Yes, I am still alive, just busy

We’re in the middle of our last class in the Galapagos.  This one is taught by Dr. Diego Quiroga, co-director of GAIAS.  He’s funny and very knowledgeable, but his lectures are in no way, shape, or form linear and our first exam was a doozy.  We’ve been reading articles, working on two papers, and reading Galapagos at the Crossroads by Carol Ann Bassett (if you are interested, this is one I would really suggest).  This has been the most difficult class yet, and it’s during our last three weeks on the islands. 

Last weekend was full of adventure, and a lot of work.  Thursday we went for another night dive.  This one was off the old pier.  We didn’t even take a boat; we just stepped off the dock.  It was cool, except that my dive light died about five minutes in.  I just followed Miranda, my dive buddy, very closely so I could see with her light.  As usual, we had a lobo dive down to mess with us while we were under.  The visibility was horrible, so he freaked me out the first time he streaked past.  I had no clue what it was.  Anyway, we also saw a lobster, a giant hermit crab (larger than my fist), sleeping fishes, and a puffer fish.  It wasn’t quite as astounding as my first night dive, but it was a lot of fun. 

Then, Friday night and Saturday morning I helped with the island-wise sea lion census.  We walked from Playa Oro to the Navy base and counted all of the lobos we saw, marking any wounds or signs of sickness that we noticed as well.  We counted around 50 baby sea lions, all of which looked very healthy, which made me really happy.  I’m tired of sick baby lobos.  We got up really early Saturday morning to do this and it ended up taking two hours, so I didn’t get to take that nap I’d counted on. 

Sunday, we went diving at Punta Pitt.  It was a really beautiful area and there were all kinds of birds, including red-footed boobies, which I hadn’t seen yet.  They’d get so close to you when you were at the surface, you thought they were going to land on you.  I also saw a Moorish Idol, my first in Galapagos.  It was impressive.  We then ended up doing our second dive at Kicker Rock, so that makes four dives there in total for me.  We dove around the outside instead of through the channel, so we didn't see as much as usual.  The vertical walls of the rock are really cool, though, and there was one shark that came very close to us before doing an about face and swimming away.