What's the buzz?

I haven't posted for awhile, so this is a long one. Prepare yourself.
S'Lugar (roughly transated: "the place" was pretty happening last night, as Caroline said. I feel like a woman of the world, as we negotiated our way into a taxi, over to town, and to "the place" mostly in Spanish (and gestures...lots of gestures.) Great success! My basic Spanish from early in college is coming back, but not fast enough...
Today we chased shiny pretty bees all around the secondary forest, a tiring expedition taking place up hills and down hills and over the river and through the woods. But all the planning, pain, and odd smelss paid off: I caught a bright blue one! I am a mighty bee hunter. Turns out, it's hard to turn off the flight-or-fight response handling stingless bees when you're holding a buzzing bundle of joy in your sweaty hands and trying not to scream like a girl. Over all, Euglossa turned out to be tricky ones to attract; we mostly found these huge yellow-and-black-striped Eulema bumblers.
Another highlight: i got to talk shop with a visiting professor from UNL studying tropical bacteriophage nematodes. Unlike temperate nematodes, which are microscopic worm-like creatures that thrive in subsoil roots, these ones live high in the forest canopy. They might be deposited there by other insects. Or may be deposited by other things. It's one of those great unsolved natural mysteries. So cool...It almost makes me want to go to grad school. Almost.