04 July 2012

16.

This morning the students and staff went to survey (by transect) the areas between Cangahua and the Hacienda/Lab. My group was assigned to 16 degrees(???) and we headed north from our dropoff point.

The hike lasted about six hours. Around five hours in, the cliff dropped off sharply and we had to descend more slowly. The incine was approximately 70 degrees in some parts, and the ground was poor for walking.

Later in the day, we arrived home in Cangahua and had dinner. After filling up on food, I took a shower - the first since Sunday. On the way to the shower, Sam stopped me and told me that I was getting a C in his Anthropology 2A class because he didn’t have my final paper. I told him I sent it to him, and he said he would re-check, but it was still disconcerting.

When I got back from the shower, the laptop would not boot. It appears that the boot drive is corrupted, and there does not appear to be any way to fix it here in Ecuador, and certainly not in Cangahua. I’m going to give it a day or two - maybe some time will resolve the issue (magically) - before admitting that the laptop is dead.

I need to come up with a way to save photos from my camera in the meantime. Carrying a laptop which doesn’t work will also be a major burden. I would like this issue resolved immediately.

I’m upset that my work from this trip is gone, particularly since I was excited to work with Vanessa on cluster analysis. I feel rather useless, given my plans, without my laptop. I need to fix that.

Tomorrow we’ll be hiking in Quitoloma, so I should plan on being ready for that tomorrow.

Maybe my laptop dying is not so bad. I’ve said I wanted a reason to justify getting a Macbook Pro with Retina Display, and this is as good a reason as any to get one.

Still, this feeling of uselessness sucks.

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