Hi everybody, welcome to our blog! Here we will share adventures of our trip to Colombia. As part of a Future Deltas (https://www.uu.nl/en/futuredeltas) seed money project we will collect pilot data on mangrove dynamics in the Magdalena River delta, which is located on the sunny (and hot!) Caribbean coast.
This delta hosts extensive mangrove forests, but over recent decades the mangroves are under increasing pressure resulting in large-scale degradation. We will collect sediment cores from two key locations in the delta so that we can study mangrove ecosystem functioning.
So this weekend we flew to Cartagena and then drove to Barranquilla. Taking all the coring equipment was our biggest worry, but at Schiphol it actually allowed us to skip the queue! Having odd-sized luggage apparently can be an advantage.. At Cartagena airport we were happy to see all our pieces of luggage again and going through customs also went smoothly. So it all worked out.
So this weekend we flew to Cartagena and then drove to Barranquilla. Taking all the coring equipment was our biggest worry, but at Schiphol it actually allowed us to skip the queue! Having odd-sized luggage apparently can be an advantage.. At Cartagena airport we were happy to see all our pieces of luggage again and going through customs also went smoothly. So it all worked out.
Tomorrow we will start bright and early! At 6 am we will meet the students and teachers from Colegio San Jose (http://colsanjose.edu.co/), our local partners in crime. They will be taking part in various aspects of the field and lab work. It is going to be cool to work with 15 and 16 yr old students. Juma, the director of the school, is really interested in getting students involved in scientific research. First we will be working in the mangroves of a degraded lagoon in the delta, very close to the school. It will also be the first time we will have a professional cameraman joining us in the field. Let’s hope the mosquitos will keep a low profile, but there are no guarantees.. We will post stories on this tomorrow.