Andy Snider, Fresno Chaffee Zoo's director of animal care and conservation, is in Armenia to tag and track Armenian vipers. Snider is a nationally known expert on reptiles and amphibians. Snider is in Armenia until Sept. 10 and is sharing his experiences with readers of The Bee.

Part 4, 30 August 2008

Yesterday was rather boring overall -- no viper tracking, no visiting the city, nothing. Everyone is so worried about not having gasoline for their vehicles that only absolutely necessary travel is occuring at the moment. We usually do the viper tracking every other day, so that wasn't going to happen anyway.

Around 8 p.m., Levon picked us up to go to a restaurant for dinner. Since it's only a couple miles away, that wasn't a problem for the "petrol." I can't recall eating at a restaurant like this one while in the U.S. -- each group has a private room, and all the food is brought in family-style. The food, and the company, was exceptional -- cucumber/tomato salad, lavash, pork, mutton, chicken, potatoes, beef, etc, and lots of herbs. A bowl of herbs on the table is a staple here, and it's something that I even started to do in the US a great deal. Fresh herbs are incredible. And then there's the ubiquitous beer and vodka....

Today we went back to Abovyan to track the vipers. We're getting good at finding them more easily by car, making it much easier to travel the several miles between specimens. We found all 9 of them within about 2½ hours, had a bite to eat out of the back of the car, and went home.

The two gas stations that were open (and VERY busy!) the day before yesterday had no one at them today, indicating that even those two are now out of petrol.

I've forgotten to mention in past blogs about the temperature here -- It's typically in the mid-to-upper 80s during the day and very sunny, while at night it appears to dip into the 70s. The humidity typically ranges between 30% and 40%. Since the flat has no air-conditioning, we have fans running full blast while we're home. Can be a bit sticky, but no problem for the intrepid viper hunters! :-)

Family means everything here. It seems that most children live with their parents until they get married, and it's extremely heartening to see how close-knit everyone is. Aram's family is incredibly close, and it's obvious that Jeff and I have become "family" to them as well, having been coming here for so long now.

These people would give you the shirts off their backs and not think twice about it. I think we have a mutual admiration society -- I consider them "family" as well, and I know Jeff is even more a part of their family. Matt, the zookeeper from St. Louis who accompanied us on this trip, has made quite an impact on them -- he even shaved his face last night because Levon told him he would be more "beautiful" with no facial hair! Facial hair isn't common here, so now Matt fits right in. :-)