Amazon Part 6

January 23 2013

After dinner, we took a night boat ride.  The main goal was to see caimans, the Amazonian version of an alligator, but of course I was hoping to see some birds as well.  I was lucky enough to sit on the left side of the boat, which was the only side we saw any caimans on.  It was really exciting to photograph them, even if the lighting wasn't the best.  The only caimans we saw were pretty small, maybe about four feet in total length.

you can see blood on its teeth

Caprimulgiformes
 

Before we returned to camp, we turned off all the lights and motor and appreciated the night.  It was so beautiful to look at the stars under a full moon on a tributary to the Amazon.

Amazon Part 5

January 23 2013

After lunch, we were able to go on our third hike.

This was just a "plain" hike--no lakes to go canoeing in or towers to climb.  I did get to see a lot of Amazonian diversity, though.

fungus with rainwater

flower partway up the canopy

sarah with a leaf hat

one of the only butterflies that stayed still long enough for me to photograph it!

giant cricket! seriously about as long as an ipod touch

lianas on lianas

forest rose

fungus growing out of a tree

super spiky tree!

i'm aware that this is not the best picture, but there was so little light that it was har d to photograph anything.  anyways, this is a poison dart frog! slightly larger than a quarter and super colorful

buttress roots with epiphytes

sarah swinging from a liana

sarah of the jungle again

me swinging from a liana

james trying lemon ants

james trying a plant that turns your tongue blue, with our naturalist in the background

crested owl near the hammock area

Amazon Part 4

Well... a while ago I was in the Amazon.  Like over a month.  Whoopsie.  I am currently procrastinating on making my Myiarchus phylogeny by blogging about the Amazon.

January 23 2013
After the massive amount of rain the previous night, it was almost "cool" at Tiputini.  It was still ridiculously humid outside, but tolerable.  Because it was still raining, we weren't able to take a hike in the morning.  Instead, we did some hypothetical sociological/anthropological work.

The Waorani people are one group of Native Ecuadorians.  When the less populated areas of Ecuador were being "Westernized" by oil companies and christian missionaries around 1960, there were two different reactions from the Waorani.  Some groups of Waorani are known as "Untouchables"--they don't want contact with the Western world and react violently to outside contact.  The other groups have become partially Westernized.  They use the roads from the oil companies to facilitate illegal meat trading.  Because they live in permanent structures instead of semi-nomadically, they can consistently and more easily impact the same areas of wildlife.  However, the Western Waorani can still invoke violence as leverage.  If a truck from an oil company refuses to give one of them a ride, they may block the road with logs or something else to get their way.

As students, our goal was to try to combine the interests of the Waorani, oil companies, scientists, and Ecuadorian Government to come to a consensus on the illegal meat market and conservation of cultural values and biodiversity.  This was a complicated issue and no group came up with a functional solution; they all had many positive factors, but overlooked certain aspects.

In the real world, there isn't much for a good answer to this problem.  We all left our class period frustrated, hungry, and ready for another hike.

Short Update

Well, class has started again.  After a week of not much, it is kind of weird to be in class again.  This module, I am taking Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics!  A lot of the other students aren't very excited about the class, but I think it will be very interesting and relevant to what I want to do.

In this class, we discuss evolutionary history.  It is based off of a comparison of DNA sequences to determine how similar organisms are to each other.  We also get to use a variety of programs to write a research paper on a taxa of our choice.  I'm conflicted as to whether I should research how some avian orders may not be monophyletic, or get more specific and investigate how a particular genus is related to each other.  Whichever I chose, I'll be excited about bird research.

I also thought of another thing about the US that I take for granted: toilet seats!  If I go into a bathroom in the US, I expect there to be a toilet seat that is well-secured to the toilet itself.  Many of the bathrooms here do not have seats on the toilet.  The toilet in my house has a wiggly toilet seat that you have to sit very stilly on or it slowly slides away from you.  There is also a bathroom in the school without a seat at all.

Other things I've been up to:

--Cooking: I tried to cook something to eat for lunches instead of going out every day.  I decided on a curry with lentils, chickpeas, and veggies.  It was difficult to cook in a kitchen that isn't mine without all of the tools I'm used to having, but I did it!  My curry was really delicious hot, but not very good cold.  I'll try heating it up on the stove (no microwaves here) and see if that helps.

--Lizards: In my last class, I volunteered to help collect data for my professor's research on lava lizards. I'm collecting really basic population data, like sex and location, but some have microchips in them.  If we find one with a microchip, we also record its length and weight.  I went out trying to catch lizards today, but I wasn't very successful.  We use a string on a stick with a little loop on the end to try to catch them.  It is really difficult because they often just run through the loop.

--Movies: Since the internet here is pretty "janky," I've resorted to watching movies for entertainment instead of streaming TV or youtube videos like I would in Quito or the US.  All of the movies for sale here are pirated copies, so they are cheap and easily accessible.  I just hope I have enough patience to watch more than three before I get sick of them.

Differences between the US and Ecuador/Galapagos

I've recently noticed some things that I take for advantage when I'm in the States.  The US is filled with different luxuries, such as:

1. Standardized butter packaging: Here, butter is not marked with tablespoon increments--it is sold only in a solid block, wrapped in paper, and labelled "mantequilla: 500g". This makes cooking more difficult than it is for me in the US. I'm glad that I have used butter often in the States because I have a good idea of how much a tablespoon is. Margarine is also very popular here, but it is obviously not butter. I have never had problems in a US supermarket when trying to find butter, but it is pretty scarce here.

2. Tap water: Tap water in the US is clear; tap water in the Galapagos is kinda brownish. Tap water in the US is drinkable, even if it might not be the tastiest due to chlorine or other additives. Tap water in Ecuador in general is not consumed due to health concerns. If I go to a restaurant in the US, I don't have to worry about the cleanliness of the water used in the preparation of my food. Additionally, the water supply in the States is seemingly infinite. I try to be conscious of my water use and conserve when I can, but I was never afraid that I would run out of water in the US. In the two months that I've been here, I've already experienced three water outages, one of which lasted for a few days.

3. Internet: In the US, I can access the internet almost anywhere.  Especially now that I have a smartphone, I am constantly connected.  HD videos load almost instantly and I have access to a variety of TV shows and movies online.  Here, internet is a luxury.  Low-quality youtube videos take a while to load, even if no one else is using the internet at the time.  Webpages are generally slow and often take longer than I would have the patience for in the US.

4. Paying with plastic: When I'm in Tacoma, I always carry a credit card with me.  Rarely do I worry about not being able to pay with it or needing to spend a certain amount of money to make a purchase [Libby, however, is a different story--cash is more necessary there than in Tacoma].  In Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, only four stores accept plastic.  I've only found one of them, and you have to spend $12 to make a purchase.

5. Language: Most of the US speaks English. Even though there might be some Southernisms that Montanans might not understand, the concepts can be explained relatively easily. My Spanish skills are improving, but it is often difficult when Ecuadorians don't understand me. I think that I'm communicating decently, but then the other person might have an accent or talk to quickly for me to understand, so I just give up.

6. Health Care: While the US may not be known for the best health care in the world, there are many competent providers that want to help you. Here, the pharmacists don't know what they're doing and do not have the resources to help you. One pharmacist tried to sell me a cream for my sunburn, but couldn't even tell me what the main ingredient did! We also have generally high standards for cleanliness in health care, meaning that health care professionals are aware of germ theory.

I don't bring these things up to complain, but rather to illustrate a point. I never really thought of how many different amenities I have in the US. I'm also pretty sure that I will feel like royalty when I return because I will have so many things that have been absent from my life for four months.  Most of the people reading this probably don't realize how comparatively well-off they are. 

Other Blogs

Here are some links to some of my friends' blogs.  They post about interesting things and have some pretty neat photos as well.

Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see me write about.  I'm running out of ideas and would love to keep my readers interested.

Amanda:

http://letsgalapago.wordpress.com/

Sarah:

http://finchesandfishes.wordpress.com/

Sabina:

http://aventurasdesabina.blogspot.com/

Crabs! Birds!

Today I finally had some free time!  I had been really busy with class and writing essays for job applications, but now I'm done with that.  I have a final on Tuesday and a paper on Friday, but there will be plenty of time for that during the week.

I left my house this morning with my camera looking for some cool wildlife to photograph.  I took some photos on the beach across the street from my school for about an hour, and then lounged and tanned/burned for another hour or so before I decided it was too hot.

After lunch, I went to a different beach to take more pictures.  I was walking around barefoot and somehow managed to take some skin off of my pinkie toe.  Buuuuut! I also got to see boobies plunge diving in the ocean, so it was a pretty good day.  I'll go back again tomorrow with appropriate footwear and get some photos of the plunge diving.

When I realized I cut my toe, I decided that it was time to go home and take care of myself.  I realized how burnt I was--I totally missed my upper thighs when I applied sunscreen.  I went to three pharmacies in town, but none had Solarcaine or understood what a topical analgesic was.  It was really frustrating for me, but hopefully I'll be okay.  If not, I can always eat my feelings because the ice cream here is delicious :]

baby marine iguana

finch!

hermit crab!

parts of a sea lion carcass