3/6 Good Canoe Day

I feel confident now that I've escaped the group cold. Amanda and Becky both had it, they cough every morning. Becky sounds like a howler monkey at 4 am.

The highlight of my day was a canoe trip up the Rio Sirena with Bill, Elena, and Amanda. As we were walking down the trail to the boats, a huge tapir was walking up! His back was as high as my chest. He looked like a little rhino, big and dense. He took off into the woods pretty quickly. He had a radio collar. (There is a long-running tapir population study here).

We took a big boat out, more rowboat-sized than canoe-sized. We paddled up the river as the tide was coming in, makes the paddling easier. It felt like "Heart of Darkness," but happy, moving slowly up this wide river with nothing but jungle on either side. Lots of shore birds. We saw two crocodiles and a big bull shark, 4 feet long, swimming by just a few feet from the boat. There were some other big fish, and lots of schools of little silver fish. We paddled fast through the sunny spots and lingered in the shade.

Now I'm overwhelmed by writing again. I got two papers back for rewrites today. One of them is more or less in order, just requires small corrections. The other has profound problems in the introduction and discussion that I don't have the energy to face today. It's difficult for me to write in this environment -- no privacy and always pressed for time. I'm sure it's good for me. :)