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Published: February 10th 2008
I am back in civilization once again, back at the house in Malabo. We spent a few weeks in a small town called Moka. It was not quite as rugged as the last expedition but it was definitely a welcome change of scenery. The climate there in the highlands is much more what I am used to. Its about 60-70 degrees during the day and it was not nearly as humid. At night I actually had to use a sleeping bag because it gets a bit chilly. At the beach and the Caldera I didn't even take my sleeping bag out of my backpack.
We all traveled by van up to Bioko Nature Center/ Wildlife Sanctuary in Moka, Equatorial Guinea. The town of Moka is very small and everyone is very friendly, unless you take pictures of them without permission. They normally do not appreciate this. I was yelled at on a few different occasions. But if you ask, most of the time it's acceptable. Also since the president of EG has a few homes up there, there is cell phone service, pretty crazy considering we were so far out in the middle of nowhere.
Here all of the
At the Cascades
Me above the cascades outside of Mokastudy abroad students including myself worked on specific research projects which we chose. These projects ranged from catching birds and determining the diversity of different species of birds to walking through the forest at night and recording behavior of nocturnal primates (which is what I am doing). A partner and I went out into the forest each night viewing the behavior of Galagos (aka Bushbabies) in order to determine differences in behavior at different altitudes and habitats. We are working directly with a PhD student from the University of Cape Town, who is working on her PhD in Primatology. The research that she is doing will be published in the Journal of Primatology and all of the student studying Galagos will have their data in the Journal along with hers. Which means that I will have my name in the published journal. I am pretty excited about that. Not many undergrads have ever been mentioned in published journals, so I am looking forward to the bragging rights. Haha just kidding.
But once again this was an incredible experience. But now we're all back in Malabo, and we'll be starting actual classes on Monday. I am taking Spanish class, Society
and the Environment, and Natural Resource Economics. Our Tropical Ecology class is finished now, that is what we doing in the mountains. It was all a field-based class. I am excited for classes here, especially spanish because I am learning a lot just talking to the Equatoguineans but I want to have a little better grammer when I am talking to them.
That's all for now. Miss you all. Thank you all for your messages and emails. Joe.
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Roy
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I Enjoy Following Your Progress and Travel
As a Spansih speaker and descendant of the Spanish colonials in Florida, I enjoy reading about forgotten parts of the Spanish Empire. La Guinea Espanola was one of the last peices of that empire and your writings are giving me an insight into the country. Thanks and keep us posted!