Yes it was a week ago. That's when I got back, after 18 days on Turtle Island, my longest trip yet, in probably the harshest weather I've experienced in Taiwan so far. But that makes it sound bad. It isn't so bad. Just windy. And surprisingly cold. Constantly. Taiwan doesn't have heaters, especially not in a coast guard barracks.
So why so long this time? I did say 12 days, didn't I. Well, a funny thing happened. I forgot the radio signal receiver, probably the one most necessary thing to do my job. So I had to stay an extra week to collect the data I didn't get the first week, and I spent the first week picking plants. My boss told me to make a field checklist to use before going into the field from now on. Guess what's number 1.
It wasn't bad though, although a little lonely at times. We had to move into the coast guard barracks because the visitor center was boarded up for the winter (so no internet) and I got to get to know a couple of the soldiers. I also am on better terms with the dogs, mostly because I feed them cookies. They love cookies. One old grandmother dog decided to make me her master the last few days and follow me everywhere. It was actually kind of nice to have a companion to come with me when I went hiking in the woods with my yagi antenna. One day I had to climb through the thick underbrush of a steep slope where I had stupidly dropped a book (of all things to carry and lose in the field, a book?) the day before, and she and her two grandsons came with me. They were just the right height to fit under the giant elephant ear plants and tangled bamboo vines, so they raced around like mad in the brush around me, occasionally coming to sit nearby, panting, grinning, and watching me struggle through the tangle of foliage. They were really happy about running around in the forest. I think they were bred to be hunting dogs, in England, long ago, for a man in breeches and a red coat, to root out ducks or something. I think I fulfilled their purpose, or something vaguely like it.
A clearing of elephant's ears
Jolly good show, dogs. Jolly good.
The last day scared me a little. The boat only comes every 6 days in the winter, and this trip brought the maximum number of people, 17 total, including repairmen to fix the cell phone tower on the island, repairmen to fix the internet in the control tower, some random coast guard-soldiers in orange jumpsuits that looked like they were still in high school who just stood around, and the captain's friends who just came to take pictures and hang out in a gazebo about a hundred feet away from the dock. One of the coast guard told me I couldn't get on because the boat was too full, at the max of 17 including the captain, a rule that is strictly upheld in the winter. Well eff that. I'd like to say I fought my way on, but I just got on. Nobody cared. That guy was just being a dick. Eighteen days is enough. I wanted to get home. For Christmas.
So I'm back. Until Jan. 6, at least.
