Upcoming (25 Aug, '09)

A few weeks back a Botanist in French Guiana dropped me a line to gauge my interested in climbing for a two-week project there. It's such a pain in the ass to get to FG that I wasn't sure two weeks in the field was worth it. I checked around for other gigs that would extend my stay and the proposed two weeks quickly morphed into a three-month contract as a Field-tech. (If any one knows what a Field-tech does, please let me know).

Last Wednesday, funding for my position was confirmed so Thursday I packed and Friday I moved back to NYC.

The plan; Head to Paris in two weeks, fart around for a couple of days and then catch a flight to FG. If you think going through Europe to get to South America is insane, it's only because you haven't tried it the other way; NY-Miami-Haiti-(sometimes St. Martin)-Guadeloupe-Martinique-Cayenne. I've been pat down quite enough in the darkness of the Haiti airport.

As usual I failed to ask a few key questions. These include, "what will I be doing?" and "Where will we be?" As details of the project emerge, I've learned that I won't be at the research station where I was posted most recently (a bit sad about that). Instead, I'll be in staff housing on a college campus in Kourou - a coastal city that houses Europe's premier aerospace center. I've heard that the new Arienne V rocket turns night into day and rattles the Earth hard enough to intimidate Greek Gods.


The team will range from 7-12 people and will include a couple folks from the US, some Frenchies and a pair of Peruvians (one named Elvis). Particularly interesting to me is a French pro-climber. He has spent a lot of time in FG and from what I hear he is expert at moving from one tree to the next without coming down. He uses a technique known as a tyrolean traverse which is...something I know absolutely nothing about. Scores of times aloft I've wondered, "Shit, what would a professional do here?!" Hopefully, Salim will be able to shed some light on that.



We'll take day, overnight and extended trips to various sites, working each site for two weeks. The sites are all over FG, a few seeming to be in the interior. That's almost guaranteed to mean fun forms of transport including pirogues and helicopters.