Of Buses and Biologists

First of all, we haven't included nearly enough bus pictures in our blog. Traveling by old school bus seems like such a common experience now, and in many ways it typifies our time here. The bus stations are typically loud, dusty, dirty places (note the burning garbage above, yum), oft surrounded by markets where you can get whatever your heart or stomach desires. In some towns all the buses come and go from one station, and others have 4 or 5 stations for buses bound different directions(these towns are the toughest to navigate...luckily all the locals know whazzup). No two bus rides are ever the same, even on the same route. First, there is the music. You might be listening to Reggatone (Nica rap more or less, it's great) with the bass droppin, or maybe some polka music loud and tinny, or our favorite, Air Supply, cranked! They have a real flavor for late 70's and 8o's American pop music. It is a mystery to us why songs by Jefferson Starship, Cat Stevens, Cindy Lauper, Eddie Rabbit are popular here, but we hear them all the time. It is almost like we brought our record collection with us. The bus could be pimped out with flames, or tweety bird stickers or lights that pulse with the music. The brakes might work, might not, or might just be really noisy. You may be standing crammed in with 60 other people or you might get a seat to yourself with your backpack. Yesterday we had a first. The bus stopped midroute and backed up a side road for almost a mile picking people and cargo up along the way before throwing it in forward and resuming our journey.

And then there is the people who bring food, drinks, or newspapers on board at stops or stations and sell their wares (at any road construction site, there will be a camp of people waiting for buses full of people that need to stop for delays) This little guy was so proud of his old sweaty candy that he insisted upon a picture of just his candy after Chrissy took this shot. You can buy chicken with tortillas and salad for lunch, any soda or juice you might want, homemade sweets, chips, pig skins, tamales, fruit, nuts, cookies, you name it. Of course, being gringos, we often have the just watch the locals enjoy homemade treats so as not to risk getting sick.

And speaking of sick, check this out. We took our first ever canopy tour. No, we did not do every zipline together, some we did upside down or superman style (those picture are left out for the sake of our mothers). The tour was a blast, whizzing down steel cables from tree to tree, braking with your hand in a heavy leather glove. The setting was in a shade grown coffee plantation on Volcan Mombacho. We whisked from one giant tree to the next over rows of coffee.

We also spent a night and two days near the top of the volcano at a biological station run by a private nonprofit. When the guides(who are budding biologists volunteering their time for tips and an occasional bonus from the station) heard that I was a biologist we got the deluxe treatment. They were jealous to hear of the different biology jobs I've held. There is very little opportunity to practice biology as a profession in Nicaragua. The government here has historically shown little interest in supporting biological projects. This is changing slowly with budding ecotourism, but the bios we talked to were doubtful much work would come of it. I have a lot of respect for these young men and women who, despite little chance of steady work, persevere to pursue biology as their profession here in Nicaragua.

They happened to be in the midst of a week of mist netting for migratory and resident birds while we were there, so we got to accompany them to check the nets and watch them weigh and measure the birds. This took me back to my past bird work and gave me the craving for such intensive field work again. They are working with folks in the states and use a protocol repeated all along the flyway. They were strapped for supplies but doing excellent work. A big question as scientists note declines in birds like the woodthrush above is whether the problem lies in the wintering grounds for these birds, where habitat loss and pesticide use is huge, or whether it lies in their nesting grounds up in North America where we have similar issues. Of course we can intuit the answer is both, but the info they are collecting may help pinpoint where the biggest loss is occuring.

It was a fantastic experience working alongside these Nicaraguan biologists (above removing a Mountain Elenia from a mist net) and will steer our adventures as we continue southward to Isla Ometepe and onward to Costa Rica. We had great day and night hikes with them as guides and learned so much about the people, plants and animals of this place. The challenges of conservation are the same as those at home, but here they are amplified by poverty, corruption (worse than at home), and the fact that biology and conservation are "young" sciences here.

Hasta Luego, Ricardo