I just got back from the most awesome camping trip yet. We went to Loreto National Park, which is a protected island system on the Gulf of California. It's protected against commercial fishing but still allows artisanal (small scale) and sport fishing. It's about 3 hours north of Puerto San Carlos, and on the opposite side of the Baja peninsula.
The first day, Wednesday, we packed up early and drove for a few hours until we got into the main town of Loreto. There a couple of different towns encompassed in the park, but Loreto is the largest. It's a fairly pretty town with the main road running parallel to the coast. It's touristy, but not as bad as some of the places we've seen. We stopped at a government office and had a mini-lecture from CONANP, National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (which by the way, has the coolest logo). They went over the creation of the Loreto, what the park offers, and what the rules of the park are. Then we had less than an hour off to get lunch in Loreto before we had another lecture. We ran around looking for a place to eat and by the time we found one, we had 30 minutes to eat. Ended up getting fajitas, which were amazing, but had about 10 minutes to finish them and pay. We had to practically run to the next meeting place. The lecture we had there was with Eco-Alianza de Loreto (http://www.ecoalianzaloreto.org/ in English) where we met the director, Laura Escobosa, who is a friend of Vero's. Vero had asked her to tell us about how she came to be director and how her career goals changed. She started out wanting to do strict, hard science but started to get more into community involvement and eventually got her master's in natural resource management at UC San Diego. While at UCSD a couple approached her and asked her to help them set up an environmental NGO (non-governmental organization) in Loreto. Now Eco-Alianza does a lot of outreach in different areas. They do education both of students in the area and of tourists/visitors. They also helped reassess the management plan for the entire Bay. To do that they had to work with different stakeholders: fishermen, tourist companies, the local government, etc. Apparently it's the first time a management plan has been truly reassessed (instead of a government agency just handing down new rules) in Mexico.
After Laura's talk, we drove another hour to our campsite, which was absolutely beautiful. We were on a sand point with part of the bay all around us and an island just across a sandbar. The first day was really windy though and we had a rough time getting our tent down at first. Luckily my roommate Jenna's Miss Outdoors and handled the situation. The next day we got up early and had breakfast, then got ready to snorkel around the island. We could wade all the way out to the one side point of the island, then put on our masks and fins. Eduardo had us do a short check to see what types of fish we could see, then we split into teams and did abundance transects for those fish. One person would hold the end of the transect line, two would count fish on either side of it, and one person would swim along and record bottom conditions. We counted the Cortez Sargeant Major fish. We also saw a ton of Cortez Damselfish and the best were the Cortez Angelfish which were fairly large-from top to bottom probably the size of a dinner plate. We also saw a bunch of sting rays and sea bass. It was definitely the most fun snorkeling I've had-much more interesting than looking for scallops. On the way back into camp I snorkeled for most of the way, despite being in a good wading depth. I figured that this way I wouldn't have to look out for stingrays and might see something cool. And I did! I saw a seahorse, and fairly large too, like 6 in flattened out! He was bright orange and holding onto a piece of seagrass. At first I thought he was dead, but I waved my fingers near him and he moved. He tried to flatten himself out, maybe to look like a snake? Anyway, I was super happy to see him, and kicking myself that I hadn't gotten the underwater camera back from Dylan (who got some awesome fish pictures).
After snorkeling we had some time off and one group went to a nearby town, Mision, to check out an old Franciscan Mission and the little town. The mission was sparse but pretty and I bought a skirt in Mision. Also got an awesome popsicle from an ice cream store.
The next day (Friday) we packed up camp and drove back in to Loreto. Then we went out to one of the large islands there for more snorkeling. Before we pulled up to the island I pointed out a dolphin pod to the boat driver, so he drove over to them. It was sooo cool! It was about 4 bottlenose dolphins and they played under our bow for a good 10 minutes. They kept turning their heads to look at us. If I had been hanging onto the side of the boat, I would have been touching them, they were just underwater. We'd seen dolphins before, but never that close. They're much bigger than I realized! We stayed with them and they played with one of the other boats, and then we left to go snorkeling on the island. We were supposed to be doing more transects but Eduardo packed the equipment at the bottom of the trailer, so we just had free time to snorkel. That was amazing, there were so many fish! There were twice as many angelfish and a lot of other cool species that I have no idea the name of. I found some rock crevasse and saw this bright blue fish, maybe 4-5in long, that had florescent blue spots along his back. And lots of large starfish and sea urchins, I got to hold a couple that Eduardo or Vero brought up (no spiny urchins though, they would hurt!). I got some pictures but unfortunately I don't think I have the right cord to upload the underwater camera's pictures. In any case I ran out of battery before I came across the really cool fish. After we had been swimming for 30-45 minutes Eduardo and Vero rounded us up and said we should get back on the boats so we could go snorkel with sea lions!! We drove around to the other side of the islands and were in the water almost before the boat stopped moving. There was a colony of maybe 20 sea lions on the rocks and calling in the water. Some of them would swim right by you-at one point I was within arms reach of one, but figured he probably wouldn't like me touching him. We swam with them for another 30-45 minutes. Again, I was surprised by how big they were-the size of a large man but in sea lion form.
After snorkeling we had two hours in Loreto, and my group got ice cream and went to this juice place that AJ recommended. It was awesome, it was set in these trees and the guy had a bunch of birds and reptiles. It was like being in a mini-jungle, and the juice was awesome. I got Megaton, which is a mix of date and coconut and tasted like Humma's nut roll in liquid form. After walking around Loreto we got back into the vans and drove out to this women's coop. It's a group of nine women who collect and sell ornamental/aquarium fish to buyers in the US. They're the only group who fish ornamental fish, and the only women's coop in Loreto. They actually hire their husbands and sons for the diving, and they do it all sustainably. Some NGOs have helped them cut out middlemen and make the business more eco-friendly, which also allows them to increase their price. It was really cool, some of those women were 50+ years old and talking about how they're the boss of their husbands.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Spring Break
Spring break was pretty awesome. It was great to get away for a couple of days and not have to worry about tests and presentations and papers.
Dylan, Jenna, Christina, Will and I rented a car in La Paz and drove about an hour SW to Todos Santos, this small tourist/surfing town on the Pacific coast. Our hotel was about 20 minutes from town, on axle-breaking dirt roads, which we had to navigate in our rental sedan. We got stuck once, on a hill with a perfectly tire-shaped hole halfway up. Luckily Christina caught it quickly enough and just let the car roll back down the hill so she could try again. The San Pedrito Surf Hotel, when we finally got to it, was absolutely beautiful. It's kind of like a collection of mini-apartments, with nice beds and full kitchens in each room. Our back door looked right out onto the beach and ocean. When we got there, there were probably only 5 other people at the hotel (which is pretty small) and maybe 50 staying at various hotels along the beach. The owner/manager Andy is a friend of AJs and is super cool.
Since Jose has been doing so much translating for my DR, I offered to do some surveys for his project, which is looking at the economics of surfing. I ended up surveying a bunch of the guys staying at the hotel, who ranged from a 28 year old who just quit his high-paying job to a 45 year old retired pro surfer. I didn't know he was a pro until I was done talking to them, and Andy came over and told me "now, you don't know who he is, but he's a legend." I then surveyed Andy for awhile and he talked to me for awhile about surfing in general and in Baja. Apparently Andy moved to Baja at around age 30, specifically to learn to surf. He said he'd never been on a surf board before, but his friend was a good surfer and Andy thought it looked like a lot of fun, so he just picked up and moved. Now he's been here for 10 years and in my opinion, lives the life. He has a couple of hours of hotel work every day, but beyond that he can just live in Baja and surf his heart out.
We did have a surfing lesson the first day, and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would! I expected to get thrown into the surf all the time and hate it, but I ended up being pretty decent. I managed to stand up on my second try and rode that wave almost all the way in. By the end I was catching waves without the instructor (Chuy)'s help. I did bite it a lot, but you could usually feel it coming and prepare yourself.
We also spent a day walking around Todos Santos, where we randomly ran into Bailey and Jose, who were kind of just wandering around Baja for break. We put their gear in our car and kept wandering for a couple hours, seeing the sights. We went back to the hotel room and were just starting to worry about Bailey and Jose getting their stuff back (around 9) when they showed up, having hitched a ride from the beach. They hung around, had dinner with us, and struck a deal with Andy to sleep on the floor for like $30.
We got up the next day and drove into Cabo for a day. I have to admit, I really didn't like Cabo. It didn't feel like Mexico, and there were definitely more Americans than Mexicans. And it was super expensive. Will and I saw a Haagen-Dasz and figured we'd get some. I thought it would be a problem when the guy brought the ice cream to our leather chairs...and then brought the bill in the same holder they use in restaurants. I spent like 109 pesos (about $10) for an ice cream cone. For reference, we stayed at San Pedrito for 3 nights and paid 362 pesos per person. But we did meet up with the other group that was staying in Cabo and had dinner and went out to the bars with them. I have to admit, the one bar was pretty cool. It was essentially a beer pong hall, with like 10 tables set up and the bartenders doubled as waiters that would supply you with cups, balls and beer.
The last day we drove all the way to La Paz, ate at an Applebee's to cure our "I need American food NOW" craving, turned the car in and rode home on SFS vans.
Dylan, Jenna, Christina, Will and I rented a car in La Paz and drove about an hour SW to Todos Santos, this small tourist/surfing town on the Pacific coast. Our hotel was about 20 minutes from town, on axle-breaking dirt roads, which we had to navigate in our rental sedan. We got stuck once, on a hill with a perfectly tire-shaped hole halfway up. Luckily Christina caught it quickly enough and just let the car roll back down the hill so she could try again. The San Pedrito Surf Hotel, when we finally got to it, was absolutely beautiful. It's kind of like a collection of mini-apartments, with nice beds and full kitchens in each room. Our back door looked right out onto the beach and ocean. When we got there, there were probably only 5 other people at the hotel (which is pretty small) and maybe 50 staying at various hotels along the beach. The owner/manager Andy is a friend of AJs and is super cool.
Since Jose has been doing so much translating for my DR, I offered to do some surveys for his project, which is looking at the economics of surfing. I ended up surveying a bunch of the guys staying at the hotel, who ranged from a 28 year old who just quit his high-paying job to a 45 year old retired pro surfer. I didn't know he was a pro until I was done talking to them, and Andy came over and told me "now, you don't know who he is, but he's a legend." I then surveyed Andy for awhile and he talked to me for awhile about surfing in general and in Baja. Apparently Andy moved to Baja at around age 30, specifically to learn to surf. He said he'd never been on a surf board before, but his friend was a good surfer and Andy thought it looked like a lot of fun, so he just picked up and moved. Now he's been here for 10 years and in my opinion, lives the life. He has a couple of hours of hotel work every day, but beyond that he can just live in Baja and surf his heart out.
We did have a surfing lesson the first day, and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would! I expected to get thrown into the surf all the time and hate it, but I ended up being pretty decent. I managed to stand up on my second try and rode that wave almost all the way in. By the end I was catching waves without the instructor (Chuy)'s help. I did bite it a lot, but you could usually feel it coming and prepare yourself.
We also spent a day walking around Todos Santos, where we randomly ran into Bailey and Jose, who were kind of just wandering around Baja for break. We put their gear in our car and kept wandering for a couple hours, seeing the sights. We went back to the hotel room and were just starting to worry about Bailey and Jose getting their stuff back (around 9) when they showed up, having hitched a ride from the beach. They hung around, had dinner with us, and struck a deal with Andy to sleep on the floor for like $30.
We got up the next day and drove into Cabo for a day. I have to admit, I really didn't like Cabo. It didn't feel like Mexico, and there were definitely more Americans than Mexicans. And it was super expensive. Will and I saw a Haagen-Dasz and figured we'd get some. I thought it would be a problem when the guy brought the ice cream to our leather chairs...and then brought the bill in the same holder they use in restaurants. I spent like 109 pesos (about $10) for an ice cream cone. For reference, we stayed at San Pedrito for 3 nights and paid 362 pesos per person. But we did meet up with the other group that was staying in Cabo and had dinner and went out to the bars with them. I have to admit, the one bar was pretty cool. It was essentially a beer pong hall, with like 10 tables set up and the bartenders doubled as waiters that would supply you with cups, balls and beer.
The last day we drove all the way to La Paz, ate at an Applebee's to cure our "I need American food NOW" craving, turned the car in and rode home on SFS vans.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
On Saturday we had to present our mini social projects for AJ, the one where Jenna and I interviewed professional women. We pretty much ran it down to the wire as far as preparation goes. The night before I was still translating some interviews and Jenna was working on translating and coding the surveys we got back. We finished in time to present Saturday morning, and AJ told us we did really well. We definitely got some interesting answers. For instance, when we asked the professional women if they would be fulfilled as housewives only, one said "No, I'm not one of those." And there was one who said she told men "Don't tell me how to run my business" all the time.
The next two days were a flurry of studying for our midterms, which were yesterday and today. We still have a final presentation in Spanish, Dylan and I chose the Day of the Dead-I've only heard about it in every spanish class I've ever taken. The ecology test was the easiest out of all of them for me, since I already knew all of the terms and the vast majority of the concepts. We did have to spit out the scientific names and identification of the 7 species of sea turtle, but I'm pretty sure I got all of them. The hardest one for me was actually AJ's. I had a total "duh" moment when I couldn't remember what ESA stood for: Endangered Species Act. For this class and for this group of people, it should have been an giveaway question, but I kept looking at it thinking "Ecological Society of America? That's not right!" and making something up.
Tomorrow we leave for spring break. Dylan, Will, Jenna, Christina and I are all going to Todos Santos, this small surfing town for four days, and then going to Cabo for the last night before coming back. We've been coordinating with a couple people around Todos Santos for surfing lessons and potentially horseback riding. The woman I talked to for that said she only knew one woman who did like tours, and a couple others who only did lessons. If no one else wants to do a tour, I may spring for a lesson, just to get my horse fix and to say I took a riding lesson in Mexico! Although I'm thinking a riding lesson in Spanish would be super hard haha.
The next two days were a flurry of studying for our midterms, which were yesterday and today. We still have a final presentation in Spanish, Dylan and I chose the Day of the Dead-I've only heard about it in every spanish class I've ever taken. The ecology test was the easiest out of all of them for me, since I already knew all of the terms and the vast majority of the concepts. We did have to spit out the scientific names and identification of the 7 species of sea turtle, but I'm pretty sure I got all of them. The hardest one for me was actually AJ's. I had a total "duh" moment when I couldn't remember what ESA stood for: Endangered Species Act. For this class and for this group of people, it should have been an giveaway question, but I kept looking at it thinking "Ecological Society of America? That's not right!" and making something up.
Tomorrow we leave for spring break. Dylan, Will, Jenna, Christina and I are all going to Todos Santos, this small surfing town for four days, and then going to Cabo for the last night before coming back. We've been coordinating with a couple people around Todos Santos for surfing lessons and potentially horseback riding. The woman I talked to for that said she only knew one woman who did like tours, and a couple others who only did lessons. If no one else wants to do a tour, I may spring for a lesson, just to get my horse fix and to say I took a riding lesson in Mexico! Although I'm thinking a riding lesson in Spanish would be super hard haha.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Last night there was a meeting in town about the proposal of a national preserve in Bahia Magdalena. This is different from the small marine protected area that the fishermen are setting up. This large reserve is completely funded and proposed by the Mexican government. It's Mexico's 200th anniversary of independence, so they want to have 200 national parks. The park they want to make includes only the outer islands that create the mouth of the bay and the waters on the Pacific side of the islands. Fishermen are really worried because they think that the government means to close the inside of the bay to fishing, which is where all of the fishermen go. They also think that the school is involved in the process, or that we're spies for the US government or something. So Gustavo and the professors went to the meeting to explain to the town what we're doing. So this morning Gustavo and Brady held a meeting with us to explain the results. Basically, they think we shouldn't worry about it too much, but they're going to ramp up community involvement and education about our mission.
Today was another DR day. We set up some questions for the coop's biologist who was supposed to come visit campus. He was supposed to come almost 4 hours ago and so far hasn't shown up, so we don't have a lot of faith in that. But we did get an interview with another fisherman in town. Eduardo's wife Guadalupe came with us to translate. She's lived in both Mexico and the US as a kid, so she's pretty perfectly bilingual. She was a really good translator, telling us exactly what he said when we needed her to, and rephrasing and explaining our questions when needed. It seems I've also fixed some of my Spanish problems. Apparently I was asking the questions too quickly, and according to Guadalupe the vocabulary we're using is a bit too much for some of the fishermen, since a lot of them haven't even been to high school.
Tonight I have to go out with some of the girls to volleyball to try to get some interviews with housewives. These interviews are for the mini project in AJ's class, about the professional women. It's funny, they're easy in comparison to the DR interviews since it's a larger population and we only have 5 quick questions for the women. AJ suggested we bring a bunch of Cokes and a sign saying "house wife interviews" lol. I'm just feeling a little spanish-ed out. All day I've been either translating something into Spanish or trying to understand someone else's Spanish and my brain's in a weird place. So I'm a little grateful that the biologist didn't show up, it's given me a little bit of a break.
Today was another DR day. We set up some questions for the coop's biologist who was supposed to come visit campus. He was supposed to come almost 4 hours ago and so far hasn't shown up, so we don't have a lot of faith in that. But we did get an interview with another fisherman in town. Eduardo's wife Guadalupe came with us to translate. She's lived in both Mexico and the US as a kid, so she's pretty perfectly bilingual. She was a really good translator, telling us exactly what he said when we needed her to, and rephrasing and explaining our questions when needed. It seems I've also fixed some of my Spanish problems. Apparently I was asking the questions too quickly, and according to Guadalupe the vocabulary we're using is a bit too much for some of the fishermen, since a lot of them haven't even been to high school.
Tonight I have to go out with some of the girls to volleyball to try to get some interviews with housewives. These interviews are for the mini project in AJ's class, about the professional women. It's funny, they're easy in comparison to the DR interviews since it's a larger population and we only have 5 quick questions for the women. AJ suggested we bring a bunch of Cokes and a sign saying "house wife interviews" lol. I'm just feeling a little spanish-ed out. All day I've been either translating something into Spanish or trying to understand someone else's Spanish and my brain's in a weird place. So I'm a little grateful that the biologist didn't show up, it's given me a little bit of a break.
Catching Up
Monday we started out working at the recycling center again. I got some pictures this time but only a handful before my camera died. We made some major progress since last time though. We managed to clear an aisleway through the plastic and drastically reduced one of the mounds. There were tons of bags that had lots of trash in them, they shouldn't have gotten in the door. We of course had to pick through all of those to find anything recyclable. I was really glad to have bought work gloves from the falayma (local grocery store).
We've been having discussions in spanish class lately for an activity. Martin brings in a paper with a summary of what's going on in Mexico concerning some issue and then we compare to the US, give our opinions, etc. A few of the more recent ones were adoption, abortion, internet dating, and then college today. I was absolutely dumbstruck by Mexico's system. UNAM is the absolute best university in Mexico and in all of Latin America, and it's public. Not only is it public, it's dirt cheap. Each semester costs-brace yourself-3,000 pesos. 3,000 pesos converts to a little under $240. I've spent more than $240 on books in a semester!! Martin says he has a friend who goes to a public university and also has two scholarships. With her scholarships it costs her 100 pesos each semester (=$7.90 USD). Can I please go there??? I have 2,000 pesos in my room right now!! According to Martin, the public universities in Mexico are the best, and the cheapest. But there's really steep competition, you have to take a test to get in, and there can be 40,000 kids applying for the same major at the same school. He says that the private schools cost a lot more because you don't have to take an entrance test or anything. He also said they tend to be "prettier" than the public universities, that don't spend a lot of money on equipment oranything. But seriously, $240 a semester?? Hello grad school.
Today we had another DR day. We got together to revise our interview questions, since we noticed that some of them were a little difficult to understand or leading people to answer in a certain way. There's still more to be done, as we realized in some interviews today. AJ said that he went through 6 revisions of his dissertation interviews. It's somewhat frustrating to have four or five people sitting a table trying to figure out how to phrase something, and then have to translate it into spanish. Luckily Jose has been really helpful with translating everything.
After lunch we went out to the house of Juan Carlos, the administrative secretary of the coop. He had said that he knew the houses of some of the coop members who live in Puerto San Carlos. Once we got there we met a couple of coop members who happened to be hanging around. We interviewed one in Juan Carlos's house. He was interesting and at least half drunk towards the end. Then they introduced us to some other fishermen who didn't have time, and they directed us to Ramon, another fisherman. Ramon gave us an awesome interview. Our interview lasts about half an hour so far, and Ramon went almost to an hour because he answered just about every question with paragraph instead of a sentence. His spanish was pretty clear too, so I understood a lot of it. I also worked up the nerve to start asking questions myself instead of asking Jose to translate something. We have all of our usual interview questions written down and we just read from the sheet, but if you think of anything it's nice to be able to ask follow up questions.
We've been having discussions in spanish class lately for an activity. Martin brings in a paper with a summary of what's going on in Mexico concerning some issue and then we compare to the US, give our opinions, etc. A few of the more recent ones were adoption, abortion, internet dating, and then college today. I was absolutely dumbstruck by Mexico's system. UNAM is the absolute best university in Mexico and in all of Latin America, and it's public. Not only is it public, it's dirt cheap. Each semester costs-brace yourself-3,000 pesos. 3,000 pesos converts to a little under $240. I've spent more than $240 on books in a semester!! Martin says he has a friend who goes to a public university and also has two scholarships. With her scholarships it costs her 100 pesos each semester (=$7.90 USD). Can I please go there??? I have 2,000 pesos in my room right now!! According to Martin, the public universities in Mexico are the best, and the cheapest. But there's really steep competition, you have to take a test to get in, and there can be 40,000 kids applying for the same major at the same school. He says that the private schools cost a lot more because you don't have to take an entrance test or anything. He also said they tend to be "prettier" than the public universities, that don't spend a lot of money on equipment oranything. But seriously, $240 a semester?? Hello grad school.
Today we had another DR day. We got together to revise our interview questions, since we noticed that some of them were a little difficult to understand or leading people to answer in a certain way. There's still more to be done, as we realized in some interviews today. AJ said that he went through 6 revisions of his dissertation interviews. It's somewhat frustrating to have four or five people sitting a table trying to figure out how to phrase something, and then have to translate it into spanish. Luckily Jose has been really helpful with translating everything.
After lunch we went out to the house of Juan Carlos, the administrative secretary of the coop. He had said that he knew the houses of some of the coop members who live in Puerto San Carlos. Once we got there we met a couple of coop members who happened to be hanging around. We interviewed one in Juan Carlos's house. He was interesting and at least half drunk towards the end. Then they introduced us to some other fishermen who didn't have time, and they directed us to Ramon, another fisherman. Ramon gave us an awesome interview. Our interview lasts about half an hour so far, and Ramon went almost to an hour because he answered just about every question with paragraph instead of a sentence. His spanish was pretty clear too, so I understood a lot of it. I also worked up the nerve to start asking questions myself instead of asking Jose to translate something. We have all of our usual interview questions written down and we just read from the sheet, but if you think of anything it's nice to be able to ask follow up questions.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
We had a couple of DR days last week, where my group worked on our interviews for the coop members and had Jose help us translate them into English. Then we went out and talked to two guys from the coop, one an average member on the island and the other the coop president's secretary in Puerto San Carlos. We've realized that the coop isn't as far along in their planning for the Marine Protected Area (MPA) as we thought. An MPA is an area that is designated as a no-fishing zone, sometimes for all types of fish, sometimes for only a few. They can be voluntary, cooperative-driven or they can be government recognized and enforced. My project is looking at how the coop is going to coordinate making it, if they're going to work with different NGOs like ReefCheck or COBI (Comunidad y Biodiversidad), if they're interested in making it government recognized, how they're going to handle surveillance, etc. Based on the conversation with the president's secretary, they're still in the early planning stages.
Yesterday was pretty cool, we had a field exercise/lecture on mangroves. The group split into two and my group went out kayaking for a couple hours to look at the mangroves from the water (in an estuary). Mangroves look like this (only not as high in our area). They're really crucial to ecosystem function because they filter the seawater, prevent erosion, and act as a nursery for a lot of marine fish and shellfish. Kayaking is fun, but I haven't quite gotten my stroke right. Paddling in a kayak is different from a canoe, you shouldn't be pulling the paddle at all, but instead pushing with your opposite arm. Since I wasn't really doing this, my shoulder started to get really tired, and the trip back kind of sucked. After kayaking we ate lunch and went with Gustavo to catalogue a mangrove experiment they're doing. A few years ago the thermoelectric plant had to dig a belt through a mangrove forest to put in a pipeline, and SFS is looking to see how the mangrove fills back in. To do that they set up some permanent quadrants and are asessing where the mangroves return to first.
Last night we all went into town for the whale festival. It's really just an excuse to have a carnival and crown a "whale queen", what a great title! SFS had a tent and we painted faces for all the kids. Apparently I'm better at drawing cartoon whales than I expected. Afterwards we had some free time to roam around and I ended up getting a pina colada, a ring made out of a shell, and a bracelet. We're going back tonight and I'm considering getting pink extensions in my hair, the interns and Laura got some last night. I also had some awesome tacos that had cactus in them, it looked like a slice of green pepper but it tasted really sweet and was awesome combined with everything else.
We're supposed to go back to the festival tonight for more facepainting, but it started raining a few minutes ago, so I'm not sure what happens now. In any case I have a ton of papers and projects due next week, and tests the week after that. I'd like to go back to the festival, but at least I'd maybe get something done if we didn't go.
Yesterday was pretty cool, we had a field exercise/lecture on mangroves. The group split into two and my group went out kayaking for a couple hours to look at the mangroves from the water (in an estuary). Mangroves look like this (only not as high in our area). They're really crucial to ecosystem function because they filter the seawater, prevent erosion, and act as a nursery for a lot of marine fish and shellfish. Kayaking is fun, but I haven't quite gotten my stroke right. Paddling in a kayak is different from a canoe, you shouldn't be pulling the paddle at all, but instead pushing with your opposite arm. Since I wasn't really doing this, my shoulder started to get really tired, and the trip back kind of sucked. After kayaking we ate lunch and went with Gustavo to catalogue a mangrove experiment they're doing. A few years ago the thermoelectric plant had to dig a belt through a mangrove forest to put in a pipeline, and SFS is looking to see how the mangrove fills back in. To do that they set up some permanent quadrants and are asessing where the mangroves return to first.
Last night we all went into town for the whale festival. It's really just an excuse to have a carnival and crown a "whale queen", what a great title! SFS had a tent and we painted faces for all the kids. Apparently I'm better at drawing cartoon whales than I expected. Afterwards we had some free time to roam around and I ended up getting a pina colada, a ring made out of a shell, and a bracelet. We're going back tonight and I'm considering getting pink extensions in my hair, the interns and Laura got some last night. I also had some awesome tacos that had cactus in them, it looked like a slice of green pepper but it tasted really sweet and was awesome combined with everything else.
We're supposed to go back to the festival tonight for more facepainting, but it started raining a few minutes ago, so I'm not sure what happens now. In any case I have a ton of papers and projects due next week, and tests the week after that. I'd like to go back to the festival, but at least I'd maybe get something done if we didn't go.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
La Purísima
Today we had a field trip to La Purísima, an oasis two hours north of Puerto San Carlos. We drove through two hours of the typical flat desert scenery. At some point I fell asleep and when I woke up we were next to a virtual forest of date palms with red rock mesas and mountains surrounding us. We stopped in the forest for a lecture from Vero on carrying capacity, which being an Ecology major, I’ve encountered in every semester for the past three semesters. It was such a change to be in a forest with shade and a canopy. It definitely confirmed my sneaking idea that I may be more of a forest person than a coast person. I loved listening to the birds and walking through the trees-even though they were date palms and the ground was still essentially sand. There were sightings of someone’s horses further in the stand but I couldn’t find them when I looked. I did find a bunch of goats though, which are in the picture album (or will be once I upload…). To fulfill my equine craving I saw a lot of horses on the drive, apparently a bunch of people keep them for ranching. I even saw one guy herding his goats on horseback right next to the road. Which reminds me of another interesting Mexican anomaly. You’ll have like 2 miles of really nice roadway, then 200 ft of awful potholes, then 2 miles of really nice road again. And there’re full-on road signs for what appear to just be someone’s small ranch.
After Vero’s lecture we climbed back in the vans and drove another 15 minutes to the edge of a mesa or something like it and climbed down (a much shorter and less intimidating hike than our last one) to get to the oasis itself. It was so pretty, where the desert just burst into green. And it was so nice to be in freshwater again! I don’t particularly like swimming in saltwater, it’s such a shock if you get any up your nose or in your mouth, and you feel grimy after swimming in it. This water was fairly warm and there was a great ledge that everyone put their stuff on and ate lunch on. The only downside was that the rocks leading into the water were super slippery, but I just kept a hand on them as I went down. We swam around for probably half an hour, then got out and had a lecture from Eduardo on oasis ecology, right on the rock facing the oasis. That was one of those “Well, I’m glad I chose this study abroad program!” moments, how many people get to have class while wearing a bathing suit, looking out on an oasis surrounded by palms, cacti and mesas?
We had another two hour drive back to the center to two pieces of good news: the student server, and therefore internet, was back up and there were hamburgers and French fries for dinner! We really do all like the Mexican food and happily eat it 24/7 but it’s really nice to get an all-American meal occasionally. The fries were surprisingly good, they reminded me of O-fries but with less than half of the grease.
After Vero’s lecture we climbed back in the vans and drove another 15 minutes to the edge of a mesa or something like it and climbed down (a much shorter and less intimidating hike than our last one) to get to the oasis itself. It was so pretty, where the desert just burst into green. And it was so nice to be in freshwater again! I don’t particularly like swimming in saltwater, it’s such a shock if you get any up your nose or in your mouth, and you feel grimy after swimming in it. This water was fairly warm and there was a great ledge that everyone put their stuff on and ate lunch on. The only downside was that the rocks leading into the water were super slippery, but I just kept a hand on them as I went down. We swam around for probably half an hour, then got out and had a lecture from Eduardo on oasis ecology, right on the rock facing the oasis. That was one of those “Well, I’m glad I chose this study abroad program!” moments, how many people get to have class while wearing a bathing suit, looking out on an oasis surrounded by palms, cacti and mesas?
We had another two hour drive back to the center to two pieces of good news: the student server, and therefore internet, was back up and there were hamburgers and French fries for dinner! We really do all like the Mexican food and happily eat it 24/7 but it’s really nice to get an all-American meal occasionally. The fries were surprisingly good, they reminded me of O-fries but with less than half of the grease.
Monday, March 1, 2010
So today was pretty sad for everyone at the center. Two of the students had to leave for misconduct reasons and one of the interns, Antonio, got a job offer that he had to leave for immediately. So our male population was practically cut in half and we lost some pretty cool people. I'm not sure what it's going to be like without them.
Just to make the day even better, we spent the morning sifting through trash and recyclables at Brady's recycling center. Trashbags full of plastics and cardboard were stacked almost to the ceiling in some places. It hadn't been gone through in two months I think so we had to go around picking up everything that spilled and pulling things outside the building for a truck to collect. I'm really starting to get the "plastic kills" thing, especially here where there's soo much of it. And it's so easy to just refill a reusable bottle instead of buying water bottles. Another thing I've learned is that if you have to buy something and have the option, glass is easier to recycle than plastic. And I'm going to make an effort to carry reusable shopping bags from now on. Puerto San Carlos is absolutely covered in trash, the vast majority of it being plastic. It never degrades, it just fragments into small pieces that hang around forever.
After we got back we had a couple of classes, including a discussion in AJ's class of a book on saving the gray whale and a discussion in Spanish on love in the age of the internet. It quickly devolved into what you value in someone and if you believe in love at first sight. Martin's also been starting each Spanish class out with a song in Spanish, usually by some pop singer. Today was Nelly Furtado, who actually sings Spanish fairly well. There was a mad rush around dinner time to turn in a report for Vero on lobster habitat. Then after dinner we watched a documentary on gray whales and the hazards they face on their migrations.
Just to make the day even better, we spent the morning sifting through trash and recyclables at Brady's recycling center. Trashbags full of plastics and cardboard were stacked almost to the ceiling in some places. It hadn't been gone through in two months I think so we had to go around picking up everything that spilled and pulling things outside the building for a truck to collect. I'm really starting to get the "plastic kills" thing, especially here where there's soo much of it. And it's so easy to just refill a reusable bottle instead of buying water bottles. Another thing I've learned is that if you have to buy something and have the option, glass is easier to recycle than plastic. And I'm going to make an effort to carry reusable shopping bags from now on. Puerto San Carlos is absolutely covered in trash, the vast majority of it being plastic. It never degrades, it just fragments into small pieces that hang around forever.
After we got back we had a couple of classes, including a discussion in AJ's class of a book on saving the gray whale and a discussion in Spanish on love in the age of the internet. It quickly devolved into what you value in someone and if you believe in love at first sight. Martin's also been starting each Spanish class out with a song in Spanish, usually by some pop singer. Today was Nelly Furtado, who actually sings Spanish fairly well. There was a mad rush around dinner time to turn in a report for Vero on lobster habitat. Then after dinner we watched a documentary on gray whales and the hazards they face on their migrations.
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