Happy Earth Day

Its been a while since I’ve posted anything because really, what could I say in the wake of the incident by the mango tree? I’ve just kept on doing the same old things: observing the monkeys in the forest, cutting up leaves with the toughness tester, etc. But all the while, I've kept thinking about that baby monkey I couldn't save.

At any rate, Rob and I realized that today is Earth Day, so I thought that warranted a blog entry from me. I hope everybody at home is out planting a tree. In honor of Earth Day, I thought I would include a little list I’ve made about my observations on the Dry/Windy season here on Ometepe. Most of you who know me well know that I really like making lists. Not grocery lists or “to do” lists—I actually hate making those. But I like making quirky lists such as this. For reference: in this part of Nicaragua, we receive approximately 1300mm of rain per year, falling mainly from May through November. The remaining time (December through mid-May) is extremely hot, extremely dry, and often extremely windy.

How to know it’s the dry/windy season:

• You turn on the faucet or try to flush the toilet and nothing happens.

• You wake up and there is a dust bunny in your hair.

• Your contact lens blows off your finger while you are trying to put it in your eye (this happened in Jan 2004).

• The lettuce from your salad blows off your plate at dinnertime.

• There is significantly more grit in the bread, rice, beans, lettuce, etc.

• Things hitting the walls wake you up in the night.

• Things blowing off the shelves in your room wake you up at night.

• You are always covered in dust.

• The puddles in the road dry up.

• Your clothes dry in about 2 hours.

• Everyones’ eyes are red all the time.

• There is puke on the ferry.

• There is your puke on the ferry.

• There are no spiders, anywhere.

• By 11am, the water in your bottle is so hot that you could boil tea with it.

• Howlers fall more often because the dry, brittle branches they are traveling on break.

• Early/mid dry season: you are covered in thorns, ticks, and burrs.

• Late dry season: the cicadas are so loud you think you might go crazy.

• You actually get a fever if you are out between the hours of 8:00am to 4:00pm.

• Its so hot that the only thing you can compare it to is the rush of heat you feel when you open the oven door to take out a sheet of cookies. And it feels like that all the time.

• On the road, passing cars stir up so much dust that you can’t see anything for about 2 minutes after they go by.

• The water level in an 8,264 km2 lake has dropped 2 feet.

Anyway, thanks for reading and Happy Earth Day!