bad day

today sucked. I got up early (4:30am) so I could get to Exclosure's sleeping tree before sunrise. When I was nearly there, I saw monkeys on the road. Before I was able to ID them, they started going crazy and making intense vocal threats at something in the distance. Then they took off at top speed. I was able to keep up with them until they stopped in a big fig tree for breakfast. It was only then that I realized that all of the monkeys looked like strangers to me. It turns out that I arrived at the sleep tree just as two different monkey groups had an encounter. I ended up chasing a group that we don't study. :(

I spent the whole morning looking for Exclosure but never did find them. I feel like a failure for chasing the wrong group and losing our monkeys. I don't want to let the PHD student down. sigh. After lunch, there was no point in searching for monkeys since tomorrow is my day off. Instead, i took my machete to do some trail maintenance. After about half an hour of cleaning trails, I came across the Guanacaste group but there was no point in following them because it was already starting to get dark. I cleaned trails for a bit and them started back for the dorms. When I was almost home, I tripped on barbed wire and landed flat on my face - ripping the leg of my field pants. Tomorrow we are supposed to go to the beach (I kind of forgot that Costa Rica has beaches since I spend so much time in the trees). anyway, I hope it turns out better than today.

somebody give me a hug.
Day