19th Sept...five weeks in.

Man, it’s been ages since I last wrote – not that you’ll notice since it’ll be instantaneous for you but still. In fact , my current motivation for writing is the apparent disappearance of the ‘sin connexion’ sign from the library door – this seems like a good sign (the lack of the sign that is, not the sign itself, that was a bad sign). So anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and feeling a duty for further explanations etc.

*An important note I am adding while typing this up – you’ll need to read the previous post first or much of this one will make no sense. Just scroll down, it’s not that hard - even for the old fogeys! Go! Go!*

So, I’m sitting at our dining room table. Surrounding me on four sides are large windows with lace curtains so that the neighbours can see what the crazy foreign people (‘gringas’) are doing. The floor is all wet coz Kelly and I (grammar corrected for my grandmother), having gotten back early from work, have been cleaning. My chore for this week is ‘family room’, which usually involves repeatedly sweeping out of the door all the mud that people bring in; today it also involves mopping. Erin and Libby have just come home from checking nests – they (probably meaning Chupa) climbed up to get a look into nest 5 today and saw (via a mirror) a tiny chick, which is surprising since we’ve never seen a female visiting that nest; Erin is thinking maybe it’s dead. And at nest 47 apparently they found egg shell on the ground – it doesn’t sound like a good day. Usually it’s just ‘ooh look eggs!’ and ‘ooh chicks, they’re so cute!’ and more recently, as the spring arrives, ‘aw, the chicks have fledged!’. I’m talking about hummingbirds by the way in case there are still any really slow people out there. :P Ooh there’s a page in September’s ‘national geographic’ about it btw, though I’m not sure if you’d be able to find it on the internet. It has an illustration and all. :-)

Erin and Libby seem to have been banished from coming inside. Erin has given up waiting and has asked Kelly to pass a can of beer out; the party atmosphere still remains (despite our having worked this afternoon) since we’re at the end of a five day holiday in honour of Chilean independence (Viva Chile!). Yesterday we all went down to the beach (think stones and wind, as opposed to sand and palms) and made chicken soup over a fire (the chicken was brought alive, Kelly killed and managed to get blood all over her face – fun!). In the evening we had a BBQ and it was delicious and I have now had my full of yummy yummy meat. On other evenings we went down to one of the party sheds rapidly knocked together around town – they have delicious meat-based foodstuffs also, and sweet sweet goodies, and people doing the Chilean national dance with handkerchiefs all night. We studiously declined repeated invitations by crazy and/or old men. Last night I gave up and went to bed though – these things never seem to start until after midnight which I just can’t get used to.

Today I got up at around 11 (god, I love lie-ins), had breakfast, then immediately had lunch, and then we left. While everyone else went round all the known nests with a mirror on a pole, I started off checking the status of tiny Maqui flowers. Maqui is an invasive species but the hummingbirds do feed off the nectar – we’re going to try and find out about the nectar production of Maqui flowers as opposed to other native and introduced species. Then I did behaviour with Kelly – which involves three half an hour blocks at different clearings within one site, doing behavioural observations on focal individuals. Today was cold and we got pretty much nothing – an hour’s watching and all I got was a ‘Hover, fly...not visible. Drop.’ which basically means that it left pretty much as soon as I spotted it. “H, F, NV” was noted down by Kelly with stopwatch times.

There are dogs fighting outside, well playing really. Have I told you about the dogs? They’re everywhere – all shapes and sizes – mostly just wandering about as they please, looking like they have no owners (though I think they all do). Sometimes early in the morning this place looks like a dog town – you pass them on the street and they seem to have their own doggy business to attend to. Lots of them are very cute but we generally resist stroking even the adorably friendly ones. As Chupa told us “A dog without fleas isn’t a dog”. My bites itch every time I get warm.

Erin and Libby (still outside, now joined by Kelly, Chupa and Roak) are discussing what to cook tonight. The Navy boat came in time for the holiday so we have all these beautiful new vegetables – we were down to our last onions and had only one carrot left. The shop ran out of manjar too so I’m afraid I’m back on chocolate. I have however reconsidered my Milo addiction after translating a slogan on the side of the tin as meaning “Makes You Grow Big!”. It’s supposed to be for children. Possibly starving ones. I have replaced it with coffee (less calories = good!) which unfortunately I don’t really like so I have to dilute it with lots of sugar and powdered milk (=more calories, damn). As I said though, hot drinks are vital. The last time the Navy boat came they decided not to bring a whole bunch of stuff, including ‘superocho’ chocolate wafer bars. We were very sad when the shops ran out of them. Anyway, a few weeks ago when we went to get our gas cannister refilled we discovered that there wasn’t any. All the gas was apparently sitting at the dock back on the continent along with our superochos. Horror of horrors – we had no gas! Nothing to boil our kettle with, or make dinner or have a delicious shower! There was much worrying and desperation before we were finally able to borrow some. Phew! In the end we only had to go without for one morning (meaning no instant oats and no thermos to take into the field) but it felt like an age longer!

Ah food talk again – but it’s very important! Did I mention that I learnt to cook? I’m gonna come cook for you all! Anyway, I think I’ll go wait for dinner now. :D