Alright, so maybe a vacation isn’t exactly what should be in my thesis log… My thoughts here are that these stories might catch your attention and inspire continued readership. Better yet, you might decide to visit Chile and make your own stories. I’ll be posting a long description of experiments and results next week (I’ll be working with Evie on the figures while we are out in Pichilemu). At this point, I have been changing the water levels every 6 hrs for my clumped mussel run. I hit a few complications last night, so the hours tonight have to be adjusted a bit, but hopefully everything from here on will run smoothly and I’ll have the results of this version on Sunday. I’ll be giving a presentation (not this Monday, but next) of my crab data as well as practicing my fish talk if any of you happen to be in the area

So I’m going to paste the vacation description I wrote for my Mom below. I should add photos this afternoon. As far as my neck swelling, I guess it’s normal to have lymph nodes react to the smog in Santiago. Everything in that department had cleared up by this morning. This just means I have one more city to put on the list of places I probably shouldn’t live…

Here goes:

The best vacation of my life and my first bloody nose:

A brief description of my recent travels in Southern Chile and Santiago.

Day 1: Friday, August 17, 2007

The most important part of an adventure is to start out with clean clothes. Bypassing mundane descriptions, I’ll begin with the evening:

Using the backpack which Evie loaned me, I headed with Randy and Matt to San Antonio to buy a chip for Randy’s old cell phone. I bought a 5000 peso card and waited for the phone to activate. They left me at the bus station in San Antonio around 8 so that I could catch a ride to Santiago for an overnight bus to Pucón. This part of the journey all went smoothly, except frustration at trying to activate the card for my phone credit and waiting for over two hours in the bus terminal for a 12:40 am bus.

I bought pizza and the awful beer (called schop) which is common here to pass the time. Unfortunately, the dessert shop downstairs which had been my after pizza plan closed while I was sitting around reading, so I settled for toffee and stood outside.

INSERT LONG (~10 hour) BUSRIDE HERE – I went Classico (the cheapest option) which is more like airline style seating than the Cama (bed style). It was pretty painful to spend that long on a cramped bus…

Day 2: Saturday, August 18, 2007

I ended up at the bus station in Pucón at 10:30 or so and was instantly accosted by a woman from the German hostel in town. Another woman was traveling alone (we were the last ones off the bus and had obvious large tourist backpacks) and decided to go with the strange woman holding a Lonely Planet guide and photos of the hostel. I was set on ¡école! since both Evie and my guidebook recommended them.

I wandered around lost for ~10 min until I decided that asking at the bus station for directions was the best idea. It worked well. I only had to stop a couple of people on the way for directions and I was there. The lady at the front desk told me that they were very full (as they had told me by email) and led me to the free room (outside and up some stairs). She warned about the cold and that I would have to go outside and downstairs for a bathroom, but I agreed undeterred and threw my stuff in the room.

Back at the front desk I asked about the available activities and was informed of horseback riding at 1pm and hotsprings at 8pm with the option of summiting the volcano or something like that using my full day on Sunday. I said they all sounded great and sat down for tea with bread and honey in the restaurant next to the desk.

After breakfast I asked about the volcano and was directed to a nearby tourist operator where I was fitted for gear and told to return at 7pm to see the weather report. After that, it was naptime until horseback adventures.

Horseback riding:

After paying at the main office, we bought snacks and water and re-boarded the van which took us down a dirt road to a row of waiting horses. I stood back when they asked for people who had ridden a horse before, hoping for an agreeable one. It ended up that they were all very well behaved. I started talking to some of the other members of the group (5 students from Valdivia and a youngish (30’s) couple) as we gently climbed the steep slopes leading away from the town. Eventually, we stopped the horses. A beautiful panorama of the valley below, lakes, and mountains greeted us. We tied the horses in the trees and began to hike…

The first place we emerged from the trees looked across to a gorgeous waterfall. We spent awhile ooh-ing and ah-ing before trekking down to see the very bottom and the little stream which flowed out from the pool at its base. The spray was incredible - and made photos nearly impossible. We hiked back to the horses (and I debated out loud my ability to climb a volcano). The other group had been planning to ski, but they grew increasingly interested in my volcano-climbing plans…

The guide asked us if we would be up for more hiking, and we agreed (a good group). He led us up and we waited in a clearing so that – one at a time – we could lean out over a tree and peer down from the top of the waterfall while he braced us. I was terrified, which left a nice adrenaline high for the ride back down.

I asked the other group of students if I could join them for dinner while we were waiting for our turn at the waterfall. They were a really friendly bunch, and we ended up eating Arabic food for dinner (it was very good). The five consisted of a German couple, a girl from Alabama, a fellow from Wisconsin (who had those blue eyes with dark lashes and light hair that always makes me stare awkwardly), and a Columbian who was often the life of the party.

Leaving the restaurant, we stopped by the bank and grocery and split up to check on our various activities. I ended up back at the shop I had put a deposit with only to find out that they didn’t have anyone to hike with me. Two of the guys from my new group walked in to rent ski equipment and told me the other three were negotiating passage up the volcano. After a few trips back and forth, they gave me back my deposit and I went with the new company (saving ~$20 in the process).

Hot Springs

At eight, we drove out to spend a few hours at some beautiful hotsprings. They would probably have been much prettier if there had been enough light to see the river, but I was still impressed. The series of six pools went generally from hot to cold, or so I was told. I made it to the third before deciding that I preferred hot soaks to walking on sharp rocks with snow on the ground in a bikini to the subsequent, and therefore cooler, pools.

We ate chocolate with the money that people overpaid for dinner. It made a nice combination, although we probably should have ignored the ban on liquor as all of the other groups did… I had figured that it would be fine to bring some, but I didn’t want to drink before the next day’s hike since we were in for 6 or fewer hours of sleep as it was. Eventually, it was time to change and hike back up (a decidedly long set of stairs) to the waiting van.

Day 3: Sunday, August 19, 2007

Summiting Volcán Villarrica

This really would have been a lot easier in the summer. Then the higher lifts are running and there’s not much snow (it was totally covered) reducing the hike to less than 1/3 the time and a tiny fraction of the difficulty. Although, the cool orange outfit, cramp-ons and metal ice axe made it more than worthwhile. I’m not sure how much detail I should use to describe a five hour hike through snow (and bits of ice). I’ll just say that our group was one of the few (and first) to summit and even then only 4 of 8 of our members made it (3 of us being the young women of the group!). It seemed that out of the groups which began, less than a quarter of the people who started the summit actually made it to the top. I found those odds pretty sad considering that I feel very out of shape and I made it up without too much difficulty (although my shins are still swollen).

Once on the top we were greated with the most impressive billows of horrendous smelling volcanic fumes I have yet experienced. I thought back to the wet cotton cloths we carried on Sierra Negra (Isabella, Galapagos) and wished that I had thought to do the same here (although it probably would have frozen to my face with the wind chill). There wasn’t much to see inside the crater itself aside from the abundant noxious fumes. The view around was spectacular! I can’t do justice to the panorama of lakes, chain of Andes mountains, and distant snow covered forests…

Tobogganing

Remember how you always have to hike back down whatever you hike up… That’s only if you lack the snow for tobogganing! Sliding on your butt halfway down a mountain holding an ice axe to control your speed is about the coolest thing I have ever done. I had trouble getting a lot of speed (I need to swallow rocks next time), so my guide rode a couple of times behind me, pushing me with his feet while gravity pulled. We went fast, but they maintain snow-piles at the end of each run (there are sort of trails) so that we avoided careening into a crevasse or off of the mountain.

Goodbyes and Bus Tickets

Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to the group I had grown fond of. They had class on Monday, so I traded information and bid them farewell. In the meantime I walked back to the bus terminal (the opposite direction from theirs) and bought tickets for the latest Monday bus (9:20 pm). I chatted with the ticket man and decided on Semi-Cama (which I had never ridden before, but it looked nice and the seats go to at least a 45 degree angle). I had the choice of a snack (~$4 extra). Eventually, I decided to go all the way – Hey, it’s a vacation. The ticket man gave me a discount (he must have used his own code, normally you have to be a Chilean citizen with a card) so that I actually went cheaper with both the ticket and the snack! Everyone is so nice in Pucón… Speaking of which, I ran back to shower for my date.

A Date with my Guide

I know what you are thinking, but hey - he was nice (he offered once it came out that the rest of the group was leaving and I was in Pucón sola). It turned out that I had forgotten my backpack at the shop. After helping me retrieve it and finding out that he had to work the next morning (meaning a very early wake up – actually quite relieving for me since it meant a no pressure evening), we headed to a restaurant that he recommended. It was fantastic. I had a hearty soup, a real salad (with 6 ingredients instead of two), and a nice glass of wine. We chatted for a few hours before he paid the bill (I tried) and we left. Since he paid, I was the one buying drinks. As the evening had an early end in line, we walked to the local liquor store and grabbed a bottle of mango sours. We went to his house and watched some music videos (sitting on different pieces of furniture for those of you who think this out of character) and chatted until it was 15min before midnight. I headed back for the hostel before chancing a lockout and leaving enough time for us both to sleep well. The night ended with a nice kiss (on the cheek!) and a warm hug.

He kept hoping that it would rain so we could tour the lakes and such instead of his guiding adventures and my plans for canopy. I didn’t want it to rain, but was glad for the back-up plan and my new guide friend (whom I should email…)

Day 4: Monday, August 20, 2007

Packing Up

I tried to sleep in, with some success. My new roommate woke up early to climb the volcano and I confused her by speaking Spanish (turned out she was Scottish and just learning as she went along). I had a nice marmalade, tea, and toast breakfast (the hostel breakfasts brought back memories of La Casa Sol) and hit the street to find somewhere that offered canopy before 12:30 (the earliest I had heard of). I finally found a shop with an 11:00 am trip, so I booked my passage and headed back to store my things at the hostel and read a book on local native legends by the fire.

Canopy!

Somehow, speeding between trees dangling from a metal cable was less terrifying than I had expected. The culture of Pucón became even more reminiscent of the Galapagos as the adorable Columbian guide made sure that he was my parter for the accompanied section and then asked to trade for my eyes since they were so beautiful (blah, blah) *insert me blushing* The good thing about guides who think you are cute is that they go down with you on a long run, face you backwards with the instructions to let go when they tell you too – they’ll hold your legs, and then do so – flipping you completely upside down so that you can see where you are going but are screaming in joyous terror. Once again, an incredible adrenaline rush and one of the coolest memories of my life (speeding upside down between seemingly dangerous and pokey trees with a view of the mountain is pretty damn cool).

Shopping Spree / Food

In the end, it lasted a little less than an hour and we were headed back to Pucón. That left me an afternoon to find something else fun to do. Four other people had been canopying with me (two London girls and a mother/son pair from Santiago). The London girls wanted to go rafting (which I had also asked about before leaving), but we needed one more person. I gave them my cell (they were also headed to Santiago, so we planned to hang out there) and tried to explain how to use a pay phone since her cell was international.

I left to go shopping, spent too much on fleece socks (but I’ve been looking for them online) and bought a few more postcards to send (I’ve written a ton, but have yet to make it to an open post office). I tried to find a good deal on ski pants for the trip (otherwise I was stuck with my rain pants), decided they were too expensive (>$100), and instead bought only the necessary gloves (~$7).

I was walking back to get some lunch when one of the company operators found me on the street. The other girls had decided on hydrospeed. If I decided to go, we would all get a better price and it would take us down class 3 rapids. I was interested, especially since our horseback guide had recommended it and I had no idea exactly what it was. I went back to the hostel associated with the company to look at pictures, talked to the guide when he showed up, and ran back to ¡école! to change my massage time and eat (very quickly!).

The hostel folks were wonderful. I asked for something fast and pre-made and out came a hearty vegetable soup and salad in what seemed like seconds. I had plenty of time to shovel down the food, change into my swimsuit, and pay for my lunch before dumping my pack behind the counter and running out the door.

HydroSpeed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrospeed)

We didn’t have the new high-tech boards. Rather, ours were made from sheets of foam which had been cut and glued together into a half-boat shape. I took to the sport much more easily that the other girls and was quickly sent to be the tail down the rapids (he actually held their boards to guide them down through the really rough sections. It was amazing. Rapids that would have felt like nothing were torrential whitewaters as the board hit 6 foot waves which loomed overhead. I did flip at one point, but managed to right myself as we had been taught in the eddy we entered (it was a bit harder in the actual rapid since there were rocks and such, but it worked out fine). I kept remembering all of the times I have jumped in to float rapids or fallen out of a raft, only I was head first and on my stomach (completely opposite my training and my body’s desired response). I think this complete perversion of my experiences added a lot of excitement to an already terrifying and adrenaline-filled adventure. I think I should buy a couple of the boards for the McKenzie – class 3 rapids might be not too exciting to raft, but they would be thrilling to hydrospeed…

Massage

After being cold and wet I settled into a cup of warm hot chocolate and a piece of apple pie with cream. Eventually, I headed back for my massage. I spent a lot of the time talking to the German woman giving the massage (to relieve the awkward that comes with a stranger touching me rather than because I really wanted to). She was very nice, and trained as a physical therapist. Massage is her way of making it while her papers are sent in to see if she can practice in Chile. Her boyfriend is Chilean, and she still seemed shocked at her own change in location and occupation. I got the impression that she was unhappy at not using the full range of her skills. While the massage was lighter than I would have preffered, I figured she probably knew best. The hour flew by and before I knew it I was in a nice big seat on my way back to Santiago.

First Class Bus

I’m not going to spent too long describing a bus ride, but it was so nice!!! I’m almost glad to have taken the Clasico on the way there since the return journey felt like living in the lap of luxury. I reveled in my reclined seat, enjoyed the delicious sandwich snack, and was surprised by the breakfast we received in the morning. In the future, I will spend the extra for the overnight trips – the bus becomes an adventure in itself.

Day 5: Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Finding Sergio

The London girls hadn’t left a message on my phone, so I went ahead and took the metro to the Universidad Catolica and called Sergio for directions. I guess I caught him in the shower, and I ended up standing around by the metro station for ~20 min. It wasn’t a bad wait and the apartment was fairly easy to find. It was nice to set my stuff down and read my guidebook. I planned a basic itinerary with some input from Sergio and he gave me a brief tour of the University as well as a set of keys before I headed out. I like this having a cell phone thing.

Adventures in Santiago

After a metro ride and long walk (with some stops to ask for directions) I made it to the end of the teleferico that is basically in the middle of nowhere (i.e. a heavily residential area which is far from metro lines). I planned to take it up Cerro San Cristobal and take the ascensor down, ending up in the bohemian area where I could see Neruda’s final home and wander around. Instead, I found out that the teleferico wouldn’t be running until 12:30, so I headed back for the metro station to start at the other end…

I started with La Chascona, the only house of Neruda in Chile which I had yet to see, and moved on to take round trips on the ascensor and teleferico. I hiked around the park and enjoyed the views. The teleferico was really fun, only the grafitti on the clear plasic marred my enjoyment of swinging through the sky in a giant colored egg.

Eventually, I returned to the Universidad to visit the nearby market and buy some lapis lazuli jewelry. I spent a couple of hours shopping around, eventually finding something cheap and pretty and picking up the cutest hat ever for Silvan (Teressa’s son).

Realizing the time, I abandoned my home for a nap and headed to the highly recommended Pre-Columbian Art Museum. I had an amusing English conversation with the police officer I asked for directions (he wanted to practice) while I ate the delicious empanada I bought at a store in the metro terminal. The museum was fabulous. I learned a lot, enjoyed art unrivaled in modern times, and finally found some good souvenirs for my Mom in the gift shop (b/w photocopies of books on the indigenous cultures – which cost more than the copies were worth, but it wouldn’t be possible to find originals).

I hoped for a movie, but was really tired and still circling movie times in the paper I bought on the way back when Sergio came to the apartment. I went with him and a couple of the ECIM guys to buy furniture at Sodimac-HomeCenter. Everything was a lot more expensive than it would have been back in the states, but was apparently very cheap for Chile. The shower curtains were a good deal, but all of the wood products were grossly more expensive than I am used to (especially considering most were pressboard).

After shopping, we headed to Andres’s apartment for snacks and ordered pizza (it was his birthday). I quickly fell asleep on the couch, and was woken as we left.

Day 6: Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Snowboarding 101

It was an early morning, so I napped most of the way to the slopes. It took a long time to get fitted, and it was a while before our lessons. There were only two of us snowboarding and I ended up with what resulted in a private lesson when the other guy’s strap broke and he left to get it fixed (he actually went to eat with everyone).

The lesson was very frustrating but useful. I had some lunch and rested before I dared to go up the real (long and steep) slope which my instructor had warned me against. It went pretty well. I only fell a couple of times. The problem was that I was going pretty fast and the second fall was hard and face first so that I flipped and landed on my back. I had the wind knocked out of me, but Evie was really sweet and stopped to sit with me while I regained my senses. It turns out that I ended up with my first nosebleed and some good bruises.

The second time down went better, resulting in only one real fall where I managed to bruise my chin (I didn’t even know that was possible). We had to get to the bus by 5:30 with everything turned in, and the slope shut down at 5, so I didn’t spent much longer sliding around.

We went out for amazing pizza at the end of the day and I had a personal sized bottle of wine (half of which is now in my room since I just wanted a single glass). My throat swelled up at night due to what I assume is bruising in my neck, so I didn’t sleep fantastically. Luckily, I can now rest after my adventures and take enough Tylenol to fight off the impending headaches.

Day 7: Thursday, August 23, 2007

Return to Las Cruces and a Prairie Home Companion…

That’s (more or less) it! The end of my amazing vacation adventures. I’ll add names and photos as soon as I get around to downloading them.

Love and fishes,

Chrissy

Alright! I’m back. Actually, I’ve been here for some time, but updates get shoved to a back burner when I get distracted by more pressing matters. Let me explain what has happened with my research:

We placed artificial turf plates with the 25 evenly spaced mussels and a tethered crab outside, to see if natural mortality would affect the trend we saw in the lab (that they eat a lot more in short turf). We left them out for a few days, and many of the crabs were lost. Excitingly, with an n=6 for treatments and n=3 for controls (18 plates total - 9 of each turf type) we still found significant results! Since this was just a trial run I was quite surprised. Of course, this meant repetition should be done, but on a larger scale - since the two trials can’t be combined (pseudoreplication and all that jazz). More plates = construction of new long turf plates, cleaning off short turf plates (we ran out of resin which is only available in Santiago), tethering lots of crabs, picking out mussels between 0.6 and 1.0 cm, collecting all those crabs and mussels, and waiting for the mussels to attach.

We also had a highschool intern for a couple of weeks during his winter break.  It was neat to work with someone young and excited about marine biology, and to have help with some of the not-so-fun parts of preparing experiments.

I’ve also been preparing for the next round of lab experiments with clumped mussels. It’s coming down to the wire since I only effectively have until the 3rd and we’re spending the week before that at a site down south to check out long turf and tag crabs (part of Evie’s many projects). I’m really excited to see long turf in action and very disappointed that it is almost time to head home.

Due to the latter I have been working for awhile now developing a Fulbright proposal to do with the station

So, I prepared 36 plates to use for this round. We set them out yesterday (4 hours, most of which were dark and very, very cold) which is exciting. Even complaining about the weather, it’s really fun to work in the field here. We saw an eel!!! It was only about a foot from either of us in the water between a two rock outcroppings. It made working hard at night well worth the trouble. Now I just need a good fish guide for Chile…

The plates are in and I am off. I haven’t traveled in awhile, so Evie suggested a trip south to a nice hostel in an area with great hiking and hotsprings. Having the latter is very important since I could be rained in and miserably cold. We’ll see. Anyways, I’ll be on an overnight bus tomorrow and back either here on Monday, or in Santiago on Tuesday for the ECIM ski trip Wednesday. So much to do! The tanks for the lab experiment with clumped mussels are ready to go, I just need to find a few days in a row free and dump the crabs in (I won’t be monitoring hourly activity levels).

So that doesn’t nearly cover everything that has happened since my last post, but hopefully it allays fears that I have fallen off of the planet or forgotten that I even have a blog…

Photos!  Note: Evie (my mentor) is the woman who is not me and Diego is the highschool intern I mentioned above.

While running another round of feeding trials (this time without the constant monitoring), I asked a favor of Ivan (the really nice caretaker who lives here) to raise and lower the water in the tanks during the day so that I could travel. My first stop was Valparaiso, where I spent Saturday enjoying the city and getting lost.

Statue of Iquique heroes.

Not sure why it won’t let me put a thumbnail of the last image, so you’ll just have to use the link.

The city is a world heritage site, and was definitely interesting. I only made it to two of the numerous museums I would like to see, so another visit is in order. Traveling alone in a large city is always a bit disconcerting, so I didn’t pull out my camera at every block. I did manage to take some nice photos, though. I started out my day (after an hour and a half or so bus ride) at the Naval Museum. It made sense to me to go to the site farthest from the bus station, then find my way back. Hopefully, getting to know the city and ensuring that I would spend less time crossing the city on future visits.

The museum was great, and more than indulged my love of model ships and old knick-knacks. I spent hours wandering around before realizing that I would have to leave soon if I wanted to make it to Neruda’s house (San Sabastian) before it closed. Of course, I then got lost in the city (even the bus drivers don’t know all of the major streets), spent an hour and a half walking around. Took a bus where the driver knew the street (which by that point I was a block away from). Ironically, bus rides cost the same amount for a block as for crossing the whole city. I wandered up to find the colectivo stop for San Sebastian, found it, made it to Neruda’s house, and enjoyed a leisurely self-guided tour.

On Sunday, I headed to the nearest movie theater (over an hour each way not including waiting for the buses) in Melipilla. Jose-Luis went with me, since I happened to ask about movies as he had been looking up information on the times (he’s a bit of a movie addict too). I enjoyed Harry Potter in Spanish, but I really want to see the Simpsons (which comes out on Friday in Chile). We ate at a fast food restaurant in the mall and wandered around to see if he could find soccer shoes. The portions for a combo meal were equivalent to a child’s Happy Meal in the US. I suppose that’s much healthier, but it just looks like so little food on the tray. It also didn’t drip with grease, which was nice.

I love the names of things here, since English is trendy it’s used often - with results that make me think of Engrish.com

As for the feeding trial, I was able to supplement the first round with the additional data points. Now the data doesn’t even need a log transformation to be significant. I’m using JMP for the first time, so I’m going to learn how to plot the residuals and such (to check on everything) with Evie later today. Hopefully my next post will be data and you can all be thrilled by the magic of crab feeding levels.

I leave for a conference in Tuscon, AZ on Monday, but I’ll be back in Chile on the 5th of August when intensive field work will commence. I’m actually fairly excited about speaking English for a week, I miss expressing myself without confusing people and using varied vocabulary.

Great news: Not a single crab escaped! Success is sweet.

Saturday at noon I began the second attempt at a feeding trial. I monitored the tanks hourly from noon until noon the next day, when I was able to sleep about 8 hours before resuming my crab watching duties. This continued for 72 hours. I spent Tuesday evening and Wednesday sleeping and yesterday preparing the tanks for another round of feeding trails (this next round will be done without monitoring activity levels). The results from the run were significant, but there was a lot of individual variation, so it would be really nice to run again and get the error bars pared down a bit. I hope to throw more in soon, but I went out last night to collect more and only managed to find 7 good gayi (i.e. not missing legs or carrying eggs). The waves were pretty dangerous, especially in the dark, so we finally called it and headed back to the station (Joan was helping me track down the crabs). Stella has 15 I can use, but I really shouldn’t use them unless I can replace them with new crabs…

I’ll probably start at noon today anyways and hope that I can find a way to get her the crabs…

The tanks are finally fixed to improve their containing ability.  I replaced 80 styrofoam wedges with 80 new plates.  I made them by 1) pouring resin into molds I made, or 2) cutting plexiglass with the jigsaw.  The latter was the default after the resin stopped drying properly (I think it was freezing overnight).  Results: 1) the plates are made, 2) they are glued into the tanks with a hard cement-like paste, and 3) the base is once again sealed with silicone.  If the crabs get out this time there’s nothing I can do.  Almost two weeks of repairs… Let’s just say that if they escape I’ll be surprised and very annoyed :)  We’ll see.  I’ve had a new set of crabs starving in little containers for quite some time now, so the next round of experiments will begin on Saturday (I have to set in the mussels - 25 per tank, arranged by hand- tomorrow).  Forty-eight hours of crab-tastic watching will follow.

Also, my birthday is tomorrow.  Send me an e-greeting and make me feel warm and fuzzy.  I’m waiting for the sun to come out to litter this page with pictures of tanks that now have my  sweat and blood built into them (that’s a pretty image).  Yep!

I have the rest of the day off.  I intend to work on homework for OSU, bake a pie, and take a shower.  I also expect to spent the next few days grinning like a madwoman.  Done!  Hahaha!

Since multiple requests have been made for a address:

Christina Murphy
Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas (ECIM)
Departamento de Ecología
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Casilla 193, Correo 22
Santiago, C.P. 6513677, Chile

Alright, so after running the experiment for over 24 hours, 7 crabs fed (6 of which only ate 1-2 mussels). 6 crabs escaped completely. Luckily, 3 were from each treatment (although the only crab that fed in the short turf was one of the crabs that later escaped). While we have to fix the tanks, collect more crabs, and run the experiment for a longer time period (since the feeding rates were so low), the results were very promising. Six of the crabs that fed were in tall turf!

I have some mussels settling on plates that we can put in the field. That means sitting out in the cold and the dark and trying to observe feeding on our turf/mussel outplants. It will be interesting to see if we can make it work.

Other things I have learned: The boards I took so long cutting warped really quickly. Apparently, (according to my Mom) they make interior and exterior (CDX) plywood. The glues and such are different… Sounds like we have interior plywood (darn!). At this point I just hope they will work well enough. I really should have taken a few extra dollars and days and sealed them with something.

I went with Evie to Santiago on Friday. I saw the Catolica’s Santiago campus. I love the old architecture and beautiful tiling! She had paperwork to drop off, but it went really quickly since the office woman was going to take care of delivering some of it. We went to a cafe with fresh juice and great coffee, toured the city a bit, and had dinner before we left for the station. I love the bus prices here! (~$7 to get there - a 1.5 hour ride)

Yesterday was a trip to the grocery store in San Antonio. We passed a number of processions for this holiday (no one seems to really know what it is, just that it is some Catholic day…) which had school bands, huasos (the traditional cowboys), a bunch of people, and a statue which was being carried. They were heading to their church, I think. It was very interesting. I want to go to Valpariso next. Interestingly, since this Monday is a holiday, it doesn’t seem that anyone is in the office. I was under the impression that people were working today (here, that is). I think they must be, but I guess everyone is still tired from the weekend and the dreary grey sky.

I made it out in the field again on Saturday to help with a different project. I should be out sometime this week collecting crabs and checking out how well observations will work in the field. The ocean is incredibly calm right now.

So, that’s how the experiment went. It didn’t work or fail, really. Just gave enough hope to make it worth trying again. I really hope we can get it working soon since there are so many variants we can try (clumping the mussels to see the difference there (encounter rates), using multiple crabs per enclosure (competitive interactions), etc.)!

It’s 2:24am.  I have at least 6.75 hours before Evie comes to relieve me.  The crabs have to be monitored every hour (position/activity).  I think 5/20 have escaped.  They seem to be quite good at that.  Even my little survivor, Rambo (thanks to Renee for the name), (who at least sat in his container for a couple of days) took off without so much as a good bye.  I think he made it to the drain which leads straight to the ocean.  Crazy little fellow.  So much for adorable photos and a release party.

I may post additional ramblings as a form of staying awake (isn’t the internet great at that).

So all of the tanks are finished being repaired (I’ll have a photo here when they are filled with water). There was actually a crab still alive in one! He had escaped during a previous laboratory study and built himself a home at the bottom of some styrofoam (it fills in some areas that would otherwise be crevices, but it’s surrounded by plastic). He managed to survive for quite sometime without food and water and through my rinsing and cleaning of the tanks with fresh water. I haven’t given him a name yet, but he does have his own little tupperware filled with tasty mussels. If anyone would like to submit a hearty sounding name, I would love some ideas (I’ll post a photo of him soon).

Since I finished up my work and needed to let things dry out, I had some time to spend being a tourist. I caught a bus to Isla Negra and went to see Pablo Neruda’s favorite house. It was really interesting. Everything was incredibly nautical. I really like his tastes in decorations and his immense collections of random knick-knacks. It made me feel really good about avoiding what I would consider my similar natural tendencies. The logo for the Foundation which runs the museums has a fish inside of the old constellation plotting compass. It’s great! (Although, it did force me to buy a journal and a windchime.) I have postcards to mail at some point now, and others which I used to decorate my room. They don’t allow pictures in the house, so I can’t really give you a glimpse into the tour (unless I scan the postcards). Public transportation was less than a dollar each way. I had lunch in Isla Negra, which had good and bad parts (good food, but they tried to charge me ~30% more than the menu price). Overall, an excellent half day adventure to top off completion of my repair efforts.

Now comes the hard part. Once we get everything up and running the crabs have to be monitored hourly. Yes, hourly (for around 48 hours to start with). Evie and I are going to split up the time, so I won’t go without sleep for days. It should be interesting. Stay tuned!

Welcome to my thesis log. Please browse the pages sections as well (for example: the tabs that currently say “What is this!?” and “Thanks!” - the former says where I am and has a photo), since I’m going to be playing around a bit with entries (this is my first time using wordpress.com). I may edit some over multiple days, so forgive the notes to myself on where to add photos, etc.

I’ve been in Chile for over a week now, but I’ve spent only a few days here at the station so far. I’ve become familiar with the cute crustacean who is to be my new subject. Let me introduce Acanthocylus gayi!

We have 20 enclosures which can be used for laboratory experiments, but the pressboard that had been the floor has warped with water and time. Yesterday was an exciting trip into the neighboring town for some new boards (and a real grocery store!). They cut everything for free at the hardware store. However, I still have to custom cut a square for the tile the turf is attached to (in each board). We’re collecting crabs this evening so they will be nice and hungry by the time everything is up and running.

Alright, now that you are up to date (and probably quite confused) here is the plan:

Start with a basic laboratory experiment to see if feeding rates on mussels change with turf height. This means having enclosures with a crevice and turf. The turf will be either short or long and the mussels will be nestled inside. It is possible that feeding rates will increase in tall turf since previous experiments indicated that A. gayi prefer to hide themselves in tall turf as opposed to the crevice, but prefer the crevice over the short turf. This potentially increases their feeding time if they are hiding in turf (since they emerge from crevices to feed). Evie (my project mentor) has noticed that they attempt to search for food in the turf even when the food is located elsewhere in the enclosure. So, as a second small project, I think it would be neat to see if they feed more when the mussels are located in turf vs. outside of the turf. That means two general experiments which I can run simultaneously to see if they will work. I’ll run replicates over time if all goes well.

Everything should be up and running in the next few days. I’ll try to put a photo of the enclosures up as soon as I have one refurbished - my descriptions always make more sense with pictures.

One last side note: Today will be my first time working the low tide in the dark! I’ll try to sit down and describe the differences between the Oregon and Chilean intertidal systems when I have a chance. For now, I’ll just mention that the coastline here is much steeper than the flat rocky benches we have back home. It means working much more closely with the waves than I have before (especially compared to Friday Habor since the San Juan’s are so protected)! Here are some coastal photos from outside of the station - look closely and you can see the fence that marks the line of the marine reserve in the second.

Thanks for reading! I should have photos up and a new post in a few days.