Mar Chiquita!

Hola,

I just got back from Mar Chiquita! It was wonderful! (BTW, the dentist appt went well. She really did her homework and knew what more things on the form meant than I did!!! We had some laughs, and 13 x-rays later, I was done! I go back on Tues to retrieve them, but from the initial check, I've got no cavities or any other probs. Yippee!)

Back to the travels... Although I didn't lose any of my insides forthright from the trip, I think they are now fully perforated with ulcers. Oye. I'm currently erasing all memories of how I got there and back from my memory. Suffice it to say, I'm alive and I will never get in a car again with someone, who shall remain nameless, driving. It is currently a very touchy subject. But hint: it wasn't Laura or me.

We were greeted by Alberto, the mayor of Miramar (city on the banks of Mar Chiquita and location of park headquarters). He set us up in a local hotel which was very nice. We got some sleep and then started bright and early the following morning. Well, Laura and I did. Ben insisted we start an hour earlier than they had planned, but he still wasn't up at the time to leave, so I woke him. Thanks for the suggestion. *Purge bad thoughts from head... deep breath...*

Okay, so then we met a park ranger... whose name I can't recall at the moment. He's a great guy who kinda reminded me of a hillbilly Santa Clause: huge smile, white hair, bright red face, round belly, and quite a few missing front teeth. We all piled into their truck and headed out to the lake. It is the largest of Argentina's salt lakes. I don't know how big that is on paper, but there's no you can see across it! And the best part is that its shores are lined with flamingos!!! Mar Chiquita is home to three of the world's five species of flamingo. These guys were way brighter than the birds lining Lake Nakuru's shores in Kenya and their black-tipped wings gave them a sharp look that reminds me of quite a few of my sorority shirts. hehe

Oh, and my second favorite part is that I found some natural swallow nests! It was so cool after measuring so many of our nest box nests to find real ones they made all by themselves! Okay, so our swallows can't make cavities by themselves, but they all nest in cavities. The nests I found (one with chicks 15+ days old, and the other with chicks 10 or 11 days old) were in the tops of tree stumps, not on the side of a trunk as you might expect. Very cool. The older guys were too close to fledging to do anything with (except snap a pic), but the littler guys were the perfect age to band! I reached my arm all the way up to my elbow to pull them out, scraping my forearm against the jagged edges of the petrified wood all the way. I suppose it's just what one does in the name of science... hehe We taught our new counterparts how to band and measure the chicks, which they'll get lots more practice with once the get some nests in their boxes. Speaking of which, we set up about 22 boxes, out of the 31 they made. We didn't have any poles, so all the boxes went on the dead trees or fence posts. (There was huge flood which wiped out many of the trees around the lake.) It was a very successful day. LOL, Laura and I didn't have to do more than carry the boxes around, as there were no holes to dig, no posts to lug around, and our counterparts did all the chopping away with the ax and drilling with the hand drill.

Annnnnd, I'm going to a party tonight with Laura, so I'm happy! hehe