Mom comes to Ponce!!

Ok, another exciting blog! My mom came down here last week, and we had a blast. Here's a recap of everything we were able to do and see while she was her.

She came down Thursday afternoon, and drove up to the mountain. I took her on a quick tour of the station, and introduced her to all of the people living here. I then proceeded to cook a delicious dinner of dinner and dessert crepes for all of the tree census crew (Rachel, Ed, Tuber, Mark, Alejandro and Chris) and the two of us. After we ate, we shuttled off to the bio bay in Fajardo to take a tour. It really is an amazing experience, to go to one of these bays. There are only 5 in the world, and consists of a lot of little organisms in high concentrations that emit light when you touch the water. Once these organisms, called dinoflagellates, emit a burst of light, they can no longer emit light for another half hour. That means that the concentration of these little guys has to be extremely high, so that you can see so many bursts of light every time you touch the water. We kayaked through the bay to get to a lagoon where the concentration of these little guys was even higher. Every time we touched the water, little sparkles would touch our hands and light up those around it. It really is magical to see, and the kayak trip wasn't so bad either :) We then drove home and had a nice night in the apartments here at El Verde.

Friday morning we woke up an had a leisurely morning here at the station. We walked around, and I told her about what we were doing here in the forest. After talking to Chris for a while, we got on the road to take the long way down to Ponce. To get to Ponce, you can either cut down the island's middle, or you can take the long way around the coast. We started going that way, anyways. At some point, we got lost, and ended up back on 52 down the middle of the island. Ah well. We stopped for lunch and smoothies at some kiosks off the highway. My mom had her first pincho (teryaki/barbeque chicken kebab) and we had two of the fastest melting smoothies of our lives. Seriously, we couldn't even keep up. I also picked up a new purse in the style of Britto, which is apparently pretty popular on the island. A little of the island culture to bring home with me :) We then made our way down to Ponce, and checked into our hotel. It's a cute little hotel right in downtown Ponce, with a great little garden on the roof and an outdoor pool with a little fountain. After dropping off our stuff, we took a quick walk around and then went for a swim. The pool was very nice, and having most everything be outdoors is a nice way to relax. Unless it's hot out. Which it was. After swimming, we went and changed, and then headed down to the boardwalk to walk around and look at the shops. Turns out there are no shops. Just fried food. Mmmmmm. So we came back to the downtown area for dinner at Cafe Tomas, where they do not know how to serve fruit juice sans alcohol. After dinner, we just talked for a while. It's nice having your mom around :)

Saturday we slept in a bit (again), and then went up to have a lovely breakfast on the roof. After breakfast, we went out to go walk around in the markets a little, and then tried to go the the music museum. When I say tried, I mean we went during their normal open hours, but they were closed already. When we asked an info booth about it, they said that the museum kind of opened when it felt like it. Bummer for us, man. We consoled ourselves with ice cream (well, we had already eaten the ice cream), and then went to get pizza for lunch. We made it back to our hotel to cool off a bit (SO HOT), and ended up falling asleep for the afternoon. Whoops. In the evening, we went to check out a video game convention with 3 Wii systems, 3 Playstations, and 5 XBox's, 2 of which had Kinect. OHMAHGAH. So high tech :P The convention was at a mall, so we decided to go see what was going on and just shop around a little. We grabbed dinner at a sizzler, and then came back to the hotel. We went to bed early, as we needed to get up early in case we might be able to go snorkeling on Sunday.

Well, snorkeling fell through. Apparently the waves were too choppy, and it wasn't safe to take us out on the boat. However, this gave us plenty of time to go to a bunch of museums and historic areas of Ponce anyways. We started off by visiting the oldest tree in Ponce, a ceiba, which has been around for over 500 years. Pretty old tree, that's for sure. We then went up to the Serralles castle of the Don Q rum fame, and took a tour there. The castle is very beautiful, built in the 1920's by the family and bought by the historical society of Ponce in the 1990's. There is a lot of history here in PR, but as my mom and I realized on this trip, most of the history is post Columbian. Not much is known about the indigenous people of the area. I find that a little sad, in the end. Such a rich history has been lost. We then went to the art museum, and walked around there. They have the original Flaming June, which is just a gorgeous painting. Also, with my mom having a history in art, it was very interesting going through the artwork with her. I learned much more from her than I did from my art history classes, that's for sure :P After that, we headed back into the Plaza Delicias (the central plaza that our hotel was located on) to find a place for lunch. We finally settled at Lola's, which was so good that we decided to go back for dinner before we had even had our food. And, we stuck with that decision after we ate. After lunch we met up with my tree census crew (I know, we can't even go a weekend without seeing each other), as they had ventured down to Ponce for the day. We talked about what was going on up at the station, now that the REU's are gone, and meandered around the square and the shops surrounding. They left pretty early, as they wanted to get to a swimming hole for the afternoon, and my mom and I went shopping for a little bit in the square. We then went swimming again, and spent the evening watching NFNS. No regrets.

Monday we woke up and packed, and then hit the road around 11. We were aiming to get to Luquillo around 3, and planned for lunch around then as well. On the way back, we drove up 3 for much longer, and were able to see more of the coast. It really was gorgeous, and even though it took much longer to get back, we were so glad we went that way. At one point we stopped to take pictures and buy kenepas (little fruits that taste a little like lychees), and then got back on the road again. I'll post pictures tomorrow, probably, maybe. Once we got to Luquillo, we walked through the kioskos that I have become so familiar with. We had lunch/dinner at El Jefe's burger shack, which was delicious but FILLING. We ended our afternoon sitting on "my beach" and wrapping up our vacation conversations. We tried to get smoothies before we left, but she had already closed up for the night. Sad. Up the hill we went, we said our good byes, and my mom went back into San Juan. It was a lovely trip, and I wished it could have lasted forever. We'll have to make it to another trip sometime soon, because we make pretty good vacation buddies :P

Balance between the exciting and the "bland"

So, as I was just talking with my mom (potentially my most dedicated follower on this blog, even though I talk to her practically every day :P), she mentioned that she sometimes feels like even my most boring days are more exciting than her busiest days. I hadn't really thought of it that way, and I'm not sure that I agree with her. You see, there is a general excitement factor of just me being on an island for the summer that I have completely forgotten about. I know I can got to a beach in no time flat, and that I'm surrounded by palm trees everywhere I turn, but I forget that this isn't just home. I feel really comfortable here, like I've lived here for months and years, instead of just two months. Life at the station is both fast paced and relaxed, and I am definitely in the swing of things. This weekend I sat and read for two days, but also enjoyed a family dinner, went grocery shopping, negotiated a beach trip for others, did data work, and did my laundry. All the while, I just felt like I was enjoying a nice, relaxing weekend. Now, for those of you who are in those busy areas of the world, you may look at this post and think "Silly little island brain." But, I'm happy :)

In fact, even my regular work is both monotonous and invigorating. We do the same thing every day--hike out into the forest to measure trees, knowing that it will either rain on us or we will fall and get mud EVERYWHERE. However, every day is completely different--different trees, different stories, different jokes...I swear, the only thing that doesn't change is what Tuber, Ed and Mark bring for lunch. We always find a way to make each other laugh, and the movement across this great forest of ours really changes scenery in both the literal and figurative. So, maybe my day is exciting for those of you reading, and if it is, I'm glad I can share it with you. But if you were here, and if you could understand what I meant...it's not so much that it's exciting. It's just life. Plain, old, wonderful, fulfilling life. I love what I do, and I really love being here. I really do :)

Culebra!

So, I promised I would write about our trip to Culebra, an island off of the eastern coast of PR. We have been planning this trip for a couple of weeks, but finally we got up and left on Wednesday for 3 days. We got up very early, leaving at 6:15 in the morning. Seth drove us to the docks to catch our ferry, and we then stood in the every extending line for about a half hour. At this point, a voice came over the loud speaker to inform us that the ferry we wanted to take was sold out, and the next one wouldn't be until 3:30. In the next 20 minutes, we mulled over our options: wait until the next ferry; go to Vieques instead (another island near Culebra); take a charter plane over. As outrageous as it sounds, we took the plane! It's only about $40 per person, so we packed into a taxi and shuttled over. We had to give our weights, as well as the weights of our bags, and before too long we were packing into a plane the size of a matchbox :P The ride was about 13 minutes long, and it was AWESOME. We touched down and got out of the airplane like it was a car. From the terminal, we hoofed our way over to a bike rental shop, and then hopped on our bikes. Mind you, each of us had at least 20 pounds on our backs. Rachel and Alejandro had 50 pounds each. Through the hot sun we rode the 2 ish miles to our campsite, where we set up shop and then immediately jumped in the ocean/took naps. We brought all of our food with us, and so lunch was kind of whenever we felt like it. The beach was beautiful, and the snorkeling was wonderful. So many colorful fish :) We had an early dinner of hot dogs, veggie dogs and turkey burgers, and then lit up an illegal fire for smores. All day we were visited by a friendly kitty, whom we named Ocelot, or Ozzy, or Oshawott. She was super friendly, and very cuddly. We had a good dinner and desert, and we all turned in very early after the long day of traveling for some pretty bad sleep spotted with insects and heat.

The next morning we woke up pretty early and made pancakes for breakfast. Ozzy made another appearance, and we all took turns cuddling. We then took a trip to another beach (Carlos Rosario) for better snorkeling. During this trip, I definitely learned that we are spoiled up here on the mountain with our cool temperatures. On Culebra, the weather was hot hot hot hot hot hot hot and humid. We hiked over to Carlos Rosario, and then snorkeled to our hearts content. The water was so clear, and the fish were even more vibrant than at Flamenco, the beach we stayed at. Parrot fish, jelly fish, angel fish....so wonderful. We then hiked back to our campsite and made tuna for lunch. We finally gave in and gave Ozzy the water from the cans. She was so pleased, and even stuck around after! We hung around again that afternoon, with Rachel Tuber and Alejandro taking a bike ride around the island. I took another nap :) Dinner was pasta, and we make even more smores. Life really is good on islands.

Friday we woke up after another crappy night of sleep. Rachel, Mark and I took a walk along Flamenco in the early morning light, and then made it back for a breakfast of cereal, peanut butter, nutella and bread. We hung around a little bit, snorkeling or reading or relaxing, and then we packed up camp and headed back to our bikes. We biked back to the bike shop, and had lunch in the restaurant below. There were enormous Tarrapin fish swimming in the docks right by our table, and we had delicious food for lunch. We were all starving and super thirsty after the bike ride, and snarfed everything down. We then walked over to the ferry dock to wait in line for tickets for our ferry later that night. A few sat in line, and the rest of us walked around the main town on Culebra to get a glimpse of the city life. The ferry came a little late, but we got on and got home in no time flat (ok, like 3 hours. NBD). Time for a weekend of relaxation and Harry Potter!!

More Pictures!

Ok everyone! I promised more pictures, and I'm making good on my word! Here are a couple of random pictures from these past few weeks here in PR :)

 This is another picture of a coqui. This guy jumped on me, then immediately wanted to jump away. It took a while to get this good of a shot, as the little guy refused to sit still! Also, notice the old computer on my lap...tear.

 This is a picture of the panoramic cave we visited on week 3. With Rich for scale, you can see just how big and beautiful the opening was, and how gorgeous the scenery was.

 Close up on the view from the panoramic cave. Lots of farmland sat below us, and there was a river running over on the right side of the grounds.

 As you can see, we are a fearless bunch. We got right up to the edge of the cave, which lead to a 100 meter drop onto the picturesque landscape below. Although, had we dropped down, I'm not so sure it would have been picturesque anymore...

 This is the flat tire I caused that day. Le sigh...

 This is a picture of the fountain in the central plaza of Ponce. I had never been to Ponce before, and I like it almost as much as I like OSJ. Really beautiful. I can't wait to go back with my mom in August :)

 Luquillo beach is probably my favorite beach out of all of the different coasts we've seen so far. Lots of palm trees, beautiful blue waters, and soft sands as far as the eye can see.

 I found a ginger! This is us on the harbor of OSJ, watching impending doom hurtle its way towards us in the form of rain clouds.

 And again, we're super cool. This is on the wall near the Castillo de Felipe. It was hot. And we are cool.

 This is on Culebra, an island off the coast of PR. We spent 3 days here last week, just relaxing and snorkeling. we aren't going to get holidays off, but who needs them when you have a view like this!?

 This is Ocelot/Ozzy/Oshawott. She was our mascot during our Culebra trip, and was the cutest little thing. We strongly considered keeping her, but unfortunately animals don't live terribly long around the station...

One last shot of the beach at Culebra to end it out. I think I need to take pictures of more things, but as you can see we are having an amazing time here. It is so beautiful, and on the mountain it really isn't hot. That can't be said for the main part of the island, but we do what we can. I'll post a written blog later today, as well. Enjoy!

A ginger in San Juan? IMPOSSIBLE!!

Well, I successfully guided a ginger around San Juan this past weekend :) He landed on Thursday evening at SJU, and Ed and I picked him up there. We then made our way to our hotel in Condado, called the Sandy Beach. It was very cute; the hotel was a u-shaped building, with a courtyard through the middle, and the hotel was literally 20 steps from the ocean. Every morning we ate breakfast in this courtyard, with the sun shining down on us. Our room was small but comfy, and it was everything we needed. We spent the first night walking along the beach, as Chris had never been to a beach O_o Crazy, right? He loved it at night, and had a great time playing with the tide as it splashed his feet. Not surprising, the boy is a fish. We then went to bed, looking forward to the days ahead of us.

We woke up the next morning, and promptly went to the beach. Of course, he loved it. He was just having the time of his life fighting the waves, and proclaimed he could stay there all day and not get bored. I believed him, honestly. He was just having the time of his life in those waves. We spent a couple of hours in the ocean, during which I made a new fishy friend and Chris did not get burned. After that, we went into Old San Juan to meet Ed for lunch. He took us to one of his favorite restaurants, and we talked about everything from work to sports. Original, I know :P After lunch, Chris and I took a small tour of the streets, and then made our way to a shop that sells handmade gifts. I had bought my mom a thunder machine there when I was here in '09, and she wanted me to bring her back 3 more. When I asked the cashiers if they had any, they yelled and then said no. Typical. However, they did have one at their other store, and so I promptly went and bought it. Chalk one more up for the win. We then had ice cream, walked over to the Castillo de San Felipe and sat on the lawn there. It was a gorgeous day, but hot, so we were just happy to talk while sitting on the grass. We then went on a walk down the Paseo de la Princessa, and then had a long wait for Rachel, Tuber and Alejandro to meet us for dinner. It was nice, though--Chris and I sat and talked, and just took in the beauty of OSJ. Finally we got the go from Rachel to go the the restaurant, but not before one more hiccup. We ran into a man who was telling us a story about his father and him getting mugged in a bad part of OSJ. It was raining, and so Chris and I didn't really know what to do. At the end, he asked us for $8, and so I gave him a $10 to help out. He thanked me, and told me to email him at any point. He also mentioned that his father was the DA of Milwaukee. Chris and I both laughed, and told him we were from Wisconsin. He said we would know his name then. Of course, we didn't. We then went on our way to dinner, and had a wonderful dinner at a pizza place with Tuber, Ed, Alejandro and Rachel. Then it was off to bed.

The next day was a little less eventful. We woke up later and had a relaxing morning, and then headed to a surf shop to rent surf boards. Chris, for those of you who don't know him, is a major wake board fan, and has wanted to try surfing for a really long time. Unfortunately, when we got there, they said that the waves were flat and that it would be a waste of our money to rent boards. So we walked to the beach nearby, and upon getting there I realized that this was the beach where Tuber had his phone stolen O_o. So we were careful, and went swimming at this beach for a little while. We then made our way back to the surf shop, where Chris bought a pair of sandals. Since we came back, they gave us a 10% discount. So nice of them! We then went back to our hotel, swam a bit there, and then showered and got dressed for dinner. Sort of. We also passed out on the bed mid conversation due to being completely exhausted. Silly college kids. We went out to dinner at a little restaurant down the street, and Chris had mofongo (mashed plantains with stew) for the first time. He was pleased, but I don't think it's his favorite :P We then walked around Condado, and talked a lot. That's kind of what we do. We ended the night with some ice cream and some tv, just relaxing to round out a wonderful weekend :)

Sunday was check out day, so of course we slept in :P We had one last swim in the ocean (which was wavy, and so Chris cursed whatever god he could think of at the time), and then packed up and headed out. We stopped for lunch, then caught a cab to the airport to say goodbye. Alejandro picked me up and shuttled me to the WalMart in Rio Grande, where Rachel met me a couple hours later. And thus endeth our weekend in San Juan. We both wished it could have been longer, but it really was a wonderful trip with many great stories and a great person to spend it with :) Pictures soon!

Wonderful weather we're having, huh?

One thing that has been hard to get used to here is the weather. It will be predicted as beautiful and sunny for the whole week, and then it will pour. The reverse happens as well. A good example is this weekend. We were planning on visiting Culebra, an island off of the east side of PR (usually paired with Vieques), but the predicted weather was thunderstorms the whole time we were there. So, we decided to postpone our trip, as we wanted a beautifully clear trip for snorkeling and sleeping on the beach. Of course, because we decided not to go, the next three days were practically rain free, with a tiny bit of rain on Friday morning and some sprinkles here and there throughout. Typical. But, we made use of ourselves by patching Barbie's flat tire and heading to the beach here at Luquillo, which is the same beach we went to for Noche del San Juan (running into the ocean backwards). It truly is a beautiful beach, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. We've gotten a good feel for each other's idiosyncracies ("No, Rachel, I still don't want to go swimming" is in all of our arsenals now :P), but you can guarantee that there will always be at least one person willing to go to the beach if you ask. I mean, who wouldn't want to go?

The weather makes work a little more difficult as well. While we are all hardy people, we have our breaking point with rain and cold. Inside the forest, it is always a nice temperature, and in the sun we never have to worry about overheating or frying. However, once it starts raining, work becomes just a little more testing. Wet clothes are one thing, but looking up to ID trees becomes more treacherous when you are dodging raindrops every .5 seconds. Also, as data recorder, I have the short end of the stick when it begins raining. We use write-in-rain paper, which is waterproof--the water just beads up and can be wiped off in light rain. When it starts to thunderstorm, however, it doesn't matter how waterproof your paper is; it's still paper. I have lots of tricks, but in the end we always come back with a lot of soggy paper balls at the bottom of our clipboard. We make the best of it in the rain-lots of jokes, lots of laughing, and the idea in the back of our heads that if it really does get bad, we can always go in. So, in the end, I'm just trying to paint a picture of the soggy mess that we were today upon coming back from the field after 3 hours of thunderstorms :)

Next blog will 1) be from my new computer, 2) have lots of pictures, and 3) be all about chris' and my adventures in San Juan! He's coming here for the weekend, and I am extremely excited :) Everyone should be as well!!

Saving Space

So I haven't really had many adventures in the past week, save for the introduction of a car called "Barbie" that we as volunteers are occasionally able to drive. So far we've taken her into Fajardo for dinner, and into Rio Grande for an oil change and groceries. And yet somehow in the sitting-in-our-parking-lot stage of things, she managed to get a flat tire. Typical. TIPR.

Aside from Barbie, things were relatively quiet this week. I think we're all starting to realize that the station is rather small, and we have little to no privacy...ever. Our rooms house way more people than they're meant to; the kitchen is always overflowing with bodies; there is always someone coming or going from the big building, and there is always someone there to ask you what you're up to, whether you're ready to talk or not. It takes some getting used to initially, but there is also a backlash about 4 weeks in (hey, that's today!) where you realize all you want is to be by yourself, in your own room, minding your own business. It comes and goes, but its something to be aware of. Everyone here is still wonderful though, and I couldn't have asked for a better crew of "housemates".

I guess there was one or two other events in this past week. On Sunday we resurrected an old ping pong table for a healthy round robin to determine "the champ". I made a valiant effort, winning my first seed against Whitney and then getting whomped by Tuber 21-2 in the second round. Ah well, I was not built for sports. TJ the DJ ended up winning, and we all gave him a hearty pat on the back and a well deserved "Good Jorb!" Also, why has no one else thought of the nickname "Lazir Lizar"? GENIUS.

Also, there was a barbeque at the house of one of the professors for the REU students, so we all piled into whatever vehicles we could find and made it out there. One thing to note about PR is that all of the houses are extremely small in comparison to Continental standards. It has nothing to do with economic viability or any lack of space; simply put by Bob, what use do these people have for a large house when they have a perfectly good outside that is available year round? This has been hard for me to get used to, as most houses are smaller than my grandmother's house, but it is something I can support for sure. Economically, environmentally, and emotionally viable. Two thumbs up. Read my paper on Midwest flooding for that to make more sense. Anyway, the barbeque was delightful. I killed at baseball, or, as the others would put it, "made an ass of myself," and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.

One final note--as soon as I get my new computer (which will be on the 14th when Chris comes), I will post more pictures. It's not easy to do on public computers. Hasta luego!