June 3rd, 2009
Today Daniela and I were responsible for surveying one cluster and one singular point in the northern part of the park as well as locating a bear cub using radio telemetry to see if he was still with his mother. The hike was not bad since the majority of it required us walking on a designated road instead of weaving in and out of beech trees. We did not find anything at our two survey site, however, and quickly started driving around trying to locate the bear cub.
We drove about an hour through a northern part of Abruzzo that I had never been to before. It was cool to see some new towns but I feel asleep for part of the trip since I was really tired. Locating the cub required us to find four spots where the radio telemetry signals were strong, noting the exact GPS coordinates for those points on our map of the park, and then drawing lines on the map showing where the GPS coordinates intersected. I did not really understand the process completely, but I think I got the general idea. Unfortunately, we were not able to physically see the bear during this process as Daniela had expected we would. I am not quite sure the Marscian brown bear truly exists!
After we finished the radio telemetry around 1:30pm we drove around to the surrounding towns looking for an open pizza parlor or sandwich shop. Nothing was open which really surprised us since we thought it would still be considered lunchtime. I must say one of the most annoying things about Italy is that you never know when a store will be open. Its “typical hours” are more like guidelines since all the shops in Abruzzo are small and family owned, allowing the owner to not open the store whenever he/she pleases. Coming from America, the land of the 24 hour grocery store, this has taken some getting used to.
After driving around and being unsuccessful for about 20 minutes we decided to just drive back to Pescasseroli and eat at the pizza shop in town. That afternoon Daniela and I both did some house cleaning as well as some relaxing. I cannot remember what dinner consisted of, but I doubt it was anything but tasty.
2 years ago