Before I begin, I’d like to remind everyone to please post comments if they feel like it. I read them. If no one posts anything I will assume my mom is the only one reading and will just talk about whether or not I am eating enough fruit.

This morning I had the intention of waking up around 6am. Instead, at approximately 4am, came the most bone-chilling, fear-inducing, sleep-rattling sound: the roar of a horny howler money. There is no real way to describe what it sounds like, especially when they are right outside your window. If I were to type, it would be: re-re-re-reeeh-reeeh- reeeooooowwwerreeerrerr-uh-uh-uh-UH! But a more accurate description would be the gladiator arena at the end of Star Wars: Episode 2, where the massive creatures make some similar sounds to the monkeys: it’s that surreal and loud, exactly like dinosaurs once sounded, no, that’s how they really sounded.

So on to breakfast. I’m quickly seeing how cool this STRI place is. They do some amazing research and have a very intelligent staff. One young man, G., is our assistant for the Expedition. I thought he was just a random kid here, but it turns out that he is doing signal pathway research on bullet ant toxins, hoping to help open up the blood/nerve barrier for pharmaceuticals. Seems as though everyone has a crazy passion to talk about. That’s good, I haven’t had that around too much in a while. (That was not a dig at anyone).

There is also the previously-mentioned Dr. Roland Kays. If you know Ian Ingram, just picture him in 5 years, that’s Roland. Shaggy, jazzed-up, and full of off-the-wall ideas that might work... or might not. At dinner last night, he decided that it might be fun to try to catch agoutis with a net-gun, somewhat like riot police use to catch protesters. Our suggestion of using man-stopping foam from the riots was met with excitement as well. He is now obsessed with the idea, though probably in a semi-serious way. He is also attaching radio-transmitters to big seeds, hoping to follow where agoutis hide them.

Today was more setup and preparation. I won’t bore you with the details. However the weather was noticeably dryer, bordering on comfortable. I’m sure it was just an aberration though. Tomorrow the argonauts arrive, which should start to kick things into gear. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may start to have kids in my hair to join the bugs.

An aside: if you have a not insignificant amount of body hair, you are familiar with the sensation of hairs moving. For some reason, individual hair folicles expand and contract, making your little arm and legs hairs move just a few millimeters. This happens in a way that you feel it about once every few minutes. Now normally this becomes background sensation to you and you don’t care. However out here you are constantly in a state of “Oh my God, what was that? A chigger? An ant? Should I lift my socks? Should I un-tuck them? Should I go outside to do that?” And then the sensation fades and you feel like an idiot. Ok, back to the issues at hand.

Well that is all I have to add at this point. Tonight I will go to dinner shortly, followed by a briefing for the STRI staff on “Who is JASON and what the hell are they doing here?” I am but one of two company folks on BCI right now so consider me an ambassador of goodwill.

More to come tomorrow. Maybe even a double update!

Today’s Wrap
Wake: 6am
Temperature: About 89F
Wind: About 10mph off the water
Breakfast: Extremely dry fried eggs and juice
Lunch: Rice and chicken and salad and fruit
Dinner: Who knows! Heaven awaits!
Pee color: Mostly clear, good for me!
Staff casualties: 1 heat stroke, 1 minor forehead gash
Places traveled other than base and lodge: None, this will change soon.

Written by Orion Smith on Jan 20, 2004 at 5:49pm

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