First Week

Well, we’ve had our first full week in Argentina and I’ve already had female tucos calling at me, pups showing me their furry little faces, tero teros (southern lapwings) squawking at me when I cross the malline (meadow), hares running from me, beetles crawling around me, lizards scurrying past me, rain spitting at me, and you guessed it, wind blowing like only a Patagonian wind can do. I’ve even been to an asado, which, for those of you who have been following my adventures know, is one of my favorite Argentina experiences. It’s wonderful. I’ve traded bleary-eyed 5 am commutes for a ½ mile walk through the steppe to the population site. I’ve traded an alarm waking me up for the songs of birds and bubbling sounds of the stream that flows past my tent. Sure my room is small and I have to dress stretched out on my sleeping bag. Ok, there’s no bathroom; just a bush that I hide behind after jumping the stream. No, no showers either but we’ve a sun heated water bag that will do when it’s not too cold out. I do use the stream to wash my hair but have to watch out for head freezes. I am out of doors from sun up to sun down and I feel the stress melting away. My kids, my wranglers, and my labmates know what a crazy week I was having just before I left, but now I am in a different world and the lovely Patagonian wind is blowing all the craziness away.

This week, I’ve posted a clip of the first pup I saw in a colony we call mid-malline. We’re pretty sure there are at least two females and perhaps a male. We’ve now found pups at 3 other colonies. The place is hopping and ready to be caught and poops collected. I’ll be in about once a week to town and will update as I can. Sending my love from the bottom of the world… Julie