Hola,
It has been about a month since I last successfully sent an email and the project is now close to an end. Today I have taken a break from the inventorying and decamping of Base Camp to drive down to San Pedro Sula where I have just set up one of Opwall’s computers at The Fundacion Ecologista H.R Pastor Fasquelle, a NGO that is working closely with us here in Honduras. It is a welcome break from the decamping process that has been going on for over a week now. We started when the majority of the remaining scientists and volunteers left for a week long reconnoitre in another national park called Pico Bonito. Most are now back and carrying out further reccies in the vicinity of Base Camp for a new jungle training camp and a new satellite research station. It is strange that only a few weeks ago we had over 100 people based here, now you can rarely count 10 heads at any one time.
When I returned from Cayos for the second time I took on the role of Co-Camp Manager for Base Camp. I had a week long brain dump with Ed where he trained me up in vehicle maintenance and emergency 4×4 driving, explained the ins and outs of the payroll, and generally imparted as much knowledge as I could absorb. I learnt a lot. And then in the middle of week-7 Ed left. Since it was a very quiet week I squeezed in 2-days leave, my first break since arriving in Honduras. I went to Tela, a pretty little beach town on the Caribbean coast. I phoned home and tried to send emails, but unfortunately my Inbox was swamped with several thousand spam email messages and I spent most of my time deleting them.
The last three weeks have been very hectic here at Base Camp, yet I feel I have settled into my new role fairly well. We have had some problematic times with several political and emergency situations, which I have had to manage. As I am writing this I am struggling to focus my memories on specific events that I can talk about. My time here has been incredibly interesting and memories of only a few weeks ago seem lifetimes ago. It is a blur.
But, the project finishes next Saturday and by then we have to have every piece of equipment inventoried and off the mountain in storage. It is a hell-of-a-task, but when it is done there will be a hell-of-a-party in San Pedro Sula for those few people who are still around (that is unless we fall asleep by 6pm!). I had planned to do some travelling after the expedition and return to the UK on the 14th September. However, since I have a new life to organise back in London I will now be coming home on the 8th in a potentially vain attempt to sort things out well in advance of 1st October.
Get in touch if you want to meet up on my return, I’ll probably spend at least a couple of weeks in Sheffield before moving more permanently to London. And a reminder to all of you: if you know anyone with a spare room — preferably central(ish) — I may be quite interested in taking it, at least for a short while.
Take care
Dan
PS More photos have hopefully been uploaded!?