my boss proved to continue his streak of leaving me in the dark. he specifically told me that we should go to El Tabo, which is an hour and a half outside of Santiago on the coast, THIS friday (today) to go to meet with the municipality and visit the wetland. well, i emailed him yesterday to confirm our appointment and he informed me that he could no longer accompany me.
alas, i took the early morning bus journey alone. but in all honesty, i was too tired to force a conversation in a car with my boss anyway, so this was probably for the best. except he would have been a huge asset to have at the actual meeting i had with the director of the lagoon who works for CONAF (Conservación Nacional Forestal = National Forest Conservation), because i only understood about 50% of what he was saying to me.
we walked around the lagoon (through mud and weeds, good thing i wore my hiking boots!) and the guy from CONAF told me all about the soil and birds and i frantically tried to take notes. i also tried recording the conversation but my recorder ran out of space..fail.
it's okay though because i still learned a lot! the CONAF guy was really nice, took me out to lunch, and then drove me back to the bus terminal at the end of the day.
this lagoon is súper contaminated. we found 5 dead birds that most likely died due to starvation - because the water doesn't have enough oxygen to sustain life (crustaceans, etc) that are vital food sources for many bird species
my job: identify all possible sources of contamination and propose a management plan to avoid contamination in the future! wish me luck.
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