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What can I say?! I think I was born to live on the playa (beach)!I wear shoes for about an hour a day, live in my swimsuit and sarong, swim in the ocean at least once a day, drink fresh fruit in the afternoon on the beach while watching the afternoon games of fútbol, and when the sun starts to set I take off for a late afternoon run along the beach followed a little yoga to reenergize.¡Es muy bacan (cool)...Me encanta mi vida (I love my life ;-)
The Yay's are many, though of course, there are some Nay's.A few things that will take some getting used to: not being able to put TP in the toilet; being introduced to (at least) one new pesky bug friend every day. Yes, they ARE living among us! In the streets, on the beach, in the forest, in our house, sometimes they even manage to sneak in our beds past the mosquito nets; and the water practically everywhere in Ecuador is very poor so it's important to watch what you put in your mouth (it seems everyone who travels here learns the hard way).
Another quirk about the country is the power situation.A little story about the power outages here.. The first time the power went out I was in Quito; the entire country was out for about 8 hours total that night.This is the story I got.. Ecuador gets its power from Colombia so when something goes south with Colombia's power, all of Ecuador loses theirs.The power has gone out three times already in 2 weeks so from my experience, I would say it is a pretty common occurrence.I haven't really got a straight answer about how frequent this happens from anyone I've asked.It's very interesting, though people just go about things normally when it happens.It's much more laid back in Puerto Lopez than in Quito as traffic is so hectic in Quito as it is, and when the power went out when I was there, the streets turned into an absolute disaster!
As for my work situation.. every other night I camp in a tent on the beach with at least one other person and patrol the beach for sea turtles coming to nest.The two species that nest on this particular protected beach are Hawksbill's/CAREY's and Green Sea Turtles.I haven't seen a turtle yet as there are not many left that come to nest here.There are however, three nests with eggs waiting to hatch on this same beach so it will be very exciting when the babies emerge!Next week I will start going to the fish market on the beach (which is every morning) on the day's I am not camping.We will be recording information about the sharks the fisherman caught the previous night.The fish market is really incredible in terms of numbers and variety!It is sad however, to see the size of the fish being landed; in general the individuals are quite small.
Diving will begin soon!This week is for learning about the fish and corals we will encounter at Isla de la Plata.One project I will be working on is putting together a collective fish identification slide show of the resident species on Isla de la Plata with information about the species (for easy identification) and statistics about their populations.Another project will be to study the black corals on the island.There has been no study of its kind for the area so we will be the pioneers for the project.We will be camping on the island for days at a time as the work will require MANY hours underwater!!!
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