A “New” Car, Bad Ultrasound Mojo, and the First Arribada – It is a steep learning curve.
After spending the better of the first two weeks in Costa Rica looking for a used car to purchase for the project I finally found a car the last day before I headed back to Ostional to meet up with Pam, Rachel (who arrived in Costa Rica) and Marcus. It was a pain to find a car I liked, that was in good condition, and whose owner had paid all his taxes and dues. I left it in the hands of a good friend, who took it to have the distributor belt and oil changed. Tomorrow I will pick it up and will bring it back with me to the coast on Sunday. But I can already proudly present you the new project addition.
Before driving back to Ostional to meet with Pam and her daughter Rachel I had the pleasure to bump into Jordan Rogan, who is part of the Applied Biodiversity Sciences (ABS) program at Texas A&M University, and who is scouting out potential field sites for her PhD work in Costa Rica, Bolivia and Paraguay. She was interested in getting to know my site and came along to Ostional where she spent the past week helping me on the beach. Thanks a bunch Jordan, for all your help and bon voyage! If you are interested in what she is up to during the next months, you can read up on her travels here…..https://jordanrogan.wordpress.com/
(Enjoying the sunset, the beach and the turtles...)
The first Arribada was expected for June 27th, and our research permits happened to be ready just in time for it, because punctual for Rachel’s birthday on June 28th (turning sweet 17) the “flota” arrived, and we were able to start trying out our sampling techniques. Unfortunately, our newly purchased ultrasound machine….the Holy Grail of our research…..didn’t want to turn on once on the beach. We still don’t know what exactly the matter is, but the machine is fine when connected to the power directly. Our working theory right now is that the battery got fried during a power outage and resulting power surge the previous day while charging. Marcus at least had a lot of fun making sure the next day that the machine itself is fine. Brie, who will arrive on July 3rd together with my other assistant MJ, will bring a new battery and power surge protectors, just in case.
In order to get our mind off the ultrasound issue and to provide Rachel with a birthday present of a special kind, we hiked up to a close-by waterfall in the morning after our night among arribada turtles, to chill out and enjoy ourselves for a few hours before we headed back to get the equipment ready again for the next night. We were able to collect several tissue samples, and Pam showed me how to draw blood (more or less successful on my part), and I was able to train Marcus on how to tag and measure and all that jazz. All in all it was a good arribada, and the work will continue on Monday with the four days on the boat and the installation of radio transmitters, with the help and expertise of Pam.
