Nicaragua
It was amazing.
I can honestly say that this trip was the best and most enlightening experience of my life thus far. There is so much detail that I couldn’t possibly explain it all in a single post, but I’ll try to cover the highlights of the thing. Essentially, I’ve never traveled before. I’ve never been west of Oklahoma and I’ve never been south of Texas. I’ve never been on an airplane, I’ve never been out of the state my parents were in before. I’ve been extremely sheltered all my life. I am just past my freshman year of college and I was eighteen. I’ve never been camping before, never really been hiking before. Never dealt with wildlife before.
There was a ferry we had to ride to and from the island. The girl with me is my friend from the primatology class that was going on at the same time as our bat course. She was my roomate, too! Awesome chick! It was relieving to have at least a few girls around, even if they weren't in my class. The handsome fellows behind me were in my class. Told you they were manly men!
So I go on this trip. And it was pretty empowering. I was thrown into the company of 9 men that made up the rest of the class other than me. Drinkin’, smokin’, huntin’, fishin’, ex-military good ole’ Southern boys ages 25-37 that have had more life experiences in a single year than I have had in my whole life. They’ve been through everything. And here I am, this eighteen year old shy nerdy vegetarian hippie who doesn’t know how to tie a correct knot or use a compass. And I learned to respect them very much, and I can honestly say I’m extremely fond of them.
And I’m also extremely fond of bats now. The class was Neotropical Bat Ecology. We would hike several kilometers out into the jungle (a dry jungle rather than an intense rainforest, thank goodness) and set up huge nets right before sundown. Then, after dark, many, many bats would fly into our nets, and using our baseball batting gloves and our crochet hooks, we’d untangle them from the nets, carefully put them in bags, and bring them to the processing station we’d set up during the light hours. There we’d check the bats wings for damage, check their gender, reproductive status, forearm length, species, weight, parasite status, and age. Then we’d let them go again. We caught well over 300 bats of 27 species, two of which were not native to the region. They are fantastic animals. I’m very excited about them and I’d like to work with them in the US, particularly because there is a terrible fungal infection that is killing off a lot of the endangered species. And if there is one thing that gets me all up in arms it’s things that kill endangered species. You can read more about the fungus here. It’s pretty intense stuff. My family and friends are getting pretty sick of me talking about bats all the time. I’m getting a bat house to put in our back yard. I’m a nerd, I guess.
Me with a tent-maker bat! I love my pink gloves, they bring a little feminity to my group of all manly men.
Anyway, the main thing about this trip is that it really showed me how much I’m capable of. While I was there, I not only survived on totally basic food, with no American amenities such as air-conditioning, hot water, washing machines and the like, I hiked several kilometers every day, stayed up late every night and woke up early every morning, climbed up a very intimidating Madaras volcano that is somewhere in the area of 1400 meters high and so treacherous that it is illegal to go without a guide. It took me over twice as long as some people in our group, but I made it without turning back. I waded and sank in stomach high marsh water with mud filling my shoes to get bats out of a net on Ometepe’s river, a spot we reached by taking the most amazing kayak trip ever, observing all the beautiful marshland birds. The water was so gross that it gave one of my team members dysentery (that was thankfully cured by the time he returned home). That’s pretty empowering stuff. It was hard returning home and being cooped up in the house. I lost some weight and gained some muscle, a light tan, and callouses. I have a lot more faith in myself and my abilities, and a newfound taste for adventure.
At the top of Madaras. The most difficult hike I've ever done. See the lagoon behind me? You might not be able to tell it, but I am very, very high up in this photo. What you see behind me is the crater INSIDE the volcano. It was so steep and thick with trees and clouds that you couldn't see off the side to the rest of the world. Thankfully I've (at least temporarily) lost some of that pudge.
Because climbing one volcano wasn’t enough, I also went with my class to the Masaya volcano. We went into a bat cave inside a lava tube. They were flying everywhere, there was mud and guano everywhere. When we left the cave and went to the crater again, we saw live magma. It was amazing.
At the Masaya volcano with our guide, Leo. He was an awesome dude!
I also got a taste of Nicaraguan culture in the cities of Masaya and Grenada, which differ significantly from Ometepe, the island the field school was on. Grenada definitely offered the most culture. It was…an interesting experience to say the least. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
The market at Masaya
I returned to the US safe and sound, though I did get sick my first couple of days back because my body had to readjust to the copious and greasy American diet. I have a stronger sense of self, a greater appreciation of the outdoors, a desire for greater athleticism, a new awareness of culture, a profound interest in bats, a bunch of new friends and hopefully one day colleagues, and a nice light tan. Despite the trouble and expense I went through to go on the trip, I would give it an A+ in terms of value for the cost. I am planning on trying to get work study so that I’ll be able to pay to go again next year or the year after for a Neotropical Mammology course.
Oh, and I might be changing my major to Wildlife? Or Zoology? I don’t know yet. No promises on that. I’ll keep the general public informed 
Have a wonderful evening!
Cheyenne
