The first story starts, not "back at camp", but rather, entirely by coincidence. While walking between classes I happened to bump into a lecturer organizing with some students who were soon to be going on a trip with foreign researchers. One had just announced she couldn't make it, and being nearby, the offer came to me. I found myself, later that afternoon, waiting for hours until they came to meet the four of us.
Their names were Dr. Lainy Day and Dr. Willow Lindsay, and they had not long ago flown in from the University of Mississippi with two graduate students. They were here to study the mating behavior of manakins, and the effect of testosterone on their brains, a project which would take them all around Guyana. Fortunately for us, they were interested in training students, and had offered to carry us in two groups, on two of the legs of their journey.
In the while that we spent talking, they explained the goals of their research, and the methods they'd be using to achieve them. They also made special effort to acquaint us with what life would be like in the field. They told us about hiking for miles on rough terrain while fetching a pack, the dangers of venomous snakes and malaria, and the food we'd be getting out there. It wasn't an effort to scare us, but rather to dispel any illusions we had come with. As exciting as the prospect was, there were real dangers we would face, the worst of these being lack of preparation.
The first two students were due to leave with them the next day. Thankfully, I was not, and I spent the next few weeks deliberating whether or not this kind of thing was for me. In the end it actually turned out to be one of the shortest trips I've done so far, and of all things, not taking the opportunity would have been one of my greatest regrets.
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