Bookworms: (2011) Pink Boots & a Machete by Dr. Mireya Mayor
Posted By Shanna Horan on August 14, 2013
If you’ve ever thought about getting lost in a jungle, chasing animals and traveling rough terrain on your own rugged and heroic journey, Pink Boots and a Machete is the book for you. Dr. Mireya Mayor shares her story as a unique field researcher who has traveled to remote areas of countries in Africa and South America. Pink Boots and a Machete brings to life setting and missions similar to those of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, truly scientifically geektastic, inspiring and adventurous.
I have never been a great reader of biographies but when my husband, who knows my passion for adventures, showed me Dr. Mireya Mayor’s book, I fell in love with it from the cover to the photos and conversational storytelling inside. Pink Boots covers her whole lifein one book, so inevitably details are missed and some stories are not as long as I would have liked. However, I learned from reading this that this science nerd author, who loves her glam and fashion, has had many adventures chronicled by National Geographic, so someone like me who gets caught up in things can always find videos of her tales for further illustration.
From a child who was encouraged to be girly, but never repressed in her adventurous spirit or knack for cataloging bugs and creatures, Mayor explains how she became an NFL cheerleader in Miami and worked her way to becoming a field researcher with a doctorate. While she may mention along the way, how cheerleading influenced her later choices or how her girly side influenced her not always practical packing choices, these points to me made Dr. Mayor more realistic and relatable because whom among us would indeed be prepared to head out on a grant to complete field research for the first time.
Dr. Mireya Mayor’s story is inspiring not only for her struggle and triumph as a woman in a male dominated discipline, both in school and in the field, but also as someone who absolutely loves what they do, regardless of how geeky and unexpected it may be, and refuses to give up on reaching her goals both immediate and long term. In a world of celebrities and too few strong female role models, Dr. Mayor proves that you can be who you are and still follow your dreams.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/mireya-mayor/
I loved learning about Dr. Mayor’s growth in experience and knowledge through her travels as well as the opportunity to witness a snapshot of the day-to-day of being a field researcher studying lemurs and many other animals. From her boisterous and unique interactions with villagers to her reverant observations of the world’s smallest known primate, the mouse lemur, and other fascinating animals, Dr. Mireya Mayor proves that pink bootsmay not stay pink in the jungle, but it’s the spirit behind both the trail and the boots that make an adventure.
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