The Scale from Hell

Friday, August 17^th

The scale we have for measuring the hatchlings is completely broken, so I asked Miriam earlier if it could be fixed or replaced. Unfortunately, they have a lot on their plate when it comes it the mangrove situation down here, so they haven’t been able to find a scale. I wanted to make sure we had one for the nests coming up, so that the data is complete. Alice took me to Chiquimulilla to find the scale because there are a lot of veterinary shops in town. It is about a 2 hour commute. You take a mini-bus to Monterrico, take a thirty minute ferry ride, get on a chicken bus to Taxisco, then finally a chicken bus to Chiqi. It sounds complicated, but once you’ve done it, it is pretty easy.

The first store we looked in usually has scales tiny enough for hatchlings, but they were out of them and said they wouldn’t get more for about 3 weeks. I did get some new vernier calipers for the parque though because the numbers on the old ones had worn off. We looked in every other veterinary store, hardware store, and pharmacy trying to find a scale with no luck. It was extremely frustrating. The last store we looked in had an electric scale and I was super excited. It was quite expensive, so I decided to buy it and donate it to the parque. I was so happy to have found it! While in Chiqi, I was also able to do some grocery shopping (aka buy cheese products) and get a soda and some ice cream.

When we arrived in Monterrico, we got some doublatas and a ride home from one of Alice’s friends. It was a nice trip and I really liked Chiqi. Later at the parque, I tried out the new scale right away. It turns out that the woman in the hardware store gave us incorrect information. She said that it was more accurate than to the gram, but it actually only measured to the gram. The hatchlings are so small that the scale needs to measure at least to .1g if not .01g. After all that work looking for it, I was pretty upset. I want to gather as accurate of data as possible and this scale won’t get it done unfortunately.

I spent the rest of the day learning how to use vernier calipers. Once you figure out how to use them it’s easy, but at first it was pretty confusing. Luckily, Alice sent me a link with instructions. Overall, the day was pretty up and down and I’m still disappointed about the scale. However, it is better than having no scale.