Amigos Hola!

One of these days, I will actually blog about the science and work I am down here for, and will give a report of my first flight and findings, but the last 1.5 days I was a little down (the time I was writing this post)- I feel a little stuck at the hotel sometimes, not feeling safe enough to really do something on my own - any walk I take, I always get comments from any men passing by, and even though I know it is part of the latin culture, it get very tiring, and sometimes is pretty intimidating, especially if no one else is around. (But - I promise I'm staying safe!) Also, I seem to be very dependent on others/coworkers to do anything besides sitting behind my computer and working, so that is also limiting.

Anywho - this made me take yesterday afternoon off :) - around lunch time I walked into town - on my own - it was so nice! It was busy enough in town that (nearly) no-one bothered me with a comment, and I shopped around for some post cards to send (though not very successful - I found one tiny store, which had 4 post cards - so I bought their entire stock :) - needles to say, don't feel left out if you don't receive a postcard from me this trip), I found a bakery where I bought some empanadas (pastries filled with meat and other goodies - they make GREAT lunches!), and just looked around town a bit.

When I got back, a coworker and his wife (and another coworker who wanted to come along) were actually just headed out of town to drive north along the coast to where the road ends - at the end of this road, there is a trail all along the coast, leading to a colony of sea lions! Of course I joined :)

The trail was nice, of course all desert like everywhere else here, but there were some caves we explored, watched some of the giant birds fly around (I'm sure I'll post something about these giant birds at some point too), again stared at the waves, and finally got to the sea lion colony:


We watched the swells splash through this hole - pretty fun!


Some parts of the rock walls were all white - after more detailed examination we determined this was years and years of bird poo!


(from left to right: Julie, Sam, Perry)




We explored some cool caves! (though they smelled awful - a buildup of years and years of birdpoo!)


My silhouet in the cave


Standing in front of the water spout :)


Pile 'O Sea Lions




All huddled together on one little Island



One scrawny little guy (right)- he looked very underfed :( - but maybe that is mom on the left?



Rodrigo de Butar - the friendly little crab



And some sea lion jerky for those interested? - look at those teeth!




Amigos Hola!