I guess that is how they do it here....

These are words repeated multiple times by Greg as we learn to drive in a different culture and three different countries.  Driving here would inspire road rage in the calmest of drivers in the United States.  Two lane roads become three and even four when needed.  Cars without tail lights and bikes rigged up with baskets big enough to carry fish to market. 

Our team has grown with the coming of my brother Mark and fun memories are intertwined with strategic planning. Because the Honduras forest is so hard to reach, we will be living in a research cabin in the Parque Nacional Montecristo in El Salvador and hiking over the mountain until we reach Honduras.  Mark brings new expertise to the team and will help so much!

We spoiled him, perhaps a little too much--we have been boogie boarding on the Costa del Sol beach for this weekend and talking about the grueling hikes to come while drinking coconut water straight from the coconut.  If only all my PhD work could be so enjoyable!

We are enjoying fresh fruit.  Greg even cut down his own banana tree for an entire bunch of bananas.  The banana tree grows to maturity in about 5 to 7 months and I believe each tree only has one flower at a time which is where the large bunch of bananas originates.  To harvest the bunch, a machete chop at the base of the tree sends it falling where you find your bananas in the rubble.  The tree then sprouts from the base again and in a few more months you have more bananas.

Here is a look at the forest from the Guatemala side looking across onto the Honduras side where we'll be studying.