46 days

In exactly forty-six days, I will be leaving for the first leg of my journey which will take me to New York City and then a long eight hour flight to Lima, Peru, where we will be stopping shortly before flying to Iquitos, the biggest city in the Amazon. From Iquitos we will be traveling six hours by River Boat to the ACTS (Amazon Conservation of Tropical Studies) field station where we will be staying for three and a half weeks. While forty six days is a while, I still need to get in the proper mindset and prepare for this journey in the wild. This trip will be a test of my endurance, will and strength, as every day will pose new challenges that I have not faced before. Even though I am nervous, I am so excited and consider myself so lucky to be able to have the opportunity to go on a trip like this. My daily routine until I leave will consist of going to the gym daily, night meditation routine, and working at the mycology lab for which I work. So let me give a little bit of background of how I became fortunate enough to be invited on this trip. Last Fall, I was still working at the Pen Boutique in Columbia, Maryland. While I had enjoyed the job, the drive leaving campus during school seemed to detract my ability to really focus on both school and work at the same time. One day as I was checking my emails, one email, a daily listserve email from the CMNS (College of Computational, Mathematical and Natural Sciences) showed of a lab technician opening in the Plant Sciences Department in the Mycology Lab of Dr. Priscilla Chaverri. As I used work in a lab long before the Pen Boutique, I jumped on the opportunity and applied for the job, first by email and then taking a copy of my resume' and a hand written letter discussing my intent to apply for the position. By mid February, I had my interview and was accepted for the position. I was so excited to be working in a research laboratory once again, especially one that was located so close to my classes and my apartment on campus. After working there for a few weeks, I learned that the laboratory does trips in quite often intervals into the Amazonian rain forests of Peru and Brazil and that a trip to Peru in the summer was being planned. The graduate student which I am going with, Demetra Skaltsas, was to invite one of the undergraduate lab technicians which I was one of two. When I learned that I was going on the trip and my ticket was paid for, I was humbled by the opportunity to be going on such an amazing trip to the most beautiful parts of the world. The biodiversity of the Amazon is unmatched by any other part of the world, it is here where all sorts of life come together and live in the same environment together. The lush tropical environment is unlike anywhere I have ever been before, and I am excited to be breathing in the fresh air produced by the ancient trees that will be towering above us, looking down upon us like the Gods of the Amazon. I plan on updating this blog in the amazon with my personal experiences or stories of other travelers I meet on my way, since my internet connection may be very little while there, I will resort to writing in my journal I take with me, and transcribing it into this blog. I will also post pictures that I take here, to give my reading audience a feel for the places I stayed during my trip.