Viva Chile!

Yesterday was Fourth of July! It is also the final for the Copa América! It was Chile vs. Argentina and I think most Chileans had already come to terms with the fact that Argentina will win. I'm so happy to say that Chile won after 90 minutes plus 30 extra because it was still 0-0 then we went into penalty shots and Chile scored 4/5!!! It was awesome. I'll never forget when Marcelo, the guardaparque in charge at Fray Jorge, lept up and ran out of the room screaming when we watched Sanchez score the 4th penalty to win it. Chile has been competing in the Copa for almost 100 years without winning so they made history last night!!! And we saw amazing fireworks on TV for the win so we counted that as part of our 4th of July celebration!

We’ve shifted to working on Megan’s thesis project which involves putting radio collars on degus in the experimental plots (75m x 75m) that have been in Fray Jorge for 25+ years. We are shooting for 3 female degus from 2 plots with predator exclusion and 2 control plots. In an experiment a control is an un-manipulated treatment so here the plot looks just like a normal part of the land but there are stakes around the perimeter so you can realize it is a plot. The predator exclusion plots have mesh and wire all around it so that foxes, hawks, etc. cannot get in, but small mammals can.  We will be tracking the degus with radio telemetry during the day to determine home ranges.

There are dogs and cats (and donkeys and chickens) around our property. There is a big beautiful lab Kendra named Rocky. And then my favorites, two little tan wiry terriers that I call the twins. Kendra named one Scruffy but they’re both a little Scruffy. Maybe Scruffy and Scrappy will be their names. They remind me of my two boy dogs from home. They wander mostly side by side and separate to pee around the property, always on our truck at some point and then they swap and go pee where the other did. Then they go off side by side to explore a different part of the town.

Scruffy (left) and Scrappy (right)

Beautiful sunrise in the park (soon this will be commonplace)

Abrocoma bennettii (Bennett's Chincilla Rat) we caught in our traps!

There are some cats that I got to pet last night on our porch. One is so beautiful with orange, black and white coloring. Then there was a little black and white cat that wasn’t allowed to come very close to us according to the other cat, and seemed more timid. But I lured him over with a biscuit and then realized all he really wanted was to be pet and didn’t care much about food. He is so sweet, but still a little scared.

We saw a man with his donkey and dog yesterday coming from behind our town. The donkey was loaded up carrying so much wood on his back. I felt bad because it wasn’t secured very well so it jostled around with every step the donkey took and did not look comfortable at all.

It is such an interesting living situation because our land lady lives right next to us, and she has family members that live in the other houses around us. She came over to bring us extra sheets and said to give her our sheets to be washed whenever we want. We haven’t had clothes pins to hang out laundry so we’ve just been tying stuff up on the line and hoping things don’t get blown away. We made a note to buy some the next time we go to town but then she came over with a whole bunch for us to use! She’s so nice.

Also, never underestimate the power of unplugging! I’ve been able to finish part of my data analysis that I’ve been working on for months, simply because I had no internet/TV/texting to distract me. I also love how much I read when I’m out here. I read so much last time because we had a lot of down time. This time we will be working full days but I am still able to read a lot at night so I can read a book every 2 days or so. That being said, I welcome any books suggestions you might have!!!