Small Mammals, Big World: Flamingos, fox chases and fetuses

Sara was finally able to experience the joy of adventures with Juan. I feel bad that I’m always talking about our great times last year, and she doesn’t get to have that because we don’t live in the park with him this year. We hadn’t seen him since the earthquake, and the September 18^th celebrations so we lunched with him after trapping on Tuesday, and he invited us to go to the coast on Wednesday, and stop at a wetland to see a pair of flamingos that he knew about. He even made sopapillas for us for a snack before so that Sara could try them. He makes them with a pumpkin/squash like thing they have here called zapallo, and they are especially delicious with his homemade pebre (kinda like pico de gallo). We stopped by our house first and Juan got to see Zorro for the first time since we rescued him! Like everyone, he fell in love with his goofiness right away and kept saying how great he looked. We showed him our pregnant cat, who Sara named Pata (potato), or Patita because she eats raw potatoes which we think is weird, and also she is very round at the moment. Juan exclaimed that she wasn’t a potato she was a ball!! She is very very pregnant. Then we were off, and along the way we saw lots of goats, sheep, cows, horses, birds, dogs, etc. When we stopped at the wetlands I could not believe it, there was a pair of flamingos!!! In the wild!!! I’m so used to seeing them at the zoo, I would walk by them every day and I remember that they were Chilean flamingos on the sign, but being here I never thought about it! It was awesome. We saw swans, ducks, cormorants, and lots of other water birds. Then we ventured onto this wooden bridge thing that had all these signs saying to be quiet, and no hunting, and other exclamations to protect the species there. Juan had heard that a rare species of bird called “7 colors” is seen there so he bird- called for awhile why we waited…and waited. He said there was a lot of activity in there but nothing was coming out.

Bad quality, but a pair of flamingos!!! One is grey and one is pink

The "seven colors" bird that we didn't get to see

We walked on this creaky bridge thing to get out over the water

Next stop was more wetlands on the coast on the way to Tongoy. I had been to Tongoy with Juan before, and stopped at these wetlands on the way back, but this time we found that right at the ocean, the road had been completely washed away by the storms and tsunamis etc. So we parked the car and walked on the beach. Sara and I couldn’t resist the ocean so we took off our shoes and ran in, getting soaked up to our butts, but we didn’t care. It was a gloomy day, but the water didn’t feel too bad! There were these buey balls with a mollusk on it and Juan flipped out, he was so excited they washed up because he knew how to cook them. Of course, being Juan he dropped them off at our landlords’ house for them to have and didn’t even keep any for himself! I think it will be a real treat for them. We waded through the water that washed through the road, and started sinking into the sand and further into the water. I didn’t mind though since I love being in the ocean any way possible. We wandered a little further before returning to the truck. On the way back we stopped in a town for goat cheese and bread as a snack. I found more cute dogs in that town.

at the beach!!

The mollusk we found!

All Juan had to say was "Maddie, don't take her home"

We made it back to our house to change and check on Zorro, who we left playing with the construction workers and their dogs for the day. He was so excited to see us all, and I felt bad about leaving him to go back to the park with Juan. So Juan let us take him back! We had dinner and Juan fell more in love with Zorro. He says if he could he would want to keep him in the park with him so he wouldn’t be so lonely. He made the great realization that Zorro looks like Santa's Helper, Bart Simpson's dog! He is so right. They are both super funny looking. Zorro got to meet his namesake, some of the foxes that live around Juan’s cabin. They were resting peacefully outside looking so cute and probably waiting for Juan to feed them, when Zorro finally noticed they were out there. He is so protective at our house from other dogs that I should not have been surprised from him reaction. He flipped his shit and charged the fox over into the shrubs. Next thing we see is the fox sprinting down the road with Zorro right on its tail. I’m telling you I’ve never seen animals run so fast. And the sound of the scared fox was insane. It was such a crazy moment we all just burst out laughing at the table like what the hell just happened??? We went outside but they were long gone. I feel bad for the fox. Zorro came back tail wagging looking so proud of himself. Juan is a sucker for him and was feeding him goat cheese all night, he can’t resist Zorro’s begging eyes and the way he lays his head on your leg when you’re eating.

Possibly the fox that Zorro chased

Compare to Santa's Helper

Seriously this is Zorro's expression all the time

During our trip Juan was asking me if we had any truck problems. If anyone read my blog last year I think I wrote about the hell we experienced last year. I was so happy to say no, no flat tires (5 last year), no leaking tanks, no burnt out clutches. And I know how the world works, it only makes sense that the next day we got a flat tire on the way home from the field. I was confident I could change a tire after my practice last year, but I knew it would be a little difficult and I was anticipating the problems we had before with a shitty jack that couldn’t hold the truck up so it would always collapse. And last year the jack wasn’t tall enough so Juan had to find us blocks to put it on. So I was a little worried. The construction workers said they looked over and saw us under the truck getting the spare tire and knew they should help us, as gentlemen. I have to admit I was relieved to have them do it for us, and we watched carefully so we could put the other one back on once it was fixed. And as I’m writing this, we just finished putting the original back on. We celebrated the fact that we are strong independent women that can change the tires on our bad ass field truck.

I joke when people ask me how it’s going here that it changes daily, sometimes hourly. In the mornings I will be so annoyed by all the mosquitos that attack me, and then I’ll check traps and we’ll have 2 new pregnant females which is the best thing ever! And then it will warm up and I will be swarmed by dozens of biting flies and I will be miserable until trapping is done. And then I’ll be happy to go back to the house and make some coffee, but something will happen like this week when we found out we were out of water. That lasted like 4 days. Luckily we had drinking water but for everything else it was annoying. But then Juan took us on the excursion and it was such a good day. And then we got water back. But then we had a flat tire and had to go fix that which worried me a little to be driving to the field on the spare. And we are waiting for our cat to give birth, and having kittens here will be the best.

Big ass fly trying to bite through my fleece

When I walk through my site in the morning dew the flowers bleed on me

More flowers

Also, the real highlight of this update is that this morning I felt fetuses in a pregnant degu!!!!!!!! I’ve had Sara feel some of them as they’ve been gaining weight and mostly it’s just a round tummy. Which is what it was like last year. And then today I asked her to feel this fat one and she felt it!!! So I tried and I felt the little masses!!! So I feel safe saying I officially will see pups this year, my field season won’t be a failure, and I will actually leave Chile feeling like something worked at last. Sooo happy right now.