Day 4.... Sea Lion rescue! (aka, rescate del lobo marino)

Pobrecito!!  (means "poor thing" in spanish).  Yesterday, the gardeparques (park officers) saw a sea lion with massive cuts all over it's back, most likely from a boat propeller.  Today, they managed to capture it and bring it to the park office where the gangrenous flesh was removed, it was given antibiotics, cleaned up, and set free.  Chevere!!!  When we released the poor fellow, he looked back at us for a while as if to say...  "Thanks guys".  Nah, it was probably the drugs making his head spin.

Anyways, I'm also posting a few pictures to give you guys an idea of how tough life is here.  Basically, I live in a house in the middle of the park, which is pretty much jungle, my walk to work in the morning is 5 min. down a little mud path, and we have 2 hr lunches (mas o menos) where we have ice cream in the town and watch the fisherman bring in their catches, which are carefully inspected by the local brown pelicans.

Having a terrible time....  Ha!

Llegue!! (aka, arrived!)

Yes, that´s right.  I have arrived, more or less with no problems.  Except one...  which isn´t really a problem.

So, I thought I was supposed to be going to Isabela, but when I finally arrived in Santa Cruz, took the ferry, the bus, and arrived in Puerto Ayora, I was unable to catch the last ferry of the day to Isabela.  When I called my contact at the Natioinal Park, all I managed to get in a broken conversation was to come to the park office in Puerto Ayora (thinking they´d just put me up for the night until I could go to Isabela).  But when I arrived at the park office, they tell me that there were some changes and I´d be stationed in Santa Cruz (not Isabela).  Well holy crap am I glad I missed the boat (no pun intended), otherwise it´d have been two hours overwater in the wrong direction!!  This is not really a bad thing...  most of the dive shops offering day trips are located in Puerto Ayora....  so you can bet your ass you know what Andrea is doing on her weekends off!  Hahahaha!! 

Also, is there some unwritten law that all research jobs come with a mandatory period of cleaning out some junkie storage room...?  Oh well, it was only one day (not a week).  When I left the office today to go for an after-work swim at the beach, who was there to greet me outside the office gates...?  My first marine iguana.  Chevere!  I had to get out of it´s way as it started walking right towards me.  Tomorrow we are going on the boat to do oceanographic monitoring!  Thursday then must be diving to learn how to do the lobster surveys and ´muestras animales´...!

Oh, and PS...  I´ve been told this font and color suck.  Does anyone else think so?  And Suzie...  I changed the blog to allow comments!
 

Quito... if only breifly.

Phew, have finally arrived after a looong day of travel.  When we first arrived in Quito, the plane was unable to land due to rain and fog, and so we had to fly to Guayquil and refuel and sit on the tarmac for 1.5 hrs.  I was thinking to myself...  what's a bit of rain??  Pilots land in a bit of rain and fog all the time in Vancouver, right?  Well, the lovely Ecuadorian gal form Quito sitting next to me on the plane explained that because Quito is at such high and altitude and surrounded by mountains, it makes landing very difficult.  What's so hard about landing around mountains, I thought?  Pilots do it in Vancouver all the time, right?  Well, apparently, the airport in nestled in the heart of the city, which is nestled right in the heart of some peaks.  Then I was remined a few years ago about the plane that crashed into the side of a mountain when trying to land in bad weather in Quito....  that's OK, I'd rather be tired and arrive late rather than be splattered on the side of a mountain.

Departure!!

OK, here we go!  Waiting at the airport to board my plane.  Still recovering from the 'excess baggage' show this morning w/ Continental.  I swear, a heavy bag cannot possibly make that much of a difference to the fuel economy of a jet that the airline has to bend you over and give you the proverbial KY treatment for it (sigh).  If my Visa could shed tears..... 

Next stop....  QUITO!!!!!