When presented with the opportunity to travel to Ecuador, I didn’t think twice. In my mind, I was already there.
Jay can attest to the fact that I’m a tad more impulsive when it comes to decision-making. However, this felt more like destiny than a decision. Which fine, I’ll admit it, many of my travel decisions fall under this category.
This particular opportunity was made possible by a woman, whom I admire dearly.
Meet Keeley. She is a researcher and Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University in the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She travels to Ecuador each field season to study stream invertebrates and that’s the main reason I’m here. I will be Keeley’s field assistant over the course of the next 2 weeks. How and why this opportunity came about was really just an evolution of conversations that we had throughout this past year.
Needless to say, I have ZERO field research experience (or scientific background for that matter) but I’m here to learn, document and help in any way that I can. Plus, Keeley seems to think I’d be good at it so that’s reassuring.
Plus, I get a sweet name badge with a sweet title. That’s right folks, I’m an Excretion Expert!
I’m excited to see what the next few weeks bring and look forward to experiencing Ecuadorian culture and food of course 🙂