Chile: Santiago and the Atacama Desert 2017

Test day has finally arrived. Nervous was not even the right word, trying to find even a bit of space to prepare for the test throughout the week was not the easiest thing as everything was so fascinating that it was hard to not immerse yourself in it. I mean could you blame me? A desert with more plant life than you could ever imagine not to mention the sheer callosity of animal species present, the true scientist in myself finally made itself apparent. The urge to find out what, why, how had become my sole purpose. Never the less, we made our way to the research base and prepared our selves for the 9am ID test. An hour and a half was given to us (this was extremely generous) to answer 30 two-part questions, which in total would make 20% of our overall grade. The test itself was smooth sailing, all of the questions related directly to what we had seen and experienced although a couple interesting questions were thrown in like in any test. What was most surprising was the a...

The earlier morning for some reason was much easier to get up to than the later more typical mornings; I presume this was due to the prospect of finally seeing a penguin in the most unusual landscapes of all- a desert. With excitement brewing in my blood our entire group got on the coach and set off south to reach the national park. The coach trip was much like that of any other one that we had been on. There is something about the comfort of the seats that sends you straight to sleep no matter how awake you feel. However, I luckily woke up at the right times and saw a multitude of wild endemic animals including guanacos, lama guanacoe , and wild donkeys, Equus asinus   which before the coach ride I had no idea of their existence in the Atacama desert. Finally upon arrival, I was presented with a bright orange life vest that thankfully provided a layer of warmth as the 4 layers including my favourite oversized knitted lama jumper were failing at their intended purpose… t...

Success! My first experience of hot water has occurred. It’s odd how such a simple things can feel like a gods send when you haven’t experienced them in a while. On this ‘high’, I could feel my self ready to tackle everything that the day had to throw at me. The canyon was slowly becoming my second home, the giant slopes provided much welcomed shelter from the rays of the sun as we collected our traps and quickly stored our data. We couldn’t help but have a sneak peak of what the cameras had seen and it was magnificent. The videos of many bird species including a female variable hawk, Geranoaetus polysoma ,  and the multitude of Atacama Toads, Rhinella atacamensis , was simply breath taking. Such spectacles are rarely ever witnessed let alone recorded producing such a unique sensation of awe when viewing the data knowing no one else has seen it. With a trip back to base for lunch being done with, we set back for the canyon to reset our traps. This time with a...

Getting pretty used to the freezing mornings and boiling hot days now. The constant routine of wear as many layers as possible followed by the self questioning of why did I put so many layers has become part of daily life. The one thing that I have yet to get used to is the freezing cold showers! But never the less a busy day always lies ahead… something that I adore. With the usual morning over and done with my small group set off once again to the canyon to collect out traps. The thought of actually catching something in the Sherman traps was all but too exciting. Once arrived we headed straight for our last placed camera trap and our first placed Sherman trap (if any mammal was caught we didn’t want it roasted alive under the ever increasing warmth of the sun).   We continued to work in this fashion until all the traps that we laid out were collected.   One after the other, the Sherman traps seemed to be empty. Yet with each new trap our hope never went down, the t...