I have been temporarily smote by the research gods. Saturday, I was triumphant, finaegling (sp?) my way into an illegal meat market where Yasuní´s finest exemplars of biodiversity are chopped up for to satisfy the culinary desires of tourists. Unfortunately, however, some sort of weird food-karma came back to bite me, as I am currently surviving (barely) a bout of food sickness. Worse still, as a result my options for food here in Coca have gone from 1) plate of rice or 2) bowl of fruit to 1) plate of rice.

While I´m complaining, I should add that – inexplicably – I returned from the field Saturday to find that my laptop will not turn on. I went to Coca´s extremely high tech computer repair shop, where the engineer told me – if I understood correctly -¨”this shit is broken.” So, don´t be expecting too many updates in the near future: it´s time for anthropology old-school – field notes with pen and paper.

Cosmically, though, things are still going well. I am trying to take a page out of Latin America´s book: here, when your bus breaks down, you get out and walk. Strangely, things still seem to be moving forward. In two weeks, a rescue party in the form of my father is arriving, and I am, after all, still in the Amazon.