Hey all.
I hope all of you are having a good summer and the weather?s not to bad back in the UK. Things are really cool out here in Honduras. I have just finished setting up all the computers at the forest base camp and am heading over to the island of Cayos Cachinos to do the same thing there. Plus a bit of sun, sea, sand, and diving.
The past few weeks have been interesting and as expected my job here is a lot more than simply being the ?Computer Systems Manager?. I have taken on a role of assisting the Camp Management team and when I return from Cayos I think it might be formalised. Currently there is Ed, the head of operations out here in the National Park. He?s in his mid 30s and has a massive amount of experience working on expeditions around the globe. He has an air of worldly wisdom and always seems to approach any situation calmly, knowing exactly what needs to be done ? unfortunately he?s leaving in 3 weeks, people are already worried about what will happen?. His side kicks are Adrian and Lynette, for whom this trip is there first time as staff on an expedition, but they?re doing a wicked job anyway. There is a hell-of-a-lot that needs to be done running a field site that can house and feed up to 125 people, as well as constantly being responsible for their well-being.
Generally I have been helping out where I can ? digging trenches, building shelters, manning the radio for coms, taking photos of animals, helping with field reports and presentations, and arranging volunteer movements ? but on a couple of occasions it has been a little different?
Now, last week there had been a lot of discussion about the liability issues surrounding taking school kids (yes, we have school kids here) out to the satellite camps. Some of the scientists were very worried about being in charge of teenagers while working on hazardous terrain where weather conditions can go from sunshine to stormy in the space of 30 minutes. However, not one mention was made to the process of actually getting the volunteers up the mountain in the first place. I have always considered that the most dangerous part of any expedition, or trip, is road transport. Either being in a crash or being hit by a vehicle.
So, last Friday we had this stunningly huge storm. The rain was heavier and thicker than any power-shower and the thunder was so deafening it actually made you duck. Lynette had been down to Buenas Aires, a nearby village where the Social Science projects run, to pick up the weekend cooks in the Emergency Vehicle. At about the time the storm fully hit she was on the track back up to Base Camp. This cliff path is treacherous at the best of times, but with 4-inches of water on the track it is positively lethal.
I was on my way back from the toilet when I found people running around gathering equipment. Someone grabbed me and we jumped in the back of a 4×4 that belonged to some Dutch tourists who had turned up in the park and got cut off by the storm. About 4km from camp the car had fishtailed and nearly slid off the road. As we approached we could see the red Nissan pickup tilted with its left-hand-side wheels on the road (just) and the right-hand-side wheels off the edge of the cliff, resting on loose top soil on the downward slope.
It was hard to organise everyone, shouting over the roar of the rain and the crashing of thunder, but we managed to arrange ourselves and come up with a plan. There was no way we could use the Dutch guy?s 4×4 to help, because if the Nissan did go over the edge it would just pull the much smaller 4×4 with it. So, we attached ropes to the under carriage of the car, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. Adrian bravely took the driver?s seat and gunned the engine, while the 10 or so of us tugged on the ropes with all our might.
The Nissan chugged and spluttered but to no avail, there was no way it was going back on the road and what little soil was holding the car from going over was becoming dislodged.
I suggested Danielle (the senior social scientist) go back to Base Camp with Antonio (one of the Hondurans) who was going blue with cold, and the Dutch guy?s car with the aim of coming back with digging equipment and planks of wood. The rest of us stayed to try and formalise a plan.
If it was possible the storm began to get worse, and people were starting to get very cold. Up to this point no one had been injured, so after a while we decided to cut our losses and if the car was there in the morning then bonus! Most people ran back, but I walked with Robin, one of the older bird scientists, who has a dodgy ticker (he?d been in the car on the way up). The walk back was insane. The road had become a river and the lightning was repeatedly striking trees less than 100m away from us.
But we all made it back safe and sound. With the Emergency Vehicle out of commission Ed ordered everyone to be super careful ? no machete juggling for me!?
Stupidly, an over worked Alex (the Cofradia Office Manager) made it up the mountain for the Friday party along with several crates of beer. En route he?d had to negotiate land slides, huge gapping holes where the track crosses rivers, and many other deadly obstacles. But he made it and we all settled into Friday night ? party night.
Anyway, I should probably bring this email to a close. So other news in brief:
* My lost bag arrived two and a half weeks late, having been ransacked by those fine people at American Customs. Books torn, CDs scratched, and several pieces of equipment missing: 40 AA batteries, my hair clippers (they left the plug), my software, and a DVD-ReWriter (the bastards had replaced the DVD drive with my towel? cheeky or what!!).
* Wiring the network underneath the science building didn?t cause me to be stung by scorpions.
* Loads of amazing animals are being discovered; new to Honduras, new to the park, and some new to science.
* Tried to have a hot shower on Thursday (a 1 per week luxury here at Base Camp) but it blew up? Risk Assessment Entry Number 14: Electrocution from Shower
* By the time you receive this I will hopefully have uploaded the first batch of photos, check out at http://pupius.co.uk/photos/travel/honduras/. They?re not such good quality as it is a problem uploading them here.
Finally, that?s it!
Take care,
Dan