Saturday, June 16, 2007

Mexico Plans


As many of you know, I am traveling to Mexico in a little less than a month (11 July - 20 July). I am working out the finer details of my trip and it looks like it will be a really great time.

The purpose of the trip is to attend the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) 2007 international conference and present my research. I was invited to give a 20-minute talk in a symposium focusing on neotropical palm seed dispersal and predation. The title of my talk is “Differential handling of palm seeds by agoutis and peccaries has contrasting effects on seed fates.” I will be spending 4 days in Mexico City and I plan to go to museums, eat good food (tacos!), and visit the sites. I will definitely go to the anthropology museum, zocalo, templo mayor, and Teotihuacan as a day-trip from the city.

On the 14th I will travel to the city of Morelia (4 hours west of Mexico City) by bus and get ready for the start of the ATBC conference on the 15th. I have already looked over the conference program and there will be lots of great talks presented by some big names in tropical biology. Nerd paradise! I am also happy because a TON of people from my university will be there and I can catch up with some people that I haven’t seen for a while. Unfortunately, Carlos isn’t able to go this year because of the usual visa complications that all Colombians have when traveling. Despite that, I will have a great time exploring Mexico and meeting up with fellow bio friends. I am putting together my talk now and analyzing all my data. I can’t believe that I have only 3 weeks until the trip! I will post more updates of my plans as I get everything organized. If anyone has suggestions for what to see, let me know~

PS. The picture for this post is in my presentation-- an agouti hoarding a seed. Woo-hoo!

1 comment:

Adventurous Twenty-Something said...

I really wish I hadn't already packed my mexico scrapbook but lucky for you it will be unpacked before you leave so I'll have some more info for you. But you should definitely plan to climb to the roof of the church in the zocolo, the best thing I did in Mexico City, and make sure if you buy anything at Teotihuacan you haggle like the best of them.