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.
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.
