Only two more weeks!

Hi Everyone!

A lot has been going on since I last updated. Again, we have been really busy! Since then, I have written two papers (one on captivity issues, and the other on whether or not scallop fishing in the bay is sustainable). Tomorrow morning we leave for another turtle monitoring trip in San Buto! Camping is actually pretty fun, so I'm excited about it.

At the end of last week we participated in a local beach clean-up. Puerto San Carlos has a Turtle Festival each year and they crown a queen of the festival. The beach clean-up was actually a competition between the nominees for queen to see who could collect the most trash. How cute. On Saturday night we are going to a dance in town to raise money for the nominees as well. Should be fun.

On Sunday I got together with a group of girls and we made an American dinner for the group. I got to make Gram's apple pie for everyone, which they all loved. It was nice to have something familiar to eat for a change. Not that the constant flow of tortillas isn't amazing!

Monday we took a day trip to a nearby oasis, La Purisima. It was absolutely beautiful! And it was a nice change to get to swim in freshwater instead of salt for a change. The oasis count for the peninsula is 184, but only 4 of them are permanent, and La Purisima is the third largest. It was also really neat to see because it is in the middle of a desert, but the area directly around it is tropical. Because of the freshwater, there is a huge amount of diversity of plants and animals. Lots of birds use the oasis on their migratory routes as well. We spent a few hours swimming and having lectures on the rocks next to the water. Not a bad day at all.

Yesterday we spent the day in the bay collecting scallops. I got to snorkel a bit in the process, which I must say, I am not very good at. Then we brought the scallops back and cracked them open and measured them. There were almost 300 in total, so it took a long time. The school is starting to do research with the scallops in the bay, so this was part of the beginning of their research plan. It was also part of the data we collected for the paper that I just finished on analyzing the economy of scallop fishing. Later on in the day we had a lecture on climate change and how it is affecting the bay ecosystem. Hello, global warming.

Today we started the day off with a Mexican Culture Cooking Class. The cooks taught us how to make tortillas and three different kinds of salsa from scratch. I'm excited to try that one out when I get home! Later on in the day we took a trip to Magdalena Island for no reason whatsoever. We just thought it would be fun to have a lecture on Resource Management out on the beach instead of in the classroom. Definitely a good idea.

Like I mentioned before, tomorrow morning we are leaving for another overnight camping trip to San Buto. We will be monitoring turtles again! This trip should be better than the last one considering that it has gotten quite a bit warmer since the last time we went camping. We will also be going on a desert walk, which should be fun. In just a few weeks, I have noticed a definite change in the weather here. The sun is much hotter than when I got here. Sorry to hear that it has been rainy back home. It doesn't rain at all here.

I'm going to be very busy for the next two weeks, but I will try to update when I get a chance. Thanks for all the e-mails you all have sent! I love hearing from people back home because I miss you all very much!

And now I have to go watch a movie with some friends! Talk to you soon!


-Erin