Mireya Mayor - Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey From NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer

PINK BOOTS AND A MACHETE

PINK BOOTS AND A MACHETE

My Journey From NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer

Mireya Mayor

Foreword by Jane Goodall

Published by the National Geographic Society
Copyright 2011 Mireya Mayor. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited.

ISBN: 978-1-4262-0742-6

All photos courtesy of the author.

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Human dedication

To my mother and grandmother, for always encouraging me to dream. To my loving husband and soul mate, Roland, for being an endless source of love and support. And to my daughters, Emma and Ava, for inspiring me to leave a better world behind.

Nonhuman dedication

To all the furry, slithery, slimy, scaly, and feathered creatures I have had the honor of encountering in the wild. You have filled my untamed life with purpose and adventure.

Contents

Foreword

Dr. Mireya Mayor reminds me a little of myself. Like me, she loved being with animals when she was a child. Like me she imagined herself trekking into far off jungles. And like me she followed her dream until it became reality.

As a small girl growing up in England I spent hours alone up my most special beech tree in our garden, getting close to the birds; reading about Tarzan of the Apes; and daydreaming how I would grow up, go to Africa, live with animals, and write books about them. In those days girls did not have such adventurous opportunitieseveryone laughed at me. Anyway, we had little money, Africa was far away, no tourists flew back and forth, and World War II was raging. So I studied the insects and birds in our garden and walked with my beloved dog, Rusty, on the cliffs rising up from the beach.

Mireya also began her career in her backyard, in Little Havana. She too spent hours in her special treehers was a mango. She watched lizards, she kept a variety of insects and other creatures in her house, she cared for stray dogs. She and I both made observations on chickens. We both had strong mothers and grandmothers. And we both owe a great deal to the National Geographic Society, which helped us to achieve our goals.

My dream led me to Africa to observe wild chimpanzees; Mireyas led her to the rain forests of Latin America, Central Africa, Madagascar, and various other exotic locations, including into the depths of the ocean. We both ended up as primatologists with Ph.D.s. I discovered that among other unexpected skills, chimpanzees have the ability to use and make tools. Mireya discovered a species of mouse lemur new to scienceand persuaded the prime minister in Madagascar to create a national park to ensure its protection. Indeed, we are both passionate about conservation of the wild places where we love to be.

But whereas I stayed in the same place with my chimpanzees for years, Mireya is a true adventurer whose concern for a number of critically endangered animals has led her to explore some of the most remote places left on the planet. These journeys exposed her, time and again, to very real dangers, from charging gorillas and great white sharks to sinister bacteria that invaded her body in a place far from any hospital.

Pink Boots and a Machete is a wonderful read, spiced with descriptions of the lighter, more humorous aspects of a life spent in wild, unconventional places. But it also details the very serious side of Mireyas research. Indeed, throughout the book, Mireya the scientist is very much present. I have had the opportunity to meet many researchers and conservationists, and some of them stand out. Mireya Mayor is one of them.

Not only does this extraordinary woman have the courage and fortitude for the explorations she undertakes but she has the intellectual curiosity to answer questions previously unanswered. And she has the kind of imagination and sense of wonder that leads her to ask the right kind of questions.

Mireya understands the importance of spreading her conservation message, and she frequently speaks at colleges and universities, inspiring young people, especially women, to follow their dreams no matter how impossible it may seem to do so. She is the living embodiment of someone who did just that and who is still, vividly and enthusiastically, living and loving her childhood dream.

Jane Goodall Ph.D., DBE
Founder, Jane Goodall Institute
and UN Messenger of Peace
www.janegoodall.org

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all who devote their lives to nature, inspiring others to marvel at its beauty, revel in its wonder, and protect its existence.

There are many critically endangered animals that need your help. If you have any questions or would like to sponsor an animal or make a donation that will help protect some of these endangered animals and places, please email me at mireya@mireyamayor.com.

You can follow updates for my upcoming shows and track my adventures at www.mireyamayor.com.

To help orphan chimpanzees, please visit the Jane Goodall Institute at www.janegoodall.org.

There are many people whose love, talent, and support made this book possiblefar more than I have space to include here. Thank you all of youyou know who you are.

My beautiful daughters, Emma and Ava, whose mere presence could make me smile during the most frustrating of times, inspired me and motivated me to want to make the world a better place, even before they were born.

Thanks to the three most influential women and people in my life, my mothermy grandmother, and my auntwhose patience, support, and unconditional love carried me through the best and most trying times:

• Mami, thank you for always encouraging me to follow my dreams and for enabling my animal habit. I could never thank you enough for believing in me and for encouraging me to pursue the unimaginable with or without fear.
• Mima, your strength and resolve gave me my own strength to attempt the seemingly unimaginable.
• Tia Ica, thank you for paying for my braces when I was a kid, so that monkeys wouldnt now laugh at my teeth, and giving critics less ammunition.

Special thanks to Emilio, my cousin, who is like a brother, for being the man of the house, and for all the beautiful letters he wrote while we were oceans apart.