My Mexico Journey

Jason Bement - 2nd Year - 2005

The Students: Emporia State University, Mississippi State University, and Murray State College:

The Professors: Dr. Dwight Moore - ESU, Bruce Stewart and Laura Sandman - MSC, Chris Taylor – MSS.

The Line up of Events

March 12 Day 1, 8:00 pm: MSC students show up at parking lot. Pack luggage and things in two vans. Head off to Ardmore to meet ESU students with Dwight Moore.

March 13 day 2, 10:00 am: Meet up with MSS students and Chris Taylor at the border crossing in Laredo, Texas. 8:00 pm arrive in Bustamante Canyon and set up camp.

March 14 day 3, 9:00 am: Break camp and start marathon drive to San Blas. About 7:00 p.m. MST we arrive at beach camp near San Blas.

March 15 day 4, 6:00 am: eat good breakfast. Start animal research rotations with the fish. Morning fish seining in ocean, then go to stream and do water testing.

March 16 day 5, 6:30 am: move on to bird netting in the mountains behind the camp. Catch four different species, only take measurements on three.

March 17 day 6, 6:30 am: drive to a forested area and set up live mammal traps. Catch three mice and no big mammals. At 9:30 pm we set up mist nets for catching bats, catch eight different species some not before seen in this area.

March 18 day 7, 6:30 am: continue rotations with the reptiles. Walk to cemetery to catch small lizards and then moved to meadow to catch frogs in the stream.

March 19 day 8, 8:00 am: break down camp and go on Crocodile River boat ride. Swim in spring of river see giant turtle amongst huge catfish. Have a Closing ceremony and goodbyes to the Hispanic students. Start journey to Real de Catorce.

March 20 day 9, around 9:00 am we roll into Real de Catorce to discover that it is a week of celebration and everyone is in town. We had a hard time finding a parking spot much less a hotel to stay in.

March 21 day 10, at 8:30 am we wake up and pack the vans with our gear and get any last minute shopping done. This town is a great place to find shops specializing in local art forms. We leave town and head for the U.S. border.

March 22 day 11, we drive all day toward Nuevo Laredo, but don’t reach it until early the next morning.

March 23 day 12, at 2:00 am we say our goodbyes to the Mississippi group and head back to Ardmore. 6:00 am we get to the Prairie Kitchen and eat breakfast. Then say goodbye to the Kansas group then head finally to Tishomingo.

Journal entry March 14, 2005
We drive through the city of Guadalajara and get in traffic jam because of a parade with thousands of horses and people just pulled up and parked their vehicles in the middle of the street to watch the horses go by. We missed the President of Mexico, President Fox by only fifteen minutes which would’ve been a great person to see. We thought we were going to be there at least four hours but it was only about forty- five minutes until the parade passed by. The parade evidently was called the parade of ten thousand horses and I believe that it lived up to that name.

Journal entry March 14, 2005 continued
We finally make it to the beach near San Blas. As we descend the mountains we run into the only rain cloud we have seen and it is raining on the sand we are suppose to set up camp on.

Journal entry March 17, 2005
My group went out early in the morning and set up live traps to catch small mammals in. My group as a total caught seventy-six mice and three opossums. That night around nine we went to a different location and set up mist nets to catch bats in. We altogether caught fourteen bats and had eight different species which had six of them had not been recorded in this area before.

Journal entry March 18, 2005
My animal research group went out to gather reptiles to take measurements on and ended up in an old cemetery where we found several small lizards to capture. After that we ended up walking down a small dirt road and in the tall trees I spotted an iguana and we captured it, using a noose on a long pole. The pole wasn’t long enough to get the lizard twenty feet in the air so one of the Hispanic students in my group decided to climb the tree to retrieve it.

Even though it seems like a lot of work and that there isn’t much personal time I still had time to go into the closest town a couple of nights and do some shopping. This class and trip also incorporates the culture as well as the ecology of Mexico into a fun and exciting learning experience. This year was my second time to go to mexico and I still saw plus experienced several things that I missed the first time around. This trip is also a great place to meet new people and make friendships that can last a lifetime. I know I have new friends from around the United States and some even from Mexico. If you would like to have a Mexico experience like no other than you can contact Mr. Bruce G. Stewart through the Murray State College webpage and he will take you on one great trip.

Jason Bement - Spring 2005