Arriving in Puerto Rico

At about 3:30am my plane landed in Ponce, Puerto Rico.  I was greeted by the boss' husband and two of the long-term interns, with whom I drove back to the field station in the dark, humid night.  I found it difficult to sleep, as I had drifted off sporadically on the plane.  Also, I could already hear the rooster crowing in the early morning hours and dogs barking into the darkness.  Unfortunately, the lie in that I was allowed the next morning seemed to do little for my jet lag, but I pulled through the best I could with a cup of coffee. 

I received a brief tour around the small property, which is heavily gated and locked to deter theft by the young generation of Puerto Ricans, who apparently feel that they are entitled to others’ property.  Aside from the gate, the front entry way is open with a stone floor and several items piled off to the sides, including a large bunch of bananas that had been cut straight from a tree in the backyard the day before.  The first room of the house is the largest, with a nook for a couple of cots, one in which I sleep, cabinets, and some kitchen appliances.  The other four interns have a bit more privacy with a shower curtain shielding the door to their room, and the two college students, who newly arrive each week for a field intensive program here, have a space.  The kitchen is small, but loaded with food in two refrigerators.  There is running water in the house and a microwave, but there isn’t the modern convenience of a stove and oven, only a hot plate and a toaster oven.  The bathroom is even modern-looking enough, with the exception of the wrench hanging onto the knob in the shower to turn on the water.  In addition, water pressure is low, so someone can’t shower, while another person washes the dishes at the same time.  The other bathroom quirks include spraying the shower down with bleach after use to discourage its development as a mosquito breeding ground and not flushing toilet paper, so that the toilet doesn’t become clogged.  The boss and her husband share the bedroom just before the entrance to the patio area, which has a concrete floor and simple, flat tin roof.  This is the dining area, work station, laundry room, and space to relax all in one.  The patio is surrounded by various flowering plants, a pomegranate bush, and papaya, plantain, and banana trees.  The village harbor can be seen from here as well, but I have not yet had the opportunity to venture to the ocean.

Most of the occupants had left for a survey trip earlier that morning, so the two interns, who had met me at the airport had been assigned to the task of familiarizing me with the project and the acoustic files, through which I would be sorting.  I set to scouring the recordings for various sounds, including humpback whales, fish, and non-biological objects.  I found it particularly challenging to distinguish between the knocking noises made by fish and non-biological objects, and the frequencies of some less frequent humpback whale calls that looked very much like those of fish.  I just finished sorting through my first three thousand files, waiting to hear from the intern, who is checking my work, if I have a knack for acoustics or will need some more practice. 

In a way spring here seems similar to spring back at home, as the environment is filled with the sounds of birds’ mating calls and human chatter, and constant activity with brightly-colored birds flitting among the bushes, lizards scampering along various stationary objects, and random cats lolling through the yard.  There is never a dull moment, even once the sun goes down.