Another day on the job (and photos as promised)

I saw my first hedgehog ever this morning! Unfortunately, it was dead -- apparently sonic doesn't do so well with the really powerful traps. We also pulled out several dead rats, but no more ferrets today. Our job consisted of finishing the rest of the larger public track that goes about 6k through the center of the reserve to the top of Mount Bruce and then down to farmland.

A bit more about what we've done our three days on the job. Mount Bruce covers 3300 hectares, or about 8150 acres. There are about 160k of trails through the woods here, only probably 10k or so available to the public. On each trail, there are bait stations every 100m and animal traps every 200m. The bait stations are mostly in use during the summer months, so our job with those is to simply clean them out -- they hold 1080 poison, or sodium fluoroacetate, which disrupts the citric acid cycle. The use of the poison is relatively contentious in NZ because of its method of killing and how it can biomagnify in a similar way to DDT (and also because it has the ability to kill domestic pets and farm animals). The animal traps involve a bit more work, especially if a trap has sprung. There are two types of traps, older ones that are a bit finicky as well as new ones that are much more powerful and easy to set. We use two different kinds of bait, rabbit (e.g. toss a rabbit in a blender, bones and all) and chicken eggs, to try to attract any types of small mammals that could give kiwi and other native birds a tough time. Apparently hedgehogs are on that list, which I wasn't aware of until this morning.

Finally, a little bit more about the birds at the nature reserve. The main point of the reserve is to revive endemic bird populations in a natural way by eliminating their non-native predators before they become a problem. Thus, the birds can operate the way that they have been more than 65 million years, when NZ split as a separate land mass. For example, birds are so used to worrying about other birds as predators that they will often hop along the ground making sure they aren't seen near their nest -- this makes them and their eggs easy prey for new predators such as the ferret and stoat.

Some examples of birds raised in the wild or in aviaires: north island brown kiwi, kaka (an endemic parrot), kereru (NZ pidgeon), shore plover (kept in captivity for rehabilitation), kakariki (yellow-crowned parakeet), kokako (very cool purple beard), tomtit, and takahe.

I believe the majority of our work will involve the traps and bait stations, but we'll also have a chance to track kiwis using radio telemetry, as well as care for some of the bids in captivity. Very cool experience indeed.

Pictures!

Last morning on the job at the estancia ... beautiful sunrise. The kitchen/dining hall ahead.


Mack, Justin, and I with Rene, the puma tracker.

God? A view from our crossing of the border from Chile into Argentina on one of two lake crossings.

Crossing the border from Chile to Argentina on foot.

Mount Fitz Roy shrouded in clouds on our first quick hike.

Cerro Torre on our beautiful morning hike two days later.

Fitz Roy at sunrise. Stunning, to say the least.

More Fitz Roy.

In Torres del Paine National Park ... the famous Cuernos (horns) are on the right.

Glacier Grey on the second day of the hike. Much cooler than Perrito Moreno.

A view of the mountains going up Valle Frances, third day of the hike.

Mack in Valle Frances (you can barely make out one of the Cuernos in the back).

The morning hike to go see the towers (hence the name of the park, Torres del Paine). It was pretty cold. Fortunately, with advance warning, we knew to bring our stove with which we cooked hot soup breakfast as well as sleeping bags and pads.

The towers. Unfortunately, it was a bit snowy most of the time we were up there. This was about as clear as it got.

Very cool, very humongous market in Santiago (where we got foot high ice creams for 80 cents! and some veggies for dinner).

The Mercado Central in Santiago -- lots of fresh fish products and restaurants. Mmmm.

Switching gears to Ecuador! Here's a blue footed boobie from our boat outing.

Justin with fish. Caught fish -> delicious ceviche. Plus Beeler's ass.

Sunset in Puerto Lopez.

Hollister ad number #1.

Hollister ad #2.

On the beach at Montanita. We were all pretty burnt (if you couldn't tell). Apparently, sunscreen washes off pretty fast in the ocean with the waves constantly battering your body, even if you reapply.

Mack and Beeler in Beeler's kitchen in Guaysimi, cooking up something delicious (and probably bean-filled).

A sweet butterfly that we originally called the "98 butterfly." And yes, it does say "89" on the other side.

Jumping to LA. A quick shot of the Getty Museum, which is absolutely stunning in both architecture and landscape architecture.

More pictures from Mount Bruce and NZ to come!

Greetings from NZ!

Naturally, I botched my promise to put up pictures in LA, but they'll be up soon. Hopefully.

The trip back to the states was pretty uneventful. Mack and I spent a day and a half in Guayaquil doing not much of anything but getting reacquainted with the world. We used the internet a bit, walked around a lot, had a few good (and very cheap) meals, and got the last bit of Ecuadorian sun.

Los Angeles was an awesome respite from the trip, as well as a great time to see family and ditch/upgrade/buy gear for colder weather. After my uncle picked me up from the airport, we went to a delicious breakfast diner in Manhattan Beach where I had several buttermilk pancakes and a plate of hashbrowns, and upon finishing, went to pick up my Mom at the airport.

The next few days were basically filled with random tasks that I had to accomplish before heading out to Kiwi-land -- I can't thank my family enough for helping me with everything -- among them being going to REI to replace boots and buy/replace some things, repair my glasses, send things to medical schools, return the phone, pack, etc. I also had a great time seeing my cousin Arielle whom I hadn't seen in a few years; everytime I see her, she grows about a foot. And she's as avid a reader as I have ever seen. We actually went to Borders and got her about 8 new books, many being ones that I remember reading as a kid. LA also had three awesome meals: Italian, sushi, and steakhouse. Sushi was definitely the favorite. I think it's fair to say that I stuffed my face while there, but it's probably for the best.

A few days ago, Mack and I met at the airport and headed on our flight to Auckland, NZ! with connecting flight to Wellington. The flight was great, mostly because I actually slept (the flight back to the states from Lima to LA I didn't sleep, for some reason). AirNZ also has a great selection of movies, so I got to watch Slumdog Millionaire and Defiance, both of which were very good. After arriving in Wellington (barely made the plane), we wandered around the city a bit and then caught a train to Masterton, where we were picked up by Tom, one of the guys that works at Pukaha Mount Bruce Nature Reserve, which is where we're currently working. He briefly took us to the grocery store (where we spent an absurd amount of money, but hopefully it'll last us a while) and then to the volunteer house, where we each get a bedroom with shared kitchen and bathroom. The only other volunteer here now is Diane, a French girl who's actually spending about 4 more months here for a college project.

So today was the first day on the job (yesterday, we just got a quick tour of the place and a good idea of what the place actually does. On that note, the nature reserve is basically a refuge for native birds that struggle to survive because of deforestation and non-native mammals that eat them. It's the first nature reserve to show that with enough pest elimination, the kiwi and other birds such as the kokako can survive on their own. The reserve has about 20 kiwi, with another 30 to 100 arriving next year! They also have smaller grounds for ducks and other birds, as well as eels and amphibians). Mack and I each covered two different trails through the forest where there are poison stations and traps for the rats, ferrets, and stoats that are the main problems for kiwis replacing bait, removing the poison, and getting rid of any dead animals caught in the traps. I myself, got about 4 rats and 1 huge, rotting ferret (yum). Very peaceful and relaxing activity for the most part! And we get to see the variety of ecosystems that exists in this very small area.

Anyways, that's all for today (internet access only until 5 pm). Pictures soon!

Bedridden

Not me, don´t worry. We´ll get to that later.

After Justin got slightly less sick and we were all feeling up for a bit of travelling, we headed out of Vilcabamba on a mission to get to Chris´ site, which took us through Loja and then southwest through Zumbi and Paquisha. We arrived a little after 10 o´clock at night and promptly fell asleep on the concrete floors of what amounts to the living room (rented out by Chris) of Chris´ host family´s house.

The following day, we did our first real useful thing in a while, which was setting up three new computers in the local elementary school. Apparently, the computers had been sitting around for several months and required someone to build (crappy) desks to put them on. So it took us all morning and a bit of futsing to put everything together. Sadly, once the computers were on, all the kids started to play old nintendo, sega genesis, and SNES games using some game emulator that they have on all the computers. Oh well -- at least they are learning how to type ... or something.

Later that day, we were introduced to voli, which is basically a really lazy version of what the rest of the world calls volleyball. The only differences are really that you can palm the ball (a soccer ball, naturally) and hold it in your hand for a bit, plus the people on each team (3 per side) have very defined positions, which makes it far less dynamic than what I´m used to. Anyways, once you get the hang of it, it´s actually quite a bit of fun, especially playing with little kids because the adults are far too good and bet on every game they play. I also found it funny that I was usually the spiker because I was actually one of the taller people in the town. Another sport that we played on other days was indoor, basically soccer on a smaller conrete court, 5 on 5, with a smaller ball that doesn´t bounce. I was much more respectable at that sport.

Anyways, on our second, maybe third, day at the site, Chris was playing voli and hurt his back, which basically rendered him bedridden for the rest of the time that we were there. Sad, but true. From then on, the three of us spent a lot of time cooking, reading, and sleeping, plus playing the occasional voli or indoor game later in the day for exercise. We actually learned quite a bit of good cooking while we were here, including how to make granola and tortillas by scratch, turns out that it´s really easy. Chris´ host family was also extremely nice and had the four of us over for lunch and dinner on Easter, or Resurreción, as they call it here.

It was really awesome to see Chris for a little bit, even though he couldn´t move around too much -- we still managed to have a great time. Right now, Justin should be in the Galapagos or at least on the way, and Mack and I are in Loja waiting for our midnight overnight bus to Guayaquil. Good times! When back in LA, pictures will be up for sure.

Til then.

Intestines don´t like intestines

Well, it´s been a fun adventure since I last wrote. We spent one more full day in Montañita, where we surfed/bodyboarded in the morning (while getting absolutely fried despite putting on sunscreen twice) and then hung out in the afternoon reading and interneting. Cooked dinner again, two pounds of calamari which we got for two dollars (gutted ourselves) with a little soy sauce-rice-vegetable concoction. Delish. And we got to meet and hang out with two of Chris´ fellow volunteers, Laura and Alea.

Next day we hopped on an afternoon bus after a morning of switching off on bodyboards and an awesome lunch. This began our journey to the next location in Vilcabamba, a hiking hotspot of southern Ecuador. The afternoon bus went back to Guayaquil, and we waited for a few hours to take an overnight bus to Loja. This is also where the trip started to take a turn for the worst, i.e. intestinal issues. Essentially, my entire time in Loja was spent in the hostel room, which was actually really nice. Chris had already been to Vilcabamba a few times and knew of a hostel called Izchaluma, a really nice place run by two German brothers (Peter and Deither). Our first afternoon there, we all just hung out. The second day, the other three went for a sweet hike (i.e. the Death Hike) called the Mandango loop, which takes you on a great ridge hike for a few hours. On the way back, they got some lunch, consisting of, you guessed it, cow intestines. Chris had eaten them before and thought them alright.

That just lead to more trouble. In the following days, Mack, Chris, and Justin all got sick. It was a fun-filled few days in Vilcabamba. Not much else to tell, or at least anything that you would probably want to hear. We did get to meet another peace corp volunteer, Corrie, who was really nice and put up with our sickness for a night.

Chris headed back to his site on Sunday, where we instead stayed in the town for the day since Justin was too sick to travel, moved to another hostel which was also very nice called Jardín Escondido. Following day we went to Chris´ site, arriving late at night.

The three days we´ve been here, we set up some computers at the local elementary school, played voli and indoor (i.e. soccer on cement), read a bunch (getting close to done with paradise lost finally), and today went to the parque nacional podocarpus outside of Zamora, which was awesome.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I´ll post some in LA in about a week.