Quebrada Honda field work

May 25-30, 2016

(I finally got to my Bolivia blogs! Here is the first post, so you can get back up to speed)

Once we finally got all our permits and permissions in order, we went to Quebrada Honda to set up base camp for field work.

Written in rocks on the hillside above the town

Coming into town

We had a food/cooking area at one end of empty building, used the rest of the building for sleeping space and luggage storage.

Beverly and Angeline on soup prep

The town consisted of about 10 buildings, a basketball court, and a small school. A couple of us slept in the school with the desks all pushed aside.

All of Quebrada Honda in one panorama. It's mostly on the right side...

And every morning after hot chocolate and oatmeal we'd pile into the trucks and head to the field site for the day. We had multiple sites to work at, and folks would choose their daily destination based on how much they had to do at a particular site.

Day 1: Rio Rosario
Our first day everyone went to the same site. A twisty turney road through canyons led us to a beautiful valley with cliffs along the edges.

We got busy measuring up the side of the hill, describing the lithologies, and sampling where appropriate. We got to a distinctive marker bed right at the end of the day to follow around the cliff the next day, to where going up would be easier.

We had a great view throughout the day

Second breakfast: cliff bar break!

Our view in the field

Day 2: Rio Rosario
The next day we started at a different place at Rio Rosario that was stratigraphically below the section we had started on the first day.

Basement rock, cool looking green mudstone

Once that section was measured and second breakfast was eaten, we went back to where we had been the day before and kept going up.

Aiming for the base of the cliff

Taryn found a fossil jaw along the way, which turned out to be an astrapothere, a sort of four footed hippo-rhino creature, and the first fossil of it they had found at the site.

We got a great sunset that night.

There was a bridge spanning the river from the center of town, it was pretty cool against the sky.

Day 3: Huayllajara
We went to a new section the third day (WHY-ya-HAR-uh), and sampled the ash layers that had already been described by another collaborator. It was a windy day, and a harder place to work.

We had a tuna lunch in a gully to block the wind.

And managed to complete our work despite it all.

There was a great view too.

Day 4: Pisa section
The second to last day we went to a new section they identified as maybe being good to work at. It was very cyclic, and Darin named it for the leaning tower of Pisa which had some of the same look to it.

We started by checking vicuñas off Wildlife Bingo

We climbed up the side, and then worked up and around to the top of the formation with Luis and Darin, describing and sampling.

Precarious walking

Back at camp, we were feeling pretty fly. Between no showers, all the dust and wind, and having a hat on most of the time, our field hair was getting pretty epic.

Taryn, Andy and I

Day 5: Rio Rosario
Back at Rio Rosario we measured and sampled up the last little bit of cliff.

Tusken Raider victory!

We finished our work fast enough to catch the early bus home, and rode back to Quebrada Honda at 2 rather than 5. Our plans took a left turn though, and we got word of road blockades going back into Tarija, truck drivers protesting taxes of some sort. Rather than risk missing flights, we called everyone in from the field, dumped everything in packs, and headed out in the trucks that night. Long story short, we ended up winding up and down old unused mountain roads trying to find a back way into Tarija that the blockades hadn't gotten to. We had to stop and turn around at least 3 times, and eventually found ourselves driving through a dry river bed. When we went under a bridge, I decided it wasn't just a really bad road. By now it's about 2am, Taryn and I are snuggled under a giant llama blanket in the back of the truck, warded against the chilly outside air. Eventually the riverbed turned into road again, and we managed to get into the city. We found space in a hotel, and fell asleep before a shower even happened.

The next morning discussing our options, we were informed that driving with the trucks back to Potosi and busing to Uyuni like we had planned was not going to work due to the blockades. Even if we made it to Potosi, there was no guarantee that we could leave again. So our only option was to fly from Tarija to Uyuni. We decided to take it, and three flights later landed in frigid Uyuni, just outside the largest salt flats in the world, now with two days to take a tour instead of just one.

Reynaldo, one of our guides, dropped us off at the airport.

We had to do some re-packing to balance out weight with all our rock samples.

Can't nothing stop this lady

We both ended up being really glad we had two days, and the cost of the extra plane ticket was forgotten. Up next are those photos and adventures!

Here's a preview

Cozumel- last stop in Mexico

May 6-9, 2016

My last stop in Mexico was the island of Cozumel, a 45 minute ferry ride from he mainland, with the skyscrapers and resorts of Playa del Carmen still visible from across the water. There, I had 3 days of diving.

Unfortunately no underwater photos, but I can tell you it was lovely. There were towering coral formations against extremely blue water, straight out of National Geographic. There were walls that sank straight down into deep blue water too far to see. And one dive had wide rolling sand hills with giant conch shells leaving trails in the sand as they wandered around.

I saw my first shark. It was sitting head-first in a cave doing nothing, and was BORING! The next day there was one swimming out on the wall, more like I thought a shark should be.

The views from the boat going out in the morning and coming back were fantastic, and my first two days I had an excellent dive buddy.

I did a little wandering around the island, though it was über-touristy which appeals less to me.

One day wandering I discovered a fountain show in the plaza.

The next night it turned into a lighted water show, and either because it was Mother's Day, or because it was Sunday, or because I just happened to be there on the right night, there was a live salsa band playing as well.

Not only was it good music, the whole patio in front of the band turned into a dance, and it was fun to watch everyone. They ranged from young couples who obviously had danced before, to old couples with not much technique but lots of spirit, to the young parents dancing with their 2 year old, to the gringos who decided that hip hop was the way to go.

I went diving every morning, and my last night I tried to have a fancy dinner. It wasn't the greatest, the waiter obviously didn't know the difference between a natural juice and a soda, but I tried. And I got a great sunset at the end.

Cozumel, the island of swallows

It was a delightful way to end my grand adventure. One afternoon and night in Cancun, and then I was flying home.

I already have one post out about Bolivia, stay tuned for the rest coming soon!

Tulum and swimming with turtles

May 5, 2016

Tulum is known as one of the better tourist beaches if you want less resort-goers than Cancun or Playa del Carmen. I stayed a night there, and while it was cute, I was less than blown away.

I did have fun going to the nearby beach of Akumal, known for its sea turtles. They come to graze on the sea grass that grows in a couple patches right off shore.

The beach was lovely.

A couple companies have a good racket going, with a roped off section right at the entrance and a 'information' spiel that makes it sound like you have to go in the roped area, and to do so you are required a lifejacket which you rent from them and why not pay a guide while you're at it. We brought our own snorkels, and thus walked 50 feet down the beach to outside the roped area and snorkeled for free.

The water was calm, and the bottom was boring, but there was some sea life around. I saw a big ol' barracuda, a stingray, some small schools of silvery fish, and about 6 sea turtles, who were HUGE! They were nomming on the grass (imagine sitting next to someone eating low-pitched potato chips and a couple rocks with their mouth closed and that's what chewing sea turtle sounds like) and came up for air every so often. The shells must have been at least two feet across.

This is what they looked like coming up for air. And were about that far away from me too.

First ever beach in Mexico!

It was a fantastic time swimming with and watching the turtles, and a great little day trip. I celebrated Cinco de Mayo all alone with a margarita that night (the whole US parties way harder than anyone in Mexico) and headed out to Cozumel the next day for my last diving hurrah before heading home.

Authentic Mexican flautas

Valladolid- Chichen Itzá

May 3-4, 2016

*Note, here's another post where I lost the majority of my photos. (Shoot!) Here you see photos from Google and a couple taken by a friend I met, along with two of mine I managed to retain.

I only traveled inland for a couple days in Mexico, my destination Valledolid. It's a cute little colonial town, and has a really great little taco place near the center. I had my first super authentic horchata there (a rice based iced milky drink with cinnamon) my first night, and every night following.

My big reason for visiting was to go to Chichen Itzá, some of the most highly acclaimed Mayan ruins in Mexico. I had heard mixed reviews from other travelers, some saying they were great, some vehemently saying they were over priced, not authentic, and not worth it at all. I went anyway, and I'm so glad I did.

I hopped a minivan from town and got arrived before all the daily tour buses from Playa del Carmen and Tulum did. On the way there I met Natalie and Rachel, two gals from Canada. We stuck together the whole day. There were definitely people there when we got there, but not so many that we couldn't get a well timed shot in front of the big pyramid with almost no one else in it.

We grabbed the photo ops while we had them.

It was spectacular, rising against the cloudless blue sky.

The other structures in the area were great as well, and well laid out through the trees so it felt like paths to go explore rather than a big empty cleared spaces with some pyramids in each corner.

Another ruin structure, showing the carving that adorned most of them

Ancient tic-tac-toe?

Another of the main structures at Chichen Itzá, an observatory

All the ruins were pretty cool looking

There were vendors set up all along the walkways selling things, and I watched a mask carver for quite a while. He had been carving for about 30 years, and it was fun to watch him turn a chunk of wood into a clearly recognizable start of a mask using just a chisel and a wooden mallet.

In one corner there was a cenote, a collapsed limestone cavern that's turned into a pool by collecting rainwater.

It got super hot, and there were lizards running around all over the place. Some were super big!

And this isn't even a very big one.  The large males were probably over 2 feet long

And leaving at the end of the day there was a cloudburst. I hadn't felt rain in over two months, and I was definitely dancing around in it in the parking lot, despite the strange looks from EVERYBODY, tourist and local alike.

I caught a mid-afternoon bus back to Valledolid, and stopped at the cenote in town, Zaci, before heading back to my hostel.

Like the one at the ruin, it's a collapsed limestone cave that has filled with rainwater. They've built a staircase in this one that goes around the back, and it's possible to get into the water for a swim from one of the edges. I did just that.

There's a bunch of catfish living in it, and it was a little different to be swimming around through fish that didn't really care I was there. There were tiny ones that would nibble your feet too if you stood still in the shallows for too long.

The black flecks in the water near the bottom? Yeah, those are catfish.

The water was a delightful cool temperature, in contrast to the 90-something weather in the rest of the outdoors, and fresh water to boot. So nice to not have salt in your mouth and eyes. Once I got out, it was right back to hot and sticky, but for that hour it was cool and refreshing.

All together it was a successful day