The other day I met with Henri to discuss some more work he wanted tackled. This time it consisted of converting over 5000 points of collected ant specimens. The conversion that he wants is to convert a point that is in degrees, minutes, seconds (DMS or 0°24'35''S) to decimal degrees
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| 10lb binoculars from back when they were doing military operations in the Galapagos |
That took up most of my morning all while Chema was chatting with a granted over marine biologist. I asked them what they had been doing all morning and she explained they had lost a $3500 tracking device that they had placed on what I think she said was Oahu? At any rate, there not cheap. It sends out a highly inaccurate GPS point when it believes it has a clear signal. The last point sent out was at 7am this morning on the south western side of this island, past Tortuga Bay to the north. Their plan was to go and try to find it...I said Chema, you have to get me on that boat with you. So by 2:00 I was on that boat. We rallied 7 people including two National Park people, and 5 of us from the station all huddled in this dinky fiberglass hull, half inflatable, zodiac with a 50hp motor. What seems like small swells from shore were no longer small swells in a 12 foot boat. We were bouncing around, getting that flight or fight reflex as we try not to be the one to go overboard. As we near the GPS location, which did happen to be in the water this morning, we realize that this is going to be extremely challenging. The device is about the size and also looks like a car cell phone charger which is conveniently colored blackish grey...the same color as every rock on this island. It also, if floating, doesn't float upright so it will also be half submerged. We park our zodiac in this small cove while dozens of the largest marine iguanas I've seen to date here, stare at us like we've just arrived on another planet. We start our search and continue our search until 4:30pm where we assume we've had enough for the day. Although we couldn't find the device, it was pretty neat to sift through the piles of debris that get washed up during high tides. Of the how ever many tourists come here, it looked as though about half have lost just one of their flip flops which have now taken residence in this very spot for the next million years.
Back to the boat, back to the dock, and off to the fish market to get dinner. I stopped and got two pounds of fresh Oahu fillets to cook Chema, and Joe. Then of course since I was in town I stopped by the bakery, this time getting what look like strawberry buns mhmmm I am excited for those. The fish we cooked up looked 5 star restaurant material....here me out...We sauteed a sauce of aja pepper seasoning, yellow pepper, onion, and garlic until it was caramelized. Then dropped in the fillets turning them accordingly. While cooking rice with squeezed orange juice and pepper. The fillets were complemented by a yellow pepper/green pepper salad with oregano. Rachel, all of this I'm making for youu when I get home by the way. We had it all made and eaten in less than 45 min. From there Deb came back with our care packages from home. Thanks family I now have more candy than I can possibly eat! Other than that I am now off to skype it up with Rach and go to bed : )
I've started an interesting new book called "Maphead" by Ken Jennings. I can finally get reading again after finishing The History of Everything : ) and also Kurt Vonneguts book "Galapagos" (extremely strange by the way). Maphead is a book about the culture of geography and how geography shapes our every experiences. I already recommend it for anyone interested in maps as well as those those intrigued by the artistic trance of cartography.  |
| The Road To Success |
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| The agave plant...the source of tequila |
A woman we work with and lives over in the German section of
town was hanging out at the beach we passed on the way back. She was more than
eager to show us her house so we went to check it out. Right off of the beach
we passed through this picturesque blue gate that opened to a small winding
path around salt water tide pools. It then led to this blanketing path of
picture perfect, spongy, overgrown, grass that swerved to the porch of the main
building. The main building is no longer occupied and was sold by the owners to
a local hotel…Should probably mention that this is the childhood home of Tui
De Roy. For those of you who don’t know who Tui De Roy is (because I couldn’t
put a face to the name either) she is one of the world’s greatest photographers
with prints in nearly every National Geographic and plenty more publications
globally. Her parents who built this house were one of the first 100 people who
came from Germany back in the early 1900’s and built this very house. Built
from local materials it has a semi thatch roof, indoor garden, naturally
lighted displays, cactus infused windows (gives it a stained glass look) and a
porch overlooking the beach we were just at. Currently in the process of moving out, her
mother sold it, built a 4 story house in Bellavista and now 84 years old she
wanted money to travel the world for the rest of her life. In her youth and
knowing nothing of sailboat design they constructed a handmade sailboat from
materials they found on the island. Another fun fact, living on an island gives
you plenty of access to sea shells. The family’s collection holds some of the
rarest shells and was sold for more than any normal person would want to pay
for shells. Quite the life. Now, you can understand when given this as your
backyard in your childhood you could start out a photography career in the most photogenic archipelago. Tui now spends her time in both, the house of
her own behind this one, and a home she made in New Zealand.
As we were on the
porch hundreds of finches lined the trees, table, and ground looking for a rice
handout that they know will come. As
we leave the house there are exotic and definitely not native species of plants
growing in and around everything. If you look close enough there are is a
species of finch here called woodpecker finches. They are one of two species of
birds in the world that use a tool to find food. We watched this little guy for
quite some time, first find a thorn of his choosing, then start jamming the
thorn in holes throughout this branch hoping to stab whatever he can, whether
that be ants or worms. 
Behind this place is a special tree that grows graviola. It is a
fruit that is what I deemed nature’s version of yogurt. The inside is a
gooy-white substance with fairly large seeds. Although looking much like
the inside of a coconut it tastes like a mixed fruit yogurt container. Adding a delicious fruit
tree to this little ocean oasis it almost felt like we were back at Bellavista
in the Andes. Put that tree on my list of things to grow in my future garden : ) |
| flower off of an exotic lilypad |
This weekend turned out good although we didn't attempt to do too much. Deb's class is still down here from the University and they were going up to a place called El Clato. It's a bit like a National Park, where large land tortoises can roam around with minor disturbances from people. It's located really close to Santa Rosa up past Bellavista in the western highlands.It is a huge place with freshwater lagoons that sit stagnat with bogs. All of us guys decided to get up and go to the market Saturday morning which took a bit longer than expected so we missed a free ride with Deb and her class. But we were able to get fifty cent cheese empanada's and fresh fruit for the week so not to much of a loss there. We have another rack of 50 or so bananas which are now riponing faster than we can eat them...
