West of the Fields

A tropical ecologist reporting from the field. Musings on life and art, botfly extractions, tropical plant identification, beer, parrots, machetes. Etc.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Various photos

Another year older, and still in Costa Rica, still itinerant. All this traveling is wearing me down. I want nothing more than to settle down somewhere and live a good life, teaching and learning, eating good food, growing plants, making friendships. As a friend said to me last year, "every saddle chafes." No doubt there are a lot of people who look at my position and say, "wow, what a dream job!" No doubt, someday, I'll look back on this and say, "I wish I could be back in Costa Rica." But the truth is I'm tired of living out of a duffle bag. I realized that the longest I spent in one place last year was three and a half weeks, and that was at a friend's house.

No big epiphanies; no time to write anything profound. I have to be back on the road at 5 am tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some photos from the past few months: images of Mexico, Christmas in Maine, and forest surveys in early January at Bijagual.