walmart workers are walking around the store talking and checker outers at the grocery store. Crazy.
Its true, I have to watch the monkeys butt holes for 7 hours a day, 7am-2pm. Yesterday I was crowned with my own cooler to pick up my own poop! Quite a right of passage, since it means I've learned to ID the monkeys, some of them, pretty well. Of the 20 individual males that are Maria's focals, I can easily discern about 6 of them, the rest I still need to look at my notes to figure out, or cannot tell them apart at all. There are some tricky things I am learning about collecting poo. Some walk and poo and some sit and poo, and learning the poo-ing personalities is pretty important. And there's no point to skewing the scientific data if I'm not sure exaaactly who pooped, like if I didn't quickly look to see if there was any poop in the place where the individual I'm watching sat down. In other words, I have to keep my eyes on the butt hole.
This afternoon Maria is taking me and my housemates to San Juan, where there is supposed to be an art gallery night = My first adventure in PR besides Walmart and mofongo (mashed plantains with chicken or seafood).
Paz y amor y monos.
Its true, I have to watch the monkeys butt holes for 7 hours a day, 7am-2pm. Yesterday I was crowned with my own cooler to pick up my own poop! Quite a right of passage, since it means I've learned to ID the monkeys, some of them, pretty well. Of the 20 individual males that are Maria's focals, I can easily discern about 6 of them, the rest I still need to look at my notes to figure out, or cannot tell them apart at all. There are some tricky things I am learning about collecting poo. Some walk and poo and some sit and poo, and learning the poo-ing personalities is pretty important. And there's no point to skewing the scientific data if I'm not sure exaaactly who pooped, like if I didn't quickly look to see if there was any poop in the place where the individual I'm watching sat down. In other words, I have to keep my eyes on the butt hole.
This afternoon Maria is taking me and my housemates to San Juan, where there is supposed to be an art gallery night = My first adventure in PR besides Walmart and mofongo (mashed plantains with chicken or seafood).
Paz y amor y monos.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Even dirtier
First of all, I enabled comments, so anyone can comment now. I'm sorry if virtual space sent you rude messages saying "Don't contact me again." That shouldn't happen again.
I found my first two poops! For the first few days I was just wandering around and IDing different males. Now Maria gives me males to follow until they poop. From this point of view, following a male and his daily roamings, I learn a lot more about the island and the way things work. I am also reading a book written my a Cayo researcher called Macachavellian Intelligence that describes the monkeys activities. For instance, monkeys threaten each other and get in fights in order to maintain and climb their place in the rank hierarchy. Female rank is largely based on their mothers rank, while male's is based on his fighting and social abilities. So when a male threatens another, usually a lower ranking one, both the threater and the threatee will look behind them for support. Sometimes the threatee will look around for a scapegoat, an even lower ranking male, and go after him. Because of this, when threats break out, lower ranking males will run away VERY fast, so that they don't become scapegoats. All these things happen so fast that its hard to keep track, though.
On the subject of poo, I started learning about how different individuals poop. Some poop while walking, meaning I have to pay attention where it lands. Some poop sitting down, so I have to look at whatever they're going to sit on very quickly before they sit to make sure there is not any poop already. Dirty science, man. And if you don't believe that primatology is science, please let me know and I'll describe thangs to you, thoroughly!
But yesterday the rain got us good. There are two boats we take to the island depending on the day: A small speed boat and a slightly larger speed boat. The small one seats 7, the large one 15. Yesterday we took the small one, with 9 people. We went slowly. It rained on and off, very hard each time, for the entire time we were on the island. We cannot leave the island though, when its raining. We waited under a shelter by the dock until it stopped, headed out to the dock, and then it started raining again, so we returned to the shelter. This happened a few times, until we finally got in the boat and set off. Then it started raining, and the seas got a little rough. Having 9 people in a 7 person boat made it a little more scary. But we made it!
One more anecdote. The male that I was to follow yesterday was badly injured in a fight. He had a deep scratch on his arm, some scratches on his back, a hole in his scrotum, and a bad wound in his butt. Poor guy. He moved very slowly all day, and he is in a consortship right now with a much younger female, who brought him food. I'm anxious to see how his is when I go to the island tomorrow. He is N60, and has a bump on his face. I hope he is alright. One monkey died since I've been here. His intestines were sticking out for 2 days, it was pretty unpretty. The day he died the vet did come to the island, but none of us really understood why. Besides that we feed them, we want a naturalistic setting to learn the most about the macaques in a natural environment. I think they were going to put him under if the vet decided he would not survive.
I still don't have a hammock because they sell them mostly on weekends and it rained all day yesterday!
I eat mangoes with my eyes closed,
Jenna
I found my first two poops! For the first few days I was just wandering around and IDing different males. Now Maria gives me males to follow until they poop. From this point of view, following a male and his daily roamings, I learn a lot more about the island and the way things work. I am also reading a book written my a Cayo researcher called Macachavellian Intelligence that describes the monkeys activities. For instance, monkeys threaten each other and get in fights in order to maintain and climb their place in the rank hierarchy. Female rank is largely based on their mothers rank, while male's is based on his fighting and social abilities. So when a male threatens another, usually a lower ranking one, both the threater and the threatee will look behind them for support. Sometimes the threatee will look around for a scapegoat, an even lower ranking male, and go after him. Because of this, when threats break out, lower ranking males will run away VERY fast, so that they don't become scapegoats. All these things happen so fast that its hard to keep track, though.
On the subject of poo, I started learning about how different individuals poop. Some poop while walking, meaning I have to pay attention where it lands. Some poop sitting down, so I have to look at whatever they're going to sit on very quickly before they sit to make sure there is not any poop already. Dirty science, man. And if you don't believe that primatology is science, please let me know and I'll describe thangs to you, thoroughly!
But yesterday the rain got us good. There are two boats we take to the island depending on the day: A small speed boat and a slightly larger speed boat. The small one seats 7, the large one 15. Yesterday we took the small one, with 9 people. We went slowly. It rained on and off, very hard each time, for the entire time we were on the island. We cannot leave the island though, when its raining. We waited under a shelter by the dock until it stopped, headed out to the dock, and then it started raining again, so we returned to the shelter. This happened a few times, until we finally got in the boat and set off. Then it started raining, and the seas got a little rough. Having 9 people in a 7 person boat made it a little more scary. But we made it!
One more anecdote. The male that I was to follow yesterday was badly injured in a fight. He had a deep scratch on his arm, some scratches on his back, a hole in his scrotum, and a bad wound in his butt. Poor guy. He moved very slowly all day, and he is in a consortship right now with a much younger female, who brought him food. I'm anxious to see how his is when I go to the island tomorrow. He is N60, and has a bump on his face. I hope he is alright. One monkey died since I've been here. His intestines were sticking out for 2 days, it was pretty unpretty. The day he died the vet did come to the island, but none of us really understood why. Besides that we feed them, we want a naturalistic setting to learn the most about the macaques in a natural environment. I think they were going to put him under if the vet decided he would not survive.
I still don't have a hammock because they sell them mostly on weekends and it rained all day yesterday!
I eat mangoes with my eyes closed,
Jenna
Friday, May 30, 2008
Hello from Punta Santiago!
The Monkey Island, Cayo Santiago, with Puerto Rico in View.
Mango season lasts for only a month in Puerto Rico, starting now!!!! I' meating one right now.
I've now spent 3 days on the monkey island, Cayo Santiago. Whew. I have a bit too much to say. I'll start with where I live. I live in a typical, neighborhood house in this small town, with 2 houses and a seafood restaurante between my house and the beach. Its beautiful. My housemates are Grace from Seattle, who also works for Maria, and Yoav, a boy from Winthrop University who is working on his own project. He's having a much more difficult time than I am, having someone hand me materials and explain the ins and outs of the island quite thoroughly. The house has bars on the front porch just like all the all the others, and comes with a dog. It is also well furnished, with a TV and some random as hell VHSs, and a dog. Her name is Ginger and she's nice, but hard to walk.
Maria, the women I am working for is sooooooo nice, and helpful. Her project that I am helping with, to analyze testosterone levels and rank in males, is a dirty one, where I have to follow around monkeys until they poop. She does, though, call it poop, instead of fecal samples, which helps the day pass easier when I hear her asking me if someone pooped yet on the walkie talkie.
I've now spent 3 days on the monkey island, Cayo Santiago. Whew. I have a bit too much to say. I'll start with where I live. I live in a typical, neighborhood house in this small town, with 2 houses and a seafood restaurante between my house and the beach. Its beautiful. My housemates are Grace from Seattle, who also works for Maria, and Yoav, a boy from Winthrop University who is working on his own project. He's having a much more difficult time than I am, having someone hand me materials and explain the ins and outs of the island quite thoroughly. The house has bars on the front porch just like all the all the others, and comes with a dog. It is also well furnished, with a TV and some random as hell VHSs, and a dog. Her name is Ginger and she's nice, but hard to walk.
Maria, the women I am working for is sooooooo nice, and helpful. Her project that I am helping with, to analyze testosterone levels and rank in males, is a dirty one, where I have to follow around monkeys until they poop. She does, though, call it poop, instead of fecal samples, which helps the day pass easier when I hear her asking me if someone pooped yet on the walkie talkie. They are provisioned with Purina Monkey Chow
This guy is a hoarder, but they all are since they're
all "stresseed" out about others stealing their food
To work on the island I have to be at the dock at 6:50 am, and take a speed boat driven by the funny Puerto Rican workers to the island, about a 7 minute ride. On the island, there are monkeys evverrryyywhere. I've never worked with free ranging monkeys, so I was a little scared. Especially since all the monkeys have Herpes B, and if they bite or scratch me, or pee in my eye, then I will get menengitis and die. But that has never happened on the island, and I have to wear sunglasses so that if i look up into the trees for them and they pee on my face I won't die. I have been threatened many times so far by the monkeys, but they threaten many times before they charge, and if they threaten more than once, we are told to pick up a rock. I did have to do that today because I accidentially looked a mating couple in the eye, and one moved towards me. She immediatley ran away when i reached for a rock though.
Anyway, I work with group R, the second biggest group on the island with 263 monkeys. They move in a group, and tend to roam all over the hilliest part of the island, so I am constantly walking up an down steep hills and tripping over rocks.
So why do I do this? There are many positives. I was feeling sorry for myself for working on the steepest part of the island until I went today to where other groups roam, in the mangrove forest, or swamps. There it's stinky, hot, and ugly. I realize that I work in the shade, there's a breeze, it only smeels like monkey poo a little bit, and I can see when rain is coming. Oh yes, the first day on the island it POURED but only for about 20 minutes. Anyway, the monkeys are great and rediculously interesting. When I come walking, the mothers scoop up their babies and throw them on their bellies and run up the tree. The babies also come very close to get a better look at me. They are just curious, though, and not a threat. Mothers grooming their babies is quite adorable, especially when the babies want to go play but the mothers hold them down. Sometimes they walk upright when they get food (monkey chow) and run with it in their hands. They also have huge cheeck pouches, which they fill up first. Then they all go find quiet places to eat the food in their mouths, and they sometimes have to use their hand to get the food out of the pouches. When they take naps later in the day they often fall asleep sitting up. They are rhesus macaques, which I used to think were not too cute, until recently.
Everything is going very well so far. I walk the dog Ginger, read, go grocery shopping, and watch random movies at night. That'll be my life for the next six months. mmmmm. :-)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Hello, I am off
So I'm going to Puerto Rico to serve as a research assistant to Maria Rahakovskaya, an enthusiastic and already well published PhD candidate at UPenn. The island is called Cayo Santiago(map searsh that, its so pretty) and I will be working, unpaid, everyday on the island from 7am til 1-2pm, collecting fecal samples for hormone analysis and collecting behavioral data on the males. AKA, I'll be in Puerto Rico for 6.5 months picking up monkey poo and watching monkeys! yaaay. I am .3 sarcastic.
What I do know about what I'm getting myself into:
I will be picked up from the airport by Maria
I'm staying in a house with other research assistants
My house has electricty and drinkable water
My house has no internet
Loren and Sarah are coming to visit me!
It will be very hot and it will rain on me
I will be exhausted everyday after working
All of the monkeys have Herpes B, so I have to wear long sleeved shirts and pants
Things I don't know yet:
What does this house look like?
Is it furnished?
Where will I buy food?
What will it be like?
Is there somewhere to hang a hammock?
What am I interested in studying in male rhesus macaques?
My questions are bigger in magnitude=eeek.
My flight leaves at 11pm tonight, with a layover in Chicago this morning, and I'll be in Puerto Rico at 2pm Monday!! I'll be learning individual monkeys by Tuesday.
Peace
What I do know about what I'm getting myself into:
I will be picked up from the airport by Maria
I'm staying in a house with other research assistants
My house has electricty and drinkable water
My house has no internet
Loren and Sarah are coming to visit me!
It will be very hot and it will rain on me
I will be exhausted everyday after working
All of the monkeys have Herpes B, so I have to wear long sleeved shirts and pants
Things I don't know yet:
What does this house look like?
Is it furnished?
Where will I buy food?
What will it be like?
Is there somewhere to hang a hammock?
What am I interested in studying in male rhesus macaques?
My questions are bigger in magnitude=eeek.
My flight leaves at 11pm tonight, with a layover in Chicago this morning, and I'll be in Puerto Rico at 2pm Monday!! I'll be learning individual monkeys by Tuesday.
Peace
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