This wonderful and frighteningly typical posting for field assistants in Nicaragua came through the ECOLOG mailing list today: Field Research Assistant needed.

Conditions are rustic, and include both hot and cold weather, lots of rain, ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, biting flies, snakes, the occasional wild cat, and no electricity or running water. Field work will include strenuous hiking, often off trail, clearing land with a machete, and long 10-12 hr days. A positive attitude and the ability to cope with tough and exhausting conditions is a must. Applicants must be able to work independently with a high level of responsibility. The reserve is located 2hrs by bus from the city of Esteli, with access to hospital, telephone, fax, and internet services, as well as various forms of entertainment.

“A positive attitude and the ability to cope with tough and exhausting conditions is a must”. But my favourite part is “the city of Esteli, with access to…various forms of entertainment”.

Now I want to go to Esteli to see the various forms of entertainment.

Potential applicants be advised, you have to pay your own airfare to get there, although you at least get your rustic hut expenses paid once you arrive. In this sense this is actually a better deal than my own field biology trial by fire in the not-so-distant past. Of course, we got hot running water (most of the time). We didn’t get… various entertainment.

ps. These things aren’t necessarily as bad a deal as they look. The labour, risk and money I sank into my own field biology sucker experience has been paid back in ways myriad and prolonged, a process which apparently continues to this day…