The Road to Nicaragua

One of my biggest dreams for many, many years has been to do international bat work. It didn’t really matter where or what I would be doing, I just wanted to cross over the US border. The other side of that international line was so tantalizing . . .a new group of bat species, new ways to catch them, a land foreign to me with a dizzying array of new people, languages, sights, foods, colors, and smells.

I had been searching for a few years for an opportunity and, a little over a year ago, finally found the perfect one. A colleague and friend from my days in the southwestern desert let me know that she would be taking a sabbatical from her university position beginning in December 2011 and continuing through January 2012. Her country of choice? Nicaragua. What would she be doing on her sabbatical? Studying bats of course! I had the pleasure of working with her in 2005 on a study she conducted on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Spotted bats (Euderma maculatum) (I hope to tell the tale of that adventure one day).

Spotted bat (Euderma maculatum). Check out the ears!

To this date, her Spotted bat study had been my favorite field project. It had the requisite amount of craziness and danger combined with a phenomenal field crew, all with the stunning Grand Canyon serving as a backdrop.

On the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We had just finished a night of mist netting and decided to
check if any of our tagged Spotted bats were roosting in the Canyon itself. We found one bat and came nose to beak with a California Condor that was riding a thermal up the canyon wall.

I had absolutely no reservations in telling her I wanted to volunteer on her Nicaragua project, I knew that I not only would be in good hands but would have the adventure of a lifetime.

In early October I booked my plane tickets to Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua. After booking the flight, my life quickly became consumed with the details of international travel; brushing up on my Spanish, creating packing lists for personal items and the things I would need in the field, surfing the web for specialty items such as mosquito netting, researching the local currency, food and customs, and also determining if I needed any special vaccinations.

Luckily I found a nearby hospital with a Travel Clinic that specializes in the specific needs of people that travel internationally. I was able to work with the nurse practitioner to determine which vaccinations would be needed based on my personal history and the country and time of year I would be travelling. While most of my vaccinations were up to date, we decided that I would complete the vaccination series for Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Flu, Typhoid, and Malaria. These vaccinations were to be completed over a period of 3 visits to the travel clinic and 1 visit to my local pharmacist (who seemed rather perplexed as to why he was dispensing Typhoid medication to me).  Each vaccination varies in how many doses are needed, how it is administered, efficacy, and side effects. Here’s the summary:

Hepatitis A/Hepatitis B: Given together in a combination drug known as Twinrix, it is an intramuscular injection given in 3 doses. Efficacy: Vaccination is good for my lifetime. Side effect: Feels like you were in a bar fight with the injection site being the only place where the leather clad biker decided to pummel you.

Flu shot: Given as an injection in 1 dose. Efficacy: Vaccination is good for one year. Side effects: Mild fever and headache (hello Excedrin, you are my friend).

Typhoid: Given as an oral medication in 3 doses. Efficacy: A 70% resistance to Typhoid for 5 years. Side effect: Intestinal pain that ensured I walked in a hunched position resembling that lovable Disney character who lived in that famous Parisian cathedral. After the 1^st dose I realized that diuretics such as caffeine and alcohol magnified the pain. This was truly unfortunate as coffee and red wine are two of my vices. However, given the level of pain I was in I chose to skip the wine and coffee for the remainder of my dosing schedule (which put me into caffeine withdrawal, complete with headaches – it is fair to say my coworkers suffered with me through this one). 

Malaria: Given as an oral medication on a weekly basis beginning one week prior to your travels and ending four weeks after your travelling is complete. Efficacy: Only while undergoing treatment. Side Effects: Unknown. Given my troubles with the Typhoid medication, I would appreciate you crossing any spare fingers for me (and how about tossing some toes in there too?).

Those of us volunteering for the Nicaragua project were also required to complete an on-line training course that reviews the ethical implications of working with animals. Any time you work with vertebrate animals you are required to take a refresher course in this topic. Our field work falls into this requirement since we physically handle the bats. The training is composed of several modules that I completed over the course of a few days. While not much of the information applies to the type of work we will be doing, I was highly entertained by a golden nugget of information: Rodents and rabbits cannot vomit. Why this entertains me, I cannot say, it simply does. Can’t you envision this as an answer on Final Jeopardy? It seems to fit in the topic of “Random Pieces Of Information That Are Likely To Be Useful Only On Jeopardy”. I have yet to find out if the other project volunteers found this as entertaining as I did.

As the countdown clock is ticking ever closer to my departure time I am scrambling to do last minute errands: buying sunscreen, finding the batteries for my headlamp, and obsessively checking that I haven’t misplaced my passport. The pile of things to pack is slowly growing in the corner of my bedroom and the excitement, oh how the excitement and anticipation are building!