Pink Boots and A Machete: My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer

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Getting through this novel was tedious at times simply due to how annoying the author was, but her explorations and adventures somewhat speak for themselves.

Mayor has a theory about gorilla social hierarchy that is somewhat unorthodox, based on past scientific observation: "... the prevailing thought has been that female gorillas are, without question, the weaker sex, forced to play by the rules. At least, that is what researchers had been reporting for decades, However, most of those researchers were male." Mayor posits that perhaps it is the females who actually have the power. Why would this not have merit? After all, how many researchers have defaulted to a male perspective without noticing, even the women? (I am referring here to the stereotypical male perspective, as I believe gender to be more of a spectrum.) But some of her fans might be surprised by what Mayor was up to before she trekked around remote regions of the world. There was some getting used to it," Mayor says. "But in a very strange way, I did feel very comfortable in that element. Probably as comfortable as I felt in the city." Of course, books like Bonobo Handshake and Pink Boots and a Machete aren't really like The Jungle Book at all, and that's a good thing. Not only do they contain a strong narrative and interesting characters, but science is central in these books (sometimes, science is even a character itself, in some ways).On a related note, did you know that cheerleaders have their own competitions where contestants are judged based on various attributes, such as dancing, stunting, tumbling, etc.? Well, the life of a cheerleader isn’t as easy as you think. The One Where the Male Cheerleader Looks like He Is Focussing at the Wrong Place or the Wrong Bodypart One of her most memorable trips was to Madagascar, where she and a colleague were studying lemurs. They set small mammal traps in the jungle to study the other wildlife in the area. In an age of tell-alls and TMZ, Mayor shows remarkable restraint in what she chooses to reveal about her personal life. I loved that, too. I loved the simple and limited way she describes meeting and falling in love with her husband (as well as what she tells, which isn't much, about the circumstances of their meeting and their romance). She went on her first expedition, funded by National Geographic, shortly after that, and started graduate school in anthropology. Since then, she's been nominated for Emmy Awards (twice), become a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, starred in two TV shows ("Wild Nights with Mireya Mayor," and History Channel’s "Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone"), and become a Fulbright Scholar and a National Science Foundation Fellow. Along the way, she's conducted and published a ton of peer-reviewed research, and discovered and formally described the smallest primate species currently known, the mouse lemur Microcebus mittermeieri.

Many of the scientists and animal species mentioned in the book are familiar to me, although the fossa, a cat-like carnivore related to the mongoose family was a new one...it is such an odd looking creature with similarities to a cat, but with a long lean body.Pink Boots and a Machete is the story of Mireya Mayor, a "girly-girl" and yet also a "tom-boy" who was raised by three Cuban women in Miami. She was just as interested in things like fashion and make-up as she was chasing animals and collecting bugs and wading through creeks. The story is essentially an autobiography written in a very casual "bloggy" sort of way, with an often subtle dose of good humor. She invites the reader along for the ride as we follow her metamorphosis from from Cuban girl in Miami to National Geographic Explorer, with a stops along the way as an NFL cheerleader for the Miami Dolphins and a TV star. She presents herself as both an expert and as a "regular person," something that is very hard to do. There's no jargon here, and no pretense. The Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad is one of the oldest as well as one of the most popular in the world. The squad debuted in 1960 and has appeared on several TV shows since then. In this picture, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader in the frame looks both surprised as well as happy — she is certainly enjoying the attention she is getting but she shouldn’t be so happy considering the team she is cheerleading for has just had a mishap. This picture also proves that cheerleading is not always a fun sport, sometimes it can turn dangerous too. Thankfully, this cheerleader here is okay but her reaction is certainly funny. Great Abs but That Cheerleading Face Needs Some Work