Mexican Ecology and Culture

Who Needs You I’ve Got Mexico!  

By: Matt McFerran

March 15, 2002: Blast Off

The big white chevy sat in front of the science building as we drove up at 8:00pm. We packed our belongings and equipment we would need to survive an eleven-day romp through the bush. You could feel the excitement as we feverishly packed and made final checks, did I get my sleeping bag? Did I get my toothbrush? A thousand questions jumped through our heads as wondered what this trip might hold in store for us. When we finally got our posse rounded up we headed for the Prairie Kitchen in Ardmore, OK to meet Dr. Dwight Moore and his gang of adventurers.

Students from MSC were as follows:

Those from Emporia State University were:

After a great steak at the restaurant and a few goodbyes to Oklahoma, we all rolled south to Laredo, Texas at 11:30pm. The long trip was highlighted by Mark and Bruce’s discussion about controversial issues and the viewpoints of the conservative vs. liberal perspectives. A great late night radio talk show kept us all awake and don’t ask what was said on it, just use your imagination.

March 16, 2002 Crossing the Border    

 At Nuevo Laredo we picked up Dr. Chris Taylor from Mississippi State University at 8:00am. He parked his truck in storage and we proceeded to purchase insurance for the vans and crossed the border. The Federalies searched the vans and they just happened to go through Clint’s bags and mine first which made us both a bit uneasy (OK we were scared as heck!). After we finally made it through customs we went to get our visitor ID’s and exchange our dollars for pesos. At the ID place we all stood out front on the walkway to snap a few photos but we soon were run off by a disgruntled employee of Mexico. So we cut our losses and headed for the money exchange. After we had everything squared away, all legal so we wouldn’t be thrown in a Mexican prison most of our lives, we trucked on south to Bustamante Canyon. The terrain was unlike any I have seen. Cactuses littered the wide-open land and the only thing visible for miles were the towering yuccas which spread out like a sea of prickly green. We stopped at a Mascal manufacturing center (a few wood shacks with huge vats full of the pungent pre-tequila concoction) and a few of the fellas tried a sip. There were bees swarming everywhere and for all I knew they could have been the killer variety so Clint and me put quite a bit of distance between them and us. Onward we rolled at a constant pace and after a few stops at PEMEX we arrived at Bustamante, a small town with some narrow streets and friendly people. We drove into Bustamante Canyon, which seemed to be a national park of some sort that allowed camping. A few people pitched their tents but Clint, Brian and I went for a little stroll up a nearby mountain (well it was actually more like a steep hill but to us Okie boys, we could have been in the movie Cliffhanger!) the trip back down the hill was a bit rough because we had to slid most of the way down on our hind-ends. As night fell a group of natives next to us starting playing music and dancing and well, we just could help but join in once a diamondback water snake slid up one of the men’s pant legs. The commotion was hilarious to say the least. Soon it was time to hit the sack and a few of us were welcomed with an uncomfortable nights stay in the van, but Clint, the smart one of us, slept out on a picnic table.

March 17, 2002 Rollin On South

We awoke to a Rio Grande Gobbler sounding off about 60 yards from camp (just a bit outta gun range!) and Clint was up licking his wounds after having fell off the picnic table somewhere in the night. Bernadette took a few photos of the strutting tom and his harem of hens as I gave him a few yelps and clucks to think about and Clint and I went off on a little stroll through the mountains. We headed back to camp about 10:00am and packed up and started on the last lap of the drive down. We stopped at the Tropic of Cancer and took pictures holding our cigarettes. The Chihuahuan Desert was long and hot with ugly terrain but astounding in its own sort of way. The further south we headed, the more temperate the area became and the juniper laced mountains were the last thing we seen before dark. As we drove up on Guadalajara it was like the “Fire Verm” of lights, 9 million people live in that desert town as the streets were hopping at 3:30 in the morning. We drove right on through and arrived at our campsite at 5:15am. We pitched our tents and went for a little walk on the beach before morning and finally got some sleep somewhere about 6:30am.

March 18, 2002 The Fun Begins

We arose about 8:30am and Clint and I went for an early morning swim after breakfast. Then the groups we were to be broken up into for the rest of the week were announced. Neisha and Charla were in my group, which couldn’t have been better because I don’t speak a lick of Spanish and Neisha was pretty fluent in it. Mammals were our first area of study, we left camp about 4:00pm to set Sherman traps and a few live traps in a field with high grass to attempt to capture a few mice and rats, and while plowing through the thick underbrush I got stung by a few ants the size of mice with the potency of fire ants, and that’s also when I found out just how many mosquitoes there are in Mexico, only a few BILLION! So after setting the traps we scratched our wounds all the way out to a small creek at dark where we set up mist nets to nab some bats. We had a bit of difficulty with the small meshed nets but we finally got it worked out. We check the nets every thirty minutes or so, and we made about 3 or 4 trips to check the nets. We caught four bats in all, three fruit bats and one nectar bat, but no vampire bats like I had wanted to see badly. We got back to camp around 10:00pm and I went straight to bed after a few quasidillas.

March 19, 2002 Mammals and Herpetology

We got up at 6:30am to go check our traps we set the previous afternoon. I had caught 2 rice rats species name Orjzanys poulustis. Then we went to a drying lakebed and searched for mammal tracks to make plaster casts of them. We found several raccoons and a few skunk track but no panthers or kuwatimundie tracks like I had hoped. A few of the students made casts and then we went back to camp for breakfast. After breakfast we skinned the bats and rice rats and stuffed the skins with cotton for museum specimens, which was particularly fun because I love learning how to skin smaller animals without messing up the pelt. After the preserving was done we had a few hours to relax then it was back out to the boonies to a small creek to start herpetology and we started off by setting out turtle traps, which sounds easier than it looks. When we finally set them up we went walking on a different creek at night looking for frogs and snakes. We found a few lizards and a score of small frogs but all I managed to catch was a shrimp with claws the size of a pencil. When we all got tired of stepping on stones to traverse the creek we headed back to camp around 10:00pm. The ride back was the best of all because we rode on a tailgate of a pickup with 12 people jammed in the camper shell at about 60mph, letting our legs dangle and joking the whole way in. After a few delicious bites of pineapple when we finally got back, I hit the sack.

March 20, 2002 Herpetology (Continued)

We set out at 7:00am to check our turtle traps only to discover that they had been stolen during the night, our instructor was hacked off to say the least. So we drove back to camp to ID and measure the frogs we had caught the night before. After the ID we ate breakfast and headed out to look for snakes and lizards. We walked down an old burrow path through a banana and papaya plantation in search of our quarry. The walk, which turned into a hike, lasted about 4 hours and the papaya fruit made it all worthwhile!  We got back to camp about 2:30 so we went for a swim in the ocean as huge waves were rolling in so a little body surfing was in order. After the swim I played soccer with some other students which none of them happened to be American and I just had to show them how us Okies get the job done!! After the days activities I was dog-tired and crashed out with authority.

March 21, 2002 Ichthyology 

We woke up about 8:00am and I was starving so I ate 2-day-old pineapple and tater chips because breakfast was still a few hours away. Then we drug out the seine and headed for the surf. We made about 6 passes with the net and had a ton of fish that the seagulls and pelicans were eager to get their hands on. Then we went and ate real breakfast and began to ID the fish we caught. After ID we went out to a new creek and took pH levels of the stream and Bruce explained to us how to study the individual parts of a stream. Then we began to electro shock fish, which was a blast because we pulled a few large fish out of a pool that couldn’t have been more than 18 inches deep, most of the fish we caught we’ve never seen before and I would love to catch a few of the ones we caught on a rod and reel. Then we went snorkeling at a crocodile farm and there were red-eared sliders about as big as a dinner table and a number of huge crocs caged up and even a few coons that would try to bite ya if you got too close.  Then we headed back to camp for the night and Clint and me did some domino playing and went to sleep.

March 22, 2002 Ornithology

Woke up way to early at 5:45am and drove south of camp to a large hillside passing through a few towns along the way and we glassed birds through our binoculars as we walked up the mountain. The bird watching last about 4 hours with 17 different species of birds spotted and identified. Which included the following: Black and white throated magpie jay, yellow winged cacique, and several species of woodpeckers and dove. We then went back to camp to eat breakfast and then we went out to set up mist nets for the birds in the afternoon. We only caught a cinnamon-throated hummingbird after about an hour of waiting so we called it quits and headed back to camp. That night we built a big bonfire on the beach and proceeded to exchange culture until about 4am the next morning.

March 23, 2002 Mangrove Swamp and Departure Time

Again, we rose early and drove out to the mangrove swamp. We loaded up in boats as the guides drove us through the tangle of roots and trees. We saw tons of birds along the way and even a couple of crocodiles in the wild! A few of us swam around and swung off a rope swing a few times but we had to head back quick because we still had a lot of picture taking and packing to do. Clint and I helped pack almost everybody’s stuff and we were ready to go long before departure time, but we took group photos for a hour and we handed out course certificates which we all appreciated. We said our goodbyes and headed out for Real de` Catorse. We arrived there early that next morning and I didn’t wake up until we had already stopped so we just slept in the van until morning.

March 24, 2002 Real de Catorce

After we all got out of the van we ate breakfast at a small restaurant and then walked around all day shopping. I had to drive the van down the cobblestone roads that were steep as heck and only big enough for a couple of donkeys to travel on safely. But I made it through with Clint’s help and watchful eye. That evening I took my first hot shower in 10 days. The day flew by and before I knew it night had fallen and sleep was upon me.

March 25, 2002 Rollin North  

 The drive back to Laredo wasn’t as bad as I remembered and the trip back across the border gave us a little scare, but then every time we got stopped it scared the crap outta me. We got to Nuevo Laredo that night and we dropped of Chris at his truck and we went to eat at Denny’s, which was a welcome American meal to say the least! We said goodbye to Chris and drove through the night to West, Texas, where I drove on into Ardmore. Both vans laid the hammer down all through Texas as we chatted back and forth on walkie-talkies. We got to Ardmore at 8:00am Tuesday morning and said our goodbyes to our Kansas counterparts, which we had great fun with. Then we trucked it on back to Tishomingo and finally got some Log Cabin breakfast and a nap. This was one of the greatest trips of my life and I would love to go back next year. Never have I experienced so much learning and fun in the same week.

The End