"Going to the mountains is going home" — John Muir
One day, when I was little, my mother decided we would stop going to the church on Sundays. Instead, she sat us down, my younger brother and me, and talked about the communion with nature. The idea, she explained, was for us to connect with our environment and with our inner strength, through exercise and some quality outdoor time.
From then on, I've always associated weekends with a natural desire to go outside and be surrounded by open skies, sunlight, and luscious green scapes. Senses fully awakened, air oxygenating your brain, sweat as the greatest reward. That's my kind of communion, and I've tried to soak in as much contact with nature as I can throughout my life.
My college background is in Biology, and I believe that one of the perks I enjoyed the most of this career was the fact that we would go on field trips at least twice a year. The field trip I remember more fondly was to Hato Masaguaral, in 2016. This place started as a cattle ranch and was transformed into an Ecological Refuge, to protect some of the endangered species that inhabit the area.
We, as Ecology students, got to spend three whole days out in nature, with little to no technology, learning and working with the fauna and flora typical of the savannas and grasslands of Venezuela. This, for me, was a magical experience and one of my most valued ones. Here, I share with you some of the photos we took on that trip, and I'll talk to you a little bit about them.
Each morning, we got up at dawn with the sounds of nature. The red howler monkeys, roaring in the woods around our house. The birds, chirping and warbling, all before the sun had even come out. In my opinion, waking up like that is one of the most pleasant ways. You can truly be aware of being part of an amazing ecosystem, and delight in its inner workings.
After having a quick but nutritious breakfast, we had to walk about 15 km (9 miles) to the study site, where we conducted soil analysis until the sun was way up in the sky. We were divided into groups of three or four, and we had the responsibility to care for our inner circle on all matters regarding hydration, food, and of course the workflow. This was a great learning experience about what to do, and not do, in nature.
The manual work was rather hard, but nothing we couldn't handle. In the photo above, you can appreciate two biologists silently stalking a little burrowing owl that was hiding in the dunes. They were trying to capture it on camera but the bird was a very sneaky one! At nights, after dinner, we were expected to write in our journals all about that day's observations, and make drafts of our papers. Some were so exhausted after having dinner they would fall asleep right there on the floor, over their notebooks.
On the last day of the field trip, we visited the Caiman reserve on the ranch grounds. One of the photographers had a pretty good scare while trying to capture the essence of a female caiman, who got really angry and nearly jumped the fence! After that, we kept a very good distance from the big ones. Still, I couldn't miss the chance of holding one of the baby caimans! I just wish I had a good photo of that. Well, at least it's forever in my memory, and I can look at these awesome shots by Rafa, the Mexican exchange student that did the trip with us.
Overall, this field trip to Hato Masaguaral has been one of the greatest experiences I've ever had in nature. It rivals with the field trip I did to get my Scuba Diver SSI certification, in which a storm caught us in the open, and with the time I nearly froze to death on a mountain at 2,765 meters (9,072 ft) above sea level! Stories for another time, if you'd like to hear them.
I'd like to thank THE WEEKEND community and its founder for yet another opportunity to reflect on life and all the beautiful things we get to enjoy in our time around the Sun. I look forward to next week's topics. I thank you for reading this too!