carpe diem

big goals, big ideas a churnin'. get at life my friends...

plan for tomorrow, live for today

6/27/2012

Yesterday and today has been back to the grind of sewing together the nessessary threads to the database we're creating. By a random chance of events and ideas we got Geonetwork to connect to their host server which then allows us to eventually distribute our information to the web. We have also been siphoning through a bunch of satellite images and trying to find out how to upload them to postGIS because it doesn't support rasters standing alone...I've found two extentions that are downloading which (with my fingers crossed) will allow us to upload them to our server. Henry, the man we made maps for is such a great guy. He geninually cares what people are doing and if their having fun doing it. He is generous enough as well to name drop me in his paper for contributing maps. get some. Jordan also mentioned that he may have me creating more since he knows what I like to do, and tasks over here in this building are moving slower than the tortoises on a hot day. Short and sweet from the work end of things.

While things are downloading I've also been real in tune to a bunch of geography blogs I found. Basically their getting me amped to want to go to grad school. University of Oregon would be quite perfect if things went to plan. I may even try to put together my letter of intent while I'm down here with the ocean for inspiration. The gre is also lurking in my headlights...not to excited for that when I get home but what better time to start studying than the uneventful dark nights here.
On top of that I checked out internships with National Geographic. Their pretty impressive since they have interns creating, editing, and designing publishable atlases as well as drafts for the magazine...The only thing is they sound quite exclusive but take applications in October...But I'm not sure when their positions are for throughout the year. I want to take a water taxi out the National Geographic cruise boat thats bobbing around in the harbor and be like SIGN ME UPPP. That would be a dream come true.

One thing at a time...

...yesterday after work I high tailed it to our bungalow to snag the only good bike we have left. I took mr un-reliable to town in order to catch a taxi up to Bellavista. It's a small town up in the highlands about a 25 min uphill car ride inland. It was a cool little trip that I've thinking about doing ever since we had our brutal hike there earlier. Taxi man dropped me off and I spotted a bakery. Should probably mention I've had this thing for bakeries lately. They are extremely cheap, super tasty, homemade, warm, and again hard to pass up. They all have basically the same things but different sizes shapes etc. The deal is. I get something different every time. Today the palette was feeling yellow sugar cookies. 15 cents a piece...again hard to pass up. The whole plan was to get a ride here then cruise the whole way back downhill. It was quite relaxing flying by small coffee and banana plantations swirving for dogs and speed bumps. There was a woman selling chicken kabobs half way down along the road which I could smell a half a mile away...With seasoning like that, there was no question whether or not I would be stopping. From there on out it was pretty steep not hitting the brakes until I got to Puerto Ayora a solid 30 min ride away. I stopped at a small market to pick up some kiwis which alludes to a secret I should probably fill you in on. I like to call it "kiwis and beer are phenomenal together."

Other than that I cooked up some rice and fish again then biked into town to hear from Rach and concluded my night with a movie and a batido to go that I'd been saving.

grey, streamlined, two heli-pads, private heli, jet-skis, and a cruiser attached to the side....quite the toys...who could it be?!

All of my days...

Monday 6/24/2012

Today went surprisingly well. Chema went to go help with a Coca-Cola commercial they were filming so I had the whole office to myself jamming in the zone and continuing to make some maps which is a relief. They are for a research paper that the entomologist Henry is publishing soon. The maps themselves are quite simple however the processes behind them are not. A new quote on our whiteboard is "we love and have to love free software." These maps are made entirely with free software including QuantumGIS, their map creation extension, our postGIS database server we created to host the files, and Inkscape (a freeware off-shoot of Adobe).

Coming soon...to a scientific paper on large headed ant infestation near you...

I swam another couple laps at lunch and it was the lowest I've seen the beach so far. It was by far 15 feet lower than normal...I normally can't touch the bottom at the right pole and tread water to catch my breath...today I was standing and it was at my chest...new/full moon coming soon? I think soo.

There was this ray hanging out just below some sand as I swam over the top of him...he didn't like that I was so close, and truthfully neither did I because I didn't know he was there. Couldn't help but think of a worst case Steve Irwin scenario. not cool : )

After work I decided to start I needed to eat more. I've lost a lot of weight since I got here so I headed to the grocery store and was in the zone to cook dinner. I stopped and got bread crumbs, returned 12 bottles for 50 cents a piece, went to the super market, and then picked up a pound of fresh tuna for dinner.

I turned on some jams then started to fry up some tuna and cooked oregano in with a cup of rice. Squeezed a fresh lime on top and dinner was delicious. I also had an idea that I was thinking about for a while. I made some dough, kneaded in a packet of apple cinnamon oatmeal, diced up some cheese, and fried up some apple cinnamon cheese empanadas. Those are for lunch tomorrow and man they are tasssty. I swear I could make a killing selling 50 cent empanadas to hammered people on water street back in Eau Claire. Which would be alot more fun than actually getting hammered...

Now that our maps are done tomorrow may be back to the grind of organizing and devising a strategy for organization within our database. Making maps was a great break from tedious things that slow down my computer because not only do I like to do it, but I know how, and now with a whole new set of software.

Thanks for the maple flavored coffee mom and pa

 it is thee perfect thing in the morning. 

It little profits that an idle king

The plan for this weekend started with trying to get off of Santa Cruz. Feeling a little island fever I decided to head to an island Southeast of here called San Cristobal. The boat was to leave at 2 on Friday so I worked through lunch and Daniel had no problem with me leaving. I’m glad Rob decided to come after double thinking the rough water from the recent weather. Josh also decided last minute to tag along. The boat we took was a fiberglass ferry boat that held about 12 people. Despite the relatively large swells this boat was getting pulled by 600 horses equipped with 3 poorly mounted 200hp engines. So yes, we were flying there, going up massive waves and then losing the swell beneath us as the boat literally caught air. I bruised my butt from going 5 inches airborne in my seat then slamming back on to the fiberglass seat I was sitting on. It was such a riot, at one point I could of went home the next day and been completely satisfied. But we got there in two hours passing Santa Fe on the way and arriving in Baquerizo Morneo a port town on the southern part of San Cristobal. Our first goal was to find somewhere to sleep which turned out to be the Albatross Hostal where we only paid ten dollars a night for a triple room and bath.

                Met a guy from our boat named Andy who is from Germany. He followed us to our hostel and we chatted enough that we decided to head to dinner and chat some more. He was on his way to check something off his bucket list as well. He was going on a 7 day cruise to head up to Islands Darwin and Wolf to hopefully swim with whale sharks. He is down here with his family two kids 12 and 15 and wife. His story is quite epic and again alludes to my new bucket list check box. He worked for a sales company that sold protective equipment for hospitals; unfortunately he worked too much. realized it and didn’t think it was fair for his children. Since he has been backpacking his whole life with his wife as well as when the kids were little he offered them a trip of a lifetime. He quit his job as did his wife (Highschool geography teacher) to set out on the world for one year and see and do as much as they could. Hesitant at first the kids started to love it. The 15 year old kid was left with a host family for 3 months in Peru to learn Spanish while the family moved on to later meet him in Buenos Aires. They have been through Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, Islands in-between, Central America and their final destination in the coming weeks is a week in New York. Felt like I was listening to a movie.

We relaxed, I read a book on the balcony and sure enough the guy I met day one in Santa Cruz, Tato, was strolling around. I felt I had to grab a beer with him because he leaves in a week and I haven’t had the chance to do much more than see him walking around barefoot all the time. We meet up at a bar called the Iguana for a bit then I headed to the hostel…Unfortunatly the woman who runs it didn’t tell me that there was a curfew for the front door….I pounded on the door a few times, no answer, then stepped back and started to figure out how I would get to the 3rdfloor balcony of this hostel.

This was the game plan: 

• Balcony two shops away is easy to get on, check. 
• From there I could go left, two balconies over to our hostel.
• Next, I could get on a 2.5 story balcony one shop to the far left of our hostel. 
• Then from there to the 3^rd story of where our room was…easy enough. 
• Turns out, I only had to get onto balcony two of our place and found an open stairwell door…

Quite the process...felt like I was Jason Borne sneaking around town

The plan on Saturday was to head to the variety of beaches located past the San Francisco Partnership college on the West side of town. On the way there are sea lions everywhere. Literally everywhere you looked, walked, and for the most part could smell and hear as well. They smell worse than a dirty dog, and sound like people leaving the Pickle on at 2am on a Saturday night in Eau Claire. We passed a bunch of “beaches” that were again occupied by more sea lions than people. But there was a great path that lead to this epic snorkeling cove called Las Tijeretas. Crystal clear water that was as cold as a bottle of water from the fridge.

Taking loops to snorkel and then warm up, snorkel and warm up we met a couple from Switzerland who were taking a year break from work to tour the globe. They had been to a slew of islands in the Philippines, through Indonesia, and north through South America. Add that to my bucket list…one year around the world. They chatted and showed us where they saw this sea turtle hanging out which is what the included video is of.

Pretty sure my waterproof camera didn’t like the salt water and is now currently resting in a bag of rice on the porch…I hope it comes back to life…or else add that to the issue list…BUT we headed back from the beaches and over to a surf hangout called La Loberia on the opposite side of town. No one particularily surfing but we watched the sunset. There was also a baby sea lion trying to locate its mom. Even if its mom had been there she wouldn’t of known because according to the park guy someone had touched the poor pup and as a result of their greasy hands…similar to birds and their chicks, would no longer care for their baby because of scent. Nature in the Galapagos.

Came back and cleaned up. Which I found out a new pet peeve of mine. Cramped bathrooms are not cool man. But I wandered the streets with the guys in search of a cheese empanada and found one at a place where we could watch the all-star soccer match tour happening throughout Europe right now.

Passed out mighty quick and woke up to be on the boat by 7am. It was a quicker ride than on the way there and we were back by 10am with a whole day of relaxation ahead. Got a chance to talk to Matty B which was great to hear how AFRICA went. Jeeze that’s awesome. Bryant, I know you’re getting at life regardless and probably don’t have service. But ONE of these days I willlll get ahold of you in the Montana wilderness. I got to talk to Rachel hear what shes been up to, which was great and THEN did a few laps at the station beach. Supa tired.

THEN…….

HORRIBLE NEWS FOR THE STATION….Lonesome George…The one and only Pinta Tortoise left anywhere in the world, one of the most famous endangered species and individual animal, on pretty much every sign, every t-shirt, lives right down our gravel road…DIED THIS MORNING…by 8 am his caretaker found him warm yet unresponsive and not breathing and he was taken away to be examined. It was most likely old age seeing the old guy was 100 years old…but we’ll see tomorrow at work how that has affected not only the station but the town, which plays off his historical cause for tourism…Crazy time for us to be here when we are now as close as we are to the most recent animal extinction in the world right now…

Overall, great to relax for the weekend, get off of Santa Cruz, explore something new, meet some great new people, and add something epic to my bucket list. I'm off to watch Finding Nemo and fall asleep.

btw, Bings homepage today was quite epic as well.

It's been raining more in the dry season than it did in the wet season

"No matter how one may think himself accomplished,

when he sets out to learn a new language, science,

 or the bicycle, he has entered a new realm as

truly as if he were a child newly born into the world."

Frances Willard

I've really been lagging on whats going on but I've slowly slipped into the routine of work. Not so much work itself but the issues associated with work...I believe it took a solid grasp of the fact that we as students in the United States are extremely fortunate when it comes to the latest and greatest. When you are educated with the best software and resources you become accustomed to a stress free working environment where everything works, everyday, every time of the day. Real life however is not a perfectly funded university.

The rest of the world looks up to technologically driven nations because of the usefulness and power that data driven analysis can provide. They strive to the same levels, instead using improvisation, ingenuity, and creativity due to their lack of resources.
From a ritzy university (what Frank calls our school) with everything, to bare bones including the infrastructure it constantly slaps me in the face. Constantly reminding me that it will take years for places such as this to catch up. The processes involved and decisions that need to be made are well out of my reach to create a system that could even get close to the same as what I'm used to.

It took a while : ) but the only way to deal with this difference is to smile, accept it, and slowly fix what needs to be fixed in order move one. oh a virus...oke dokie...oh riiight the computer crashed...zen with Chema....ha ohhh so Ecuador's geospatial standards changed in 2001? grreat...I'm getting a snickers...ohh google your google earth coordinates for the Galapagos are wrong?? ha of course...I'm going swimming...

Going to work everyday and getting slapped with compounding issues, logistics, and technology is highly exhausting. When my ambition is yielded to things out of my control I must take it elsewhere for the mean time.

Which is why Joe and I make dinners like our place is a 5 star restaurant lately. On I believe it wasss, Monday, we busted out the flour and decided to make tortilla shells for chicken burritos. 1 bag of flour, 1 egg, a man-measurement of water, and some salt? 25 minutes later we have a consistency that looks like dough. Realizing we need to flatten the dough we turned to our trusty nalgene bottles to roll out over 25 burrito shells, taco shells, and empanada bread. From there we needed to cook them which as simple as it is you just heat them up in a skillet. Wallah, homemade shells. Threw together some rice complemented with lemon juice, green peppers, and cilantro and we were well on our way to making a homemade burracho burrito. Rob sliced and diced some chicken, seasoned it like a boss and we were eating like kings in about 2 hours.

cromagnon tool set

We also experimented with the fresh fish available in town and Tuesday, decided to pan sear our tuna steaks with a homemade blend of spices we picked up at the market. Putting tuna steaks sided with floured/spiced egg plant fries and pasta, I swear we could subsidise some costs by opening a meal stand at the Saturday market.
Swimming at lunch has been a hoot, I'm up to 4/5 (depending on the tide) what we think are 85m laps in 25 minutes.

The whole intern crew had Deb's biology class and family over for dinner last night. It was about 24 people and we threw together our classic fried fish, an avacado salad, and yogurt parfeits for them all. Props to everyone for putting that together.

Since island fever seems to be setting in, Rob and myself are trying to find a boat to San Cristobal, an island to the South East for the weekend. Haven't had much luck but they tend to offer last minute deals if the boats aren't full. That is our goal for lunch. Then I'm off to hopefully skype with Rachel, then buy some flour for tortilla shells again : )

"Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em. 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

Theodore Roosevelt

i have the hiccups

too much art/culture/heritage...REEAALLY?!! really.

Adaptability...

I haven't posted in a few days but it was more of a mushed together week

As far as work goes,

chhheck

Chema and myself have been cast into the abyss by our lonesome due to people being sick, delayed meetings, IT, etc. So we have took it upon ourselves to continue on. Despite our rather slow days piecing together what we can, it's interesting to see it come together through the interactions between all these things we've been syncing together through our server. I started to think of it as breaking down ESRI's software to the bare bones which I'm not used to but have started to see the inter-workings of what is going on.

Here's the breakdown...

We are using PostGIS as a database to store all our spatial information...We need pgAdmin to add data to that database such as shapefiles, DEMS etc. We can then use QuantumGIS to manipulate that information, and we are using Geonetwork to be able to search our database, add descriptions to information, and although we don't know how yet, be able to search all information within a certain spatial extent.

We have become masters of multi-tasking as we slowly download huge files on our slow connection (3hrs+ per installer), looking up tutorials, all while trying to link these separate things and connect to a server. We burnt out one laptop because the power from the outlet sporadically surges and it fried. We now have a surge protector...

Our work flow *hiccups (*i will use hiccups instead of frustrations) go beyond our office and we are slowly learning they are the same hiccups shared among many around here. We went to our programmers house the other day to try and use her un-restricted internet. Ana has been here for 4 years and gave us the low down on the history of this place. Not the Galapagos but the station itself. It was interesting to hear what it has gone through, what its currently experiencing, and the outlook for the future of the station. If you walk around you can slowly put the pieces together from the building that stopped getting built, to the staff, to the scale of volunteers roaming around. It goes without saying that an organization that is pretty much non-profit relies alot on external funds coming in.
When alot of economies throughout the globe, not just our own but throughout Europe as well, have significantly tanked, the funds coming to places such as this are no longer as much a priority for donators. The projected funds expecting to be donated at the beginning of the year, by the end of the year don't exist. Use that same concept; when you spend your savings on programs at the beginning of the year, expecting to get reimbursed at the end of the year, you slowly start to lose financial backing on projects that were going, yet can't continue.



escape...then backk to the office.

The financial situation is not just a nation wide issue within the United States. Chema has been filling me in on his issues within Spain lately and the recent past. Himself along with alot of citizens are even at risk of losing their life savings as of last weekend...He then gave me the low down that started in Ireland, then to Greece, then Spain, and now Italy is under pressure.
It's interesting to see what is happening at a global level with global organizations which I'm sure extends beyond our own. Clearly seeing objectives that need to be reached without the resources to do so. The situation here involves a history that extends beyond an economic perspective but it goes without saying that they are currently under a global economic bind.

Whether it be positive quotes on our whiteboard, sayings from Good Earth tea packets : ), or our Zen exercises we are making due with what resources we have and I have no doubt in my mind that we will come up with something great in the end.

Enough on that topic...
This week I've also started swimming on a daily basis during lunch. We have an hour and a half lunch which gives me time to walk to our station beach do some laps, make an omelet, and lay down for a bit watching geckos cruise around the ceiling.



Last night Joe and myself joined Rob and Josh who found out last week there is ultimate frisbee down by the docks in town on Wednesday nights. Not expecting to much it was alot more fun than I anticipated and involved alot more running than I thought. I also met some guys who play soccer and I told them to join us tomorrow for our weekly soccer match at the park. Last week there was a helicopter that BBC was using on our field so we couldn't play but pretty sure we have enough people this time to make a stand so onward to Friday night soccer matches.

Deb also returns with a biology class in a few days, with her she's bringing care packages from HOME! Super stoked for what Rachel sent as well as what my parents put together : )


can barely see them but far right pole to far left pole. lunch laps.

Sun dried and fried

This weekend started off with a run to the market Saturday morning bright and early at 8am. We ended up getting the usual and then some. We also treated ourselves to a fresh coconut and managed to get a whole tree of bananas for four bucks. It probably has about 50-60 bananas, although not ripe yet we hung it outside on our back porch. Afterwards we went to fix our bikes again because 4/5 of them have flats…not cool but it’s a way of life around here. Then we were all off to our work party which was held at the marine lab. They have the best view to work with…and a ping pong table. We had plenty of food, beer, and a good time that I was beat by 7. Regardless I wanted to chat with Rach so I headed into town to hit up an internet café : ) Then Joe and I just walked around town to the pier where we saw what we think was a shark, a sea lion bobbing around, and a massive ray. The town’s main pier has fluorescent blue and green lights that allow you to see into the water at night. There are all sorts of things swimming around at night. Pretty exhausted, I was in bed by 10pm.

The plan on Sunday was to head to a place called Los Gemelos which are huge volcanic craters up in the highlands by the town of Santa Rosa. We were going to ride bikes but conveniently one lost air overnight…again bikes here are highly un-reliant. The cab right instead was interesting because we didn’t end up where we wanted to go but instead he took us to a tortoise farm…which we had no ambition of seeing. After a while of trying to talk to him he brought us to a lava tunnel. For some reason we had the notion that Los Gemelos was nearby and that we would walk to it from the tunnel then walk back to Puerto Ayora. He insisted he’d wait which turned out to be great because it was nowhere near where we wanted to get to. But this lava tunnel was HUGE. Ceilings ranging from 25ft tall to small enough you had to squeeze through on your belly. It was very old with visible collapses that blocked the path. It was also electrically lighted but who knows the source. After walking about ¾ of a mile we came to another opening that was the end and our driver was peering in haha good thing he waited…He then took us to up Los Gemelos and we parted ways with all the ambition to hike back to Puerto Ayora. Los Gemelos although a rather short hike was to a crater about 100x100 meters large with a depth well over 50 m deep. That was the first, and the other was a combination of two equal sized craters that had been joined in the middle at one point. Maybe as the roof collapsed thousands of years ago, it caused a chain reaction for the second to simultaneously go down as well. Joe, Rob, Josh, Joel, and myself were only there for a solid hour and started to hike back towards Puerto Ayora.

Literally this is where our day got interesting. What we thought was a reasonable hike started to become one of the most grueling walks ever...We were in the highlands past the town of Santa Rosa on the westward side of the island headed towards Bellevista, another small town that meets up with the only highway spanning the island from Baltra to Puerto Ayora. So we started this hike jazzed and kidding about not going the entire way with the whole “dude, we got this” attitude. On the way we passed over 200 dead birds with the majority yellow warblers. The taxi’s drive too fast and either smoke the birds out of the air or hit them drinking out of the divots in the road which is another reason locals have large issues with the taxi service. However, were hiking this endless road that is extremely swervy, and hilly none the less. We have plenty of water still pumped, laughing about aimless things. Then we all shut up for about an hour, in the zone as we get baked in the sun. Every corner we’re like yeah it’s totally around the next one only to continue walking corner after corner after corner. As we’ve been walking for over 2 hours now were going crazy right, thinking we made a wrong turn, hungry, all of our feet are blistered. We go on and I just crack up laughing to myself…”to be honest this is acccctually a pretty entertaining time” and we continue walking. We finally make it to Bellavista at 2:30 which means we’ve been walking the highway for over 3 hours. Grabbed some much needed grub like there was a white beam shining down on the restaurant. It would have been another 2 hours to walk from Bellavista to Puerto Ayora and our feet/bodies couldn’t handle it and snagged a $2 cab instead. Our day consisted of 1 hour crater hikes and a majority enjoying the highland landscape by foot from the highway. Brutal, yet a great work out..?! Interested, I looked up on Google Earth how far it actually was when I got back...9.5 miles from Los Gemelos to Bellavista.

snack time?!

As I lay out on our porch watching cruise lines bob up and down I slam water like it’s going out of style and pass out to the ocean crashing the shore. dreaming of   : )

Sunset

Off our porch. have a good night : )

Keep it loose, Keep it tight

Well today's Friday already and we're finishing up organizing and naming the files that we chose were of significance. I was going through some digital elevation models that they have and came across one that was super detailed of percent slope so I schnazzied it up and it looks really neat up close. Next week is looking like we'll be creating our geodatabase in physical form and learning hopefully the freeware called Post-GIS then putting in a bunch of GPS tracked marine data.

"I really liked your film on the oceans"

Yesterday the man himself, David Attenborough, showed up at the station to do a behind the scenes portion of his up coming film. For those who don't know he's like the bee's knee's for biologists, the god like British voice for shows like Life, and in real life he's 86 still livin' it up. The station being what it is plays an important role in producting information that government and the National Park can then use to create rules to promote sustainability as well as an economically productive province. Through their film which we now know is going to be in 3D they want to put a background story together that helps illustrate the connectivness of each organization as well as views towards those organizations. So David was here doing a meet and greet with us which was pretty interesting he talked for quite a while, shook hands, took pictures, that sort of thing. The whole time they were filming, and I happened to be in the front so he straight up goes "What do YOU do here?" flustered I put together something. Doubtful it'll make the cut but it's pretty cool seeing what will be in the film and where they've been filming.

woke up to a gecko in our coffee pot

I biked to the fish market after work yesterday and in under 15 min was back home making fresh off the boat. LOVE IT. We fried it again but this time we took an eggplant, sliced it up and mixed it with onion and garlic. Then soaked those in egg and mixed in bread crumbs. We on the spot created fried eggplant fries, and oh man they were tasty.

Afterwards we headed to town because we solved the surfboard incident by just ordering a new fin for cheap to the United States that Deb can bring back when she comes. I had the chance to skype Rach which I didn't think would happen so that was great : ) The group then got together to play a mad game of bananagrams at our bungaloo.

Soccer has turned into a weekly event so we'll be playing again right after work over in the National Park. They weren't to happy with us using their electricity for lights so we can't play after dark. bummer but w/e. Tomorrow there's a work grill out by the marine building.  It was only 10 dollars but from what I hear their getting alot because 30 some people signed up.There's going to be alot of people, alot of food, and alot of cervezas. Thats at noon so we'll have the rest of the day to soak up some rays.

Today it's rained all morning, the first time its legitamently rained since we've gotten here. Makes it a little cooler, enough that we don't sweat just sitting around.

Coffee breaks over...back to the grind.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!

The last couple days at work have been grueling because we're literally only organizing files on the computer. But thats what it'll take to move on so we get jazzed on coffee and push on. Slowly we got done organizing it and now we're on to something even better...naming all of them. Coded names in order to shorten but at the same time give meaning to the files.
This is all part of a tedious process that we learned about in advanced GIS called creating a geodatabase. Although it felt like a quick process when we hurriedly wrote it on our exam it is actually a process and a half to do in real life...We already went over what they are looking for or their aim for this geodatabase and the information they want within it. But the 80gb of information they want to include is like I stated earlier extremely unorganized...We are in the phase of siphoning out what to keep such as the Galapagos province as a whole shapefile and what to not keep....random points without any attribute information attached to them.

Bahia Sullivan: Isle Bartolome

But at the moment I'm going through all these ocean charts that are interesting. They are close ups of sea depth along with a lot of the smaller islands in the Archipelago. I'm slowly learning the names of most of the islands, the locations, and towns they might have on them.

Recently we have gotten screwed by the person we rented surfboards from...We let a Canadian family try them out for a half hour and their son had snapped off a fin...He gave us 25 dollars in order to fix it but we assured him it would be more because we signed a contract. The man, in front of family, also agreed to meet us at the fish market to come with and return them in case it was more. Unfortunately he wasn't trustworthy and didn't meet us and we are now stuck paying the other $75 dollars that their charging us...not cool man your retired, loaded, and lied in front of your kids.

This is a really spacey message but it's been a few days.

I also started my day after the incident with a trip to the laundry place which is the only way to do laundry. It's a dollar a kilo so it ended up being $5.50 for my stuff. After that I went to a bakery to get some fresh bread. They also randomly had bread crumbs which we could use for our fish later. Because after the bakery I hit up the fish market that sells fresh yellow fin tuna off the boats for $2/lb. I then headed to work at 8 to an awesome email : ) I've been able to get the Internet quite consistently which is SUPER nice and have figured out that I can get to town on a bike in sometimes 5 min depending on what I'm going for or 20 walking.

Giant camera, Giant Centipede

As I sit here working BBC is standing next to me doing an interview with the English guys office next to mine...Steve something who tracks tortoises with GPS's to try and determine their migration routes. They've been here for about a week now filming random things like a giant centipede last week, to land lizards today, to interviews of important people, to color changing moss. All of this is part of a new segment their filming which none of us know when it is to air but it highlights the Galapagos in detail...The word on David Attenbourgh (sp?) is that he's coming shortly and supposedly there's going to be a meet and greet here at the station for people who work here...we'll see if that actually happens.

I'm getting shushed because we're making to much noise so now I'm taking our first routinely scheduled coffee break...

While I wait for BBC to get done with their interview...I'm looking up road trip ideas around the Great Lakes or other places. I don't start school until the 4th I believe so Rach and I were thinking. rooad trrip. If you have any suggestions drop a line.

Recent Recipe:

Joe and I ended up soaking our fresh tuna in egg, dabbing it in crumbs, then frying it on our stove. Cut up a red pepper, minced garlic, and an onion, sauteed it with a lime and then mixed the left over egg to put on top of rice. It ended up being a great meal, but had quite the food coma afterwards.

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield...

Long day

6/3/2012

Lets just say...surfing is a work in progress...

Lovin' it

Almost the weekend

6/1/2012

Today started off pretty slow because the data that were organizing needs to be on both our computers now that the server is down. Transferring 80gb of random stuff on slow computers took our entire morning...So I chowed on candy and finished reading Bill Bryson's, The History of Everything. Joe works in the office right above mine so as lunch rolled around we both look at each other in dire need to relieve some energy. Off to the beach for some lunch break snorkeling. However it was high tide, which here means silty/murky water and maybe 15 feet deeper than normal...Didn't see much but it was a great mini work out before going back to work.

Then as we were getting back to it, Joel came running in and said we are now official....our uniforms were ready. So we bolted over to the office to rock our new work tees. Ended up being able to get a fair amount of things done in the after noon. Although I was constantly refreshing my email to stay entertained :)

After work we had a futbol match set up with Chema, people who work at the station, and some other guys that work at the National Park. Not expecting to much we ended up playing on this picture perfect South American street ball field complete with mini goals and a tortoise painted in the middle. A great game of 4v4 grew into an awesome match of 7v7. As it got dark they even had lights...Oddly enough it was tucked away as their employee parking lot for the Galapagos National Park.

Funny picture of the day goes to...This tourist
laying next to a highly unconcerned and
uninterested marine iguana.

We ended up playing for 2 hours so by then I biked into town and chatted it up with Rachel for a bit was was super nice. Quick took a shower back at the bungalo and wandered off to town to find Joe and Rob who were wandering as aimlessly as I was. We grabbed some beer and ended up watching the Argentina Ecuador match over by the dinner street. Not realizing what time it was we stayed up the latest since we've got here...midnight...haha don't judge, sweating all day takes the wind out of you.